During a recent trip to our nearby city to do our monthly pantry re-stock my partner needed a chocolate-y boost. Looking over the array of sugary treats my gaze fell upon a gluten free brownie. We split it in half and were amazed by the texture, fluffy and moist, truly delicious!

I looked at the ingredient list and was surprised to find "fecula de mantioca" ~ manioc starch as the main one alongside the usual sugar, oil, eggs, and of course lots of chocolate. The proportions weren't included and so I have since experimented with different recipes until finally settling on this recipe that I want to share with you all!

The Ingredients ~

• 4 eggs
• 3-4 tablespoons of butter or coconut oil
• 1 very ripe banana

I used a blender to mix up the liquid elements of this recipe before adding in the following and mixing for about 20 seconds:

• 1 cup of evaporated sugar or brown sugar
• 1 cup of cacao powder

In a mixing bowl I combined the dry ingredients with the blended ingredients:

• 1 cup of manioc starch
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  (optional : baker's chocolate, toasted walnuts of pecans)

A note about measurements ~ I am from the United States and am used to using measurements in volume. I use this jar, which is approximately a cup but, as you can see I loosely pack in powdered ingredients like the sugar, manioc starch, a cacao powder. Just keep that in mind when you are measuring out your items.

Before finding myself living in South America I had never used Manioc starch nor flour before and I may be difficult to find elsewhere, I am not sure! If you have access to a specialty food store or can order this magnificent ingredient online, I recommend it for not only this recipe but also little manioc rolls called Chipa.

Those little notes out of the way, let us get back to the recipe! With the banana, eggs, butter, and cacao powder all mixed in the blender I put the rest of the dry ingredients into a big ceramic bowl, mixed them well and began to slowly stir in the contents of the blender.

With all the ingredients very well mixed I turned on my toaster oven (or real oven, if you have one) so that it could pre-heat while the dough rested. I like to let any dessert batter rest for about 20 to 30 minutes before baking. When this time had passed the batter was noticably thicker though still quite liquid as a brownie mix should be.

20-ish minutes later the oven was super hot. I greased the baking recipient, in this case a shallow glass container, with butter (or coconut oil if you are avoiding dairy) and poured in the brownie batter.

Now, this is optional but recommended. This batter will surely be delicious on it's own and with the added gooey-ness of chocolate pieces or crunchy walnut/pecans, even better. I didn't have time to crack open walnuts so I just added chocolate chunks.

By then the oven was super hot, about 325°F or 160°C and I baked them for 17 minutes. My toaster oven isn't the best, so if you are using an oven you may only need to bake for 15 minutes.

The brownies should cool for at least a half hour before cutting them into sections and serving them on a plate, with a decorative flower, if you like.