Maitri Chocolate Brownies....

Last week I received my mystery ingredient to be used in my Maitri-based recipe. If any of you don't know what Maitri is, it's the idea of two food bloggers, Reshmi and Priya . Maitri means friendship in Hindi/Sanskrit, and the idea is to have a mystery ingredient sent to you from another blogger and after identifying it, make a dish which has to be vegetarian. The dish has to be made within a week of the ingredient arriving and posted on your blog.

My ingredient was homemade rice flour and it was sent from another blogger, Vidhya from Sugar 'n Spice. I must thank Vidhya for adding a great cookbook in my package, It was a nice touch and much appreciated. As soon as I found out what the ingredient was, I started thinking about what I could make and still stay within the rules. After some cookbook cramming I went with some chocolate brownies pulled from my Babycakes book. These brownies have no dairy and the original recipe called for garbanzo-fava bean flour which can be substituted for rice flour. Voila...that was the opening I was looking for.

The brownies turned out well. They were moist and chocolatey, kinda melt in your mouthey. I would gladly use the rice flour in the future and my thanks go out to Reshmi and Priya for letting me take part in this foodie adventure. If any of you would like to take part and receive a mystery ingredient, leave a comment or click on Reshmi's or Priya's link.

Here's the recipe adapted from Babycakes :

1 Cup of rice flour
1/4 Cup potato starch
2 Tbsp arrowroot
1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Cup of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp Xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1/2 Cup coconut oil
1/2 Cup apple sauce
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 Cup coffee
1 Cup vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 and grease a brownie dish with some of the coconut oil.
In a bowl mix all of the dry ingredients.
Next add in the oil, applesauce, vanilla and coffee.
Mix until smooth and then add the chips.
Spread into the baking dish and smooth, bake until just set, about 25 minutes.