Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Valentine’s Day Brownies

It’s month 10 of my sugar sobriety.

The past few weeks have been trying.

I apologize for injecting politics into my blog about quitting my sugar addiction, but I have been stressed out of my mind due to the Emperor’s ascent to the Throne.

And yesterday, I lost my job, due to Rasputin’s “efficiency.”

I’m still working, for now, but if my nonprofit doesn’t scare up some money soon, the organization, which helps vulnerable children, will close its doors in a month.

Yesterday, post-job-loss, I was shopping in Trader Joe’s and came upon those amazing mousse cakes they sell every once in a while. You know, the ones that come in a little plastic-encased eight-pack. These were pink, in honor of St. Valentine, in a flower shape with little hearts in the middle. Those little mousse cakes taste like the Hostess Cupcakes I ate (on occasion) when I was in grade school. What a lovely treat they would have made to soothe the pain of losing my job.

I picked one up, and I…almost…put it into my cart. I hesitated. Those little cakes would taste so good!! I flipped it over and looked at the sugar content. There are only 30 grams of sugar in half a package! My daily limit of sugar is 18 grams, but if I ate only two, that would be 15 grams!!

I put that adorable package back on the shelf, knowing that the next time I visited Trader Joe’s, they’d be history.

How did I manage to do this?

I thought about these long 10 months, particularly the first few weeks when I was struggling to get the sugar monkey off my back.

I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to pick myself up off the floor (figuratively) and start all over again getting sugar out of my life.

I’ll admit, there have been lapses.

A week ago, my husband and I ate a prix fixe dinner at a superb restaurant, and that menu included dessert. I ate it. We went to another restaurant with a prix fixe menu, and I ate the included dessert too, all in the same weekend.

I also ate a couple pieces of my husband’s fabulous birthday cake a few weeks before that.

I’m enumerating these lapses to come clean to whomever is reading this (anyone?).

Even if no one is reading, I’m going public anyway. Addictions are all about hiding, and I’m not hiding any more.

Quitting sugar is hard. It’s a struggle every day, and it’s been 10 long, dreary, sugar-less months. I no longer have nightmares about eating loads of sugar, but some days, like the day at Trader Joe’s when I struggled with the adorable, delectable mousse cakes, are hard.

I’m going to grad school now, so I’m not doing any cooking. Maybe the silver lining of losing my job will be that I’ll restart my search for scrumptious sweet treats that contain no sugar.

In the meantime, here’s a recipe for sugar-free brownies. I thought they were OK. Not very sweet, so not really a substitute for those wonderful sugar-filled dark chocolate brownies I used to eat, but an acceptable substitute until I find something better. Bon appetit!

Springhouse Turtle Eats

Print Recipe

Sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free brownies

These rich, chocolate brownies are sweetened with sweet potato and dates, making them light and only slightly sweet.

Ingredients

• Dairy-free butter for greasing pan
• Gluten-free flour for dusting pan
• 1/2 cup gluten-free flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup stevia-sweetened chocolate chips
• 1 baked sweet potato (or 3/4 cup canned sweet potato)
• 10 pitted dates, soaked in filtered water for 30 minutes, then drained
• 1 egg or 4 teaspoons egg replacer
• 1/4 cup avocado oil (or light olive oil)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2

Prepare an 8" square baking dish by greasing it with dairy-free butter and dusting it with 1 teaspoon gluten-free flour

3

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda

4

Place the chocolate chips into a double-boiler over medium heat, and stir until melted, then remove from heat

5

Place 3/4 cup sweet potato and the soaked and drained dates into a food processor, and process for a few seconds until they form a paste

6

Add the egg or egg replacer, and process for a few seconds

7

Process in the oil, vanilla and melted chocolate for a few seconds

8

Process in the dry ingredients for a few seconds until blended

9

Pour batter into the prepared pan

10

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes

11

Remove from oven and allow to cool

12

Cut into squares and serve

13

Store any extras in a tightly-closed container for up to 3 days

Springhouse Turtle Eats