Paleo Lemon Brownies
Yes, these are brownies that aren’t brown! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again….Pinterest is a dangerous place! A few weeks ago I noticed some very non-paleo lemon brownies on Pinterest and I’ve been craving them ever since. The original recipe is here. I love lemon desserts and I make lemon squares for my daughter whenever she comes home (I’ll put that recipe up the next time I make them). I just love the texture of a really moist, dense brownie so I just had to try and make this recipe paleo friendly.
Dense and moist
Here is my version. As usual, these are super quick and easy to throw together.
Lemons soon to be brownies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup arrowroot flour (or tapioca flour)
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)
For the glaze
- 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Put everything together in a food processor and whiz until smooth and creamy. An electric mixer would also work.
Everything together
- Lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish.
- Take a piece of parchment paper and get it wet. Now crinkle it up into a ball and squeeze the water out (this makes it very pliable). Lay the parchment paper into the baking dish and mold it in.
Great trick for easy pan removal
- Lightly grease the parchment paper.
- Pour the batter into the dish.
Ready for the oven
- Bake in a pre-heated 350 (175 C) for 25 minutes or until set.
- Remove and let cool while you make the glaze.
- To make the glaze, again dump all the ingredients into the food processor and quickly whiz until creamy.
- Spread over the top of your cooled brownies.
- Simply lift the whole pan of brownies out by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan.
- Slice into squares and enjoy!
Lemon Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup arrowroot flour (or tapioca flour)
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)
- 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Put everything together in a food processor and whiz until smooth and creamy. An electric mixer would also work.
- Lightly grease an 8x8 baking dish.
- Take a piece of parchment paper and get it wet. Now crinkle it up into a ball and squeeze the water out (this makes it very pliable). Lay the parchment paper into the baking dish and mold it in.
- Lightly grease the parchment paper.
- Pour the batter into the dish.
- Bake in a pre-heated 350 (175 C) for 25 minutes or until set.
- Remove and let cool while you make the glaze.
- To make the glaze, again dump all the ingredients into the food processor and quickly whiz until creamy.
- Spread over the top of your cooled brownies.
- Simply lift the whole pan of brownies out by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan.
- Slice into squares and enjoy!
Notes
If you are impatient like me and spread the glaze on before the brownies have cooled, the coconut oil quickly melts and the glaze just soaks right into the brownies. This was actually pretty delicious and just made them all that much more moist! To cool or not to cool, the choice is yours.
47 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- Paleo Lemon ‘Brownies’ | Eat.Bake.Run - [...] Lemon ‘Brownie’ recipe [...]
- Review – Paleo Lemon Brownies | gapsdiary - […] been wanting to try these Lemon Brownies that I pinned a bazillion weeks ago and since I was already baking…
Featured On
Follow Us!
PMG!!! These look awesome and I am making them for our Family cook out this weekend! Thanks so much for the great recipe!!!
Sher
Hi Sher,
I really hope they work for you 🙂
Thanks for that wonderful tip about the parchment paper too. Can’t wait to try it with this recipe!
The parchment paper trick is a lifesaver 🙂 Good luck with the recipe. I hope it turns out for you 🙂
These look delicious and I have everything on hand except the coconut and tapioca flours – could I use all almond flour?
Hi Emily,
Well, you could try but I think they would end up having a very different texture (probably more like an almond meal lemon muffin). You would also have to cut down on liquids in the recipe because coconut flour absorbs a lot of liquid and without it, the batter will be runny. The arrowroot/tapioca also adds a binding element that would be missing and you would end up with something a bit crumbly. If you do give it a try, let me know what you ended up with. Maybe you’ll get something totally new and delicious 🙂
I just made these with 1/2 cup almond meal and 1/2 cup coconut flour no arrowroot and they turned out just fine. Thanks for the recipe will make these again!
I am allergic to eggs (and many other things). Would this recipe work with a (pre-made / bought) egg substitue?
Hi Michelle,
I always admire you people with so many food allergies. It must be very difficult. I think an egg substitute would work just fine. You could even do an egg replacement with chia seeds or flax like the vegans do.
Can you tell me if you can use something other than almond flour. Family member with nut allergy.
Hi Joy,
I’ve read a lot lately about the use of sunflower seed flour used in gluten free baking and allergy free (nut flour free) baking. It’s a very good replacement for almond flour and will give the same sort of consistency. Just get yourself some sunflower seeds and grind them up in a blender or food processor (or coffee mill even) and grind away until you have a flour consistency. Don’t blend too much or you’ll end up with sunbutter (which is a tasty replacement for peanut and almond butter 🙂 )
Hi I’m wondering if there is an alternative for the eggs in this recipe..I usually use ground flax mixed with water for my baking, but I don’t know if that will work with this recipe..any suggestion would be greatly appreciated..Thanks
I just saw this was answered already..It didn’t show up until I posted my comment..I will try the flax..alas thanks for a great recipe..
OMG!!!!! I LOVE these!!!! I made these tonight and they are so good! You are my new favorite Paleo recipe blog! All of your recipes are so simple and turn out amazing!! I love that the brownies actually firmed up and weren’t “doughy”, is that the arrowroot powder?
Hi Shyla,
I’m so glad they turned out for you and that you liked them! It’s always such a relief when I get feedback that a recipe actually worked for somebody besides me 🙂 I think the consistency is from both the arrowroot and the coconut flour. I see you are from NV….I grew up there 🙂
Do you know if its possible to make them without arrowroot or tapioca?
Hi Laurel,
I’m not sure because I haven’t tried it. Maybe just increase the amount of almond flour and coconut flour a bit and see what you come up with 🙂
I just made these with 1/2 cup almond meal and 1/2 cup coconut flour no arrowroot and they turned out just fine. Thanks for the recipe will make these again! Oh and I did add a little extra lemon juice too because of the coconut flour.
Hi Zena,
Thanks for taking the time to let me know how they turned out for you. It’s always helpful for other readers to hear about substitutions and changes 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Is arrowroot flour the same as arrowroot powder? Sorry, I’m a paranoid baker…
Hi Petra,
Yes they are the same thing. Tapioca flour works equally well if you don’t have arrowroot. 🙂
Had these had a b’day party – they were delicious and want to try them for use at church. Do you think they will freeze well?
Hi Janet,
I’m not sure because I’ve never tried it. Sorry! If you try it, stop back again and let me know how it worked so that I can let other people know. Glad you liked them 🙂
I made a double batch and froze most of it. I kept it uncut except for a small square and right in the parchment paper. Next day I took the square out to try. As I was impatient I thawed it in the microwave, which heated it a little. Was delicious and couldn’t tell it had been frozen. I had an idea it would be fine as the recipe is so full of fat and freezing it wouldn’t dry it out. So to answer my own question, freezes fine.
Great feedback Janet! Thanks for taking the time to stop back by and let me (and everybody else) know about the freezability. I guess next time I make them I no longer have an excuse to gobble them all up….I can freeze some for later 🙂
These are delish! Made them for my family and they were gone inside of 24 hours. Thanks!
Hi Terra,
I’m glad your family enjoyed so much! They didn’t last long at my house either 🙂
Made these the other day and they were amazing. took them to the gym and they were basically inhaled by everyone. I did however substitute the almond flour for chestnut flour, because it is more available to me. Thank you for such a delicious recipe 🙂
Hi Hannah,
Thanks for taking the time to let me know how they turned out. i’m so glad that you and your gym friends enjoyed them. My work staff room and my gym are great places to dump my extra baking..like you said…everything always gets inhaled 🙂
Omg to die for!!!!!! I’m baking this recipe doubled rt now!!!! I love it so much
Hi Lindsay,
Wow! Glad you like them so much! Enjoy 😉
Hi, Could the honey be substituted here with erithytol or is it a must for the consistency of the bars? I have some issues with the glycemic index of honey…
Thank you.
Hi Krisztina,
I’m sorry, I have no idea. I’ve never cooked with erithytol before. I do imagine that it would change the consistency if you took out the honey and it would need to be replaced since the recipe calls for coconut flour which sucks up a lot of liquid.
These are AMAZING!! OMG! You would never guess that these are anything but naughty gluten sugar laden filled treats. Perfect for a tea party too! Thank you for posting.
Hi Angelique,
Glad you enjoyed them 🙂 and thanks for taking the time to leave feedback!
Hi, how much is that “cup” that you are using in deciliters?
Hi,
My 1 cup measuring cup says it is 236 ml. Hope that helps.
Just made these and love the flavour, but mine are very oily! The cake was surrounded by a coating of melted butter when I removed it from the oven. I double checked that I had used the correct amount of butter(1/2 cup) & I had. I might try it with less butter next time. What are your thoughts?
Hi Erin,
Paleo baking is so tricky! My best guess is the flour. Coconut flour responds differently at different humidity levels and almond flour will yield different results depending on which brand you use and how finely it’s ground. Slightly less butter or a tablespoon more of coconut flour would probably fix it, but I’m not sure. When it comes to baking, I’m never exactly sure what I’m going to end up with 🙂
I just tried making these and immediately threw them away, pretty much as soon as they were out of the oven. I followed the directions exactly, and I must say that these brownies are an oily mess. I think the combination of 1/2 cup butter and greasing the pan was just too much. When I pressed a fork into them, liquid rose to the top, like ringing out a sponge. That may be how they’re supposed to turn out, considering how much butter is in them compared to the amounts of other ingredients, but to me, it was kind of like a pizza with swimming pools of grease floating on top — not my thing. So if you try to make them, just be aware! I didn’t try adding the glaze, but I imagine that the coconut oil glaze may have just made the oily issue worse.
Hi Nickles,
I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out for you. So far, all of the reviews have been positive so I’m not sure what went wrong. It could be due to different kinds of coconut flour or humidity in the air as coconut flour is very sensitive and sometimes yields varying levels of success for people using the exact same recipe.
What brands of almond and coconut flours did you use? You mentioned that could make a difference in how the recipe turned out. Was your almond flour finely ground? Thanks!
Hi Trisha,
It’s been a long time since I posted this recipe so I’m not 100% sure. I think I used Honeyville almond flour (which is very finely ground) that my daughter had brought me from the States and the coconut flour was from a local health food store (can’t remember the brand name).
These were very yummy! Thank you!!
Hi Tiffani,
YAY! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to let me know!