Gluten-Free Strawberry Brownies with Chocolate Frosting

These easy Strawberry Brownies are gluten-free and made with almond flour. Baked in an 8-by-8-inch baking pan, the brownies are topped with diced, fresh strawberries and a deliciously smooth chocolate layer made from coconut oil, cocoa powder, and maple syrup. For best results, refrigerate the brownies for 1 hour before serving. Paleo-friendly.

I remember when my sister first asked me to try baking healthier gluten-free dessert recipes for her. When I was first learning how to bake eight years ago, it coincided with her discovering her intolerance to gluten. She would come into the kitchen and scoff at me for putting sugar and all-purpose flour into something. She was constantly begging me to please figure out how to make things delicious without all the sugar and gluten that I normally used. I heavily resisted, and for a long while, I held on to skepticism. Finally, my dad decided to try going gluten-free, and I acquiesced. So, the experiments began!

My first trials were definitely not successful. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out which flours I preferred to work with and their idiosyncrasies. Turns out, lots of gluten-free flours just bake differently than working with traditional all-purpose flour. I realized that my favorites in the gluten-free flour world – almond, coconut, and tapioca – are all Paleo-friendly as well!

As I experimented, I became genuinely surprised by how close I could get the taste of old faves into gluten-free + refined sugar-free versions.

Now, let’s get into some commonly asked questions about gluten-free brownies, and what makes these particular brownies so dang good.

Are boxed brownie mixes gluten-free?

Unfortunately, most boxed brownie mixes we know and love, like the Ghiradelli brownie mixes, are not gluten-free. Making a good gluten-free brownie can be tricky, but this one has all the things we want in a good brownie: rich, chocolatey, and fudgy, and thankfully, they’re not too hard to make either!

How do you make brownies moist?

It’s all in the chemistry! To make these gluten-free brownies moist, we make them with only 1/2 cup of almond flour. This keeps them from becoming overly dry because the almond flour has fat in it, which helps keep the gluten-free brownies nice and soft. If you follow the recipe, you’ll have perfectly moist and fudgy almond flour brownies.

What else makes these paleo brownies great?

We sweeten them with coconut sugar, keeping them refined sugar-free and bringing in the delicious caramelly taste that coconut sugar adds. Also, these brownies only use cacao powder for their rich chocolate flavor! There is no need to search for low sugar/high cocoa chocolate.

As for that gorgeous chocolate strawberry topping? We sprinkle fresh strawberries over the baked brownies. Then, we top that off with a mixture of coconut oil, cocoa powder, and maple syrup. After refrigerating, it firms up to create a deliciously smooth chocolate layer. It makes for the most fabulous strawberry brownies you’ve ever tried!

You’ve got to try these chocolate-covered strawberry brownies! They’re seriously perfect as a Valentine’s Day dessert, or whenever you have some gorgeous strawberries to use up. They’re so fudgy, and the freshness of the strawberries is the perfect thing to cut through the richness of the chocolate. You won’t believe these are gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and Paleo – promise! Enjoy 🙂