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I have a recipe for chocolate brownies.

The ingredients are:

  • 2 sticks of butter
  • 1 C brown sugar
  • 1 C white sugar
  • 8 oz bittersweet chocolate
  • 4 eggs
  • salt
  • vanilla
  • fold in 1 C flour

I made them for a friend who requested they be gluten-free. I substituted the C of flour with 1:1 gluten-free white flour.

I cooked the recipe as normal, and removed and cooled when "the top appears shiny and cracks appear".

This time, they turned out a bit moister than I am used to. Certainly not goopy, but not as cakey as I am used to.

Is there an adjustment that I should/could make for the gluten-free flour?

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    Luckily people have already done all the work for you. Just find the recipe that matches what you are looking for: youtube.com/results?search_query=gluten+free+brownies . In particular channels like America Test Kitchen are doing hundreds if not thousands of iterations to find the best practices.
    – eps
    Commented Feb 9 at 14:54

2 Answers 2

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No, there aren't simple adjustments. Gluten cannot be replaced, and gluten-free recipes attempt to get reasonably close to gluten-containing ones, but generally don't get the exact same texture.

I'm not claiming that your favorite texture isn't possible when making gluten-free brownies. The problem is that there isn't an easy way to know how to achieve it - it wouldn't be a minor tweak. If it's worth it for you, you can test several brownie recipes created specifically around a gluten-free requirement, and see which one comes closest to what you want. Else, you just consider yourself lucky that a random recipe turned out edible when substituting a gluten-free mix, and continue eating the new texture.

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  • This sort of thing is exactly where things like youtube are extremely helpful. When it comes to hacking recipes like gluten free and vegan, there's an enormous amount of work that has been done for you, just watch the vids and find one that results in what you are looking for.
    – eps
    Commented Feb 9 at 14:50
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Your brownies aren't more moist, but they are denser which makes them a bit gooey. A good gluten free flour these days is usually pretty comparable to plain all-purpose wheat flour when it comes to absorbing moisture, some GF flours absorb a bit more so if anything your brownies are more likely to be drier than when you use regular flour.

Gluten creates structure that traps gases that are created by leavening agents and the expansion of water vapor. Without that structure your brownies will rise but then fall back more after baking. This will make the result denser, the closer texture leading to that gooey mouth feel not everyone wants.

I personally like that texture, in fact after making my brownies GF for a co-worker I was told never to go back to regular flour with my brownies again. So it may be a hit and you don't need to do anything but sit back and bask in glory. But, if you do want a drier texture you could bake it a bit longer, add one less egg or a bit more flour. Xanthan gum is a popular gluten replacement, however I would not recommend it in your case as it will make the result more gooey which is opposite your intent. Your GF flour may have xanthan or other gums added which is fine, I just wouldn't add any more.

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