Brownie.

Happy Happy Tuesday y'all!

I hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend, because I know that I sure did! It was completely relaxing and just what I needed heading into this week at school and work. Let's talk about my childhood, shall we? Okay, so you know those Girl Scouts/Brownies/troops? Well, whatever you like to call them...I was never one of them. I guess I just didn't see the point in selling someone's box of cookies to perfect strangers. I would have rather created my own lemonade stand and baked some homemade cookies to sell to my neighbors. What can I say? I was an early entrepreneur at heart.

 Remember that time I may have mentioned that I don't care for brownies? Well, I should have said I don't care for crappy, dry brownies, that are as thin as a rail, with absolutely no flavor. I am once again, eating my words, for I have seriously created THE ULTIMATE brownie recipe. 

And I mean like the ULTIMATE...like totally worthy on being on Tyler Florence's food network show   "Tyler's Ultimate" where T-Flo would say over and over again

"These are the ultimate brownies."

I could only be so lucky for T-Flo to say something about my food like that...

one day.

These brownies are absolutely delicious, chock full of shredded coconut and dark chocolate chips. 

Oh, and they have olive oil in them, which gives the brownie a dense texture.

What can I say? I'm Italian...expect a lot of olive oil. 

Oh, and I added some sea salt because if you haven't experienced dark chocolate and sea salt together...you have not lived. It's like an explosion of rich, intense, dark chocolaty goodness paired with a little salty twang...if that makes any sense at all.

Just try me on this one, cap-eesh?

Dark Chocolate Chip, Olive Oil, and Sea Salt Coconut Brownies (GF):

Ingredients:
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c. coconut flour, sifted
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
1/2 c. raw coconut sugar
1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil
3 large eggs
1 c. unsweetened, vanilla almond milk
1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips (I used 60% cocoa)
1 c. unsweetened, shredded coconut
coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 in. square cake pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, coconut flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.
3. Mix in the olive oil, eggs, and almond milk, combining until the batter is evenly distributed and a smooth consistency.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips and coconut.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
6. Sprinkle generously with sea salt.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean.
8. Let cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, remove the brownies by lifting the parchment out of the pan, slice into squares and serve.

Note: Please serve these brownies warm with some homemade vanilla ice cream...they are that type of ooey, gooey, chocolate dense, moist, brownie that deserves that cold scoop of ice cream. :)

Makes 9-12 brownies.

MANGIA!!!