I make sweet treats for my family from time to time, about once or twice a month – a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies, a simple chocolate custard, vanilla mint ice cream. Moreover, I do what I can to make the treats I do prepare for my family just a little bit better for them, too, and something we can enjoy from time to time.
Like these deep, dark bittersweet brownies made all the better with tigernuts. Tigernuts, despite their name, aren’t nuts at all; rather, they’re a small root vegetables. They accounted for as much as 80% of the diet of paleolithic peoples in Africa and the Mediterranean.
Their flavor is mildly sweet, similar to chestnuts, which makes them such a good partner for dark chocolate. Tigernuts are also particularly rich in resistant starch, a fiber, that acts as a prebiotic – nurturing the growth and proliferation of beneficial bacteria in the gut.
These brownies are dense, bittersweet and fudge-like with a beautiful consistency and richness.
Where to Buy Tigernut Flour
Tigernut flour comes in resealable pouches that you can tuck into your cupboard.You can buy tigernut flour at well-stocked natural food stores like Whole Foods, as well as online here through Organic Gemini, one of our brand partners.
Organic Gemini is offering Nourished Kitchen readers 20% off of your entire order with coupon code RSFIBER (expires 2/15/16). You can use tigernuts not only in recipes like these brownies, but also in Tigernut Milk as well as this Tigernut Snack Mix.
| Bittersweet Tigernut Brownies | Print |
- ½ cup (Buy tigernut flour here.)
- 1 tablespoon Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder
- ½ teaspoon finely ground sea salt
- 6 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup coconut palm sugar
- 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 3 eggs
- Grease a 9-inch by 9-inch brownie pan, and heat the oven to 350 F.
- Dump the
tigernut flour, cocoa, arrowroot starch, vanilla bean powder and sea salt into a small bowl and whisk them together until thoroughly combined. Let the bowl alone while you prepare the other ingredients. - Fill a saucepan with water and bring it to a slow boil. Set a tempered glass or pyrex bowl over the simmering water to create a double boiler. Melt the butter and sugar together in the top bowl. When the butter melts, whisk it into the sugar until it forms a smooth and uniform paste, then stir in the chocolate. Continue stirring the chocolate into the butter and sugar until it melts.
- Immediately remove the bowl from the heat and beat in the eggs. The batter will stiffen slightly when the eggs are fully incorporated, then beat in the dry ingredients until they're thoroughly and uniformly combined. Pour the batter into a prepared brownie pan and bake for 20 minutes, cool completely, and then slice and serve.
I was just looking at a bag of tigernut flour last week! Thanks for sharing the 20% off deal, I need to finally try it 🙂 the brownies sound amazing, I bet your family was super happy about this new treat of yours 🙂
Would Cassava flour work for these instead of Tigernut?
Hi Susan, I recommend following recipes using the ingredients and equipment called for. You could try it with cassava flour and see.
I have an egg allergy and usually have to get creative with baking. From your experience with Tigernut flour, do you think it would hold up with an egg substitute (ex: 3tbs boiling water + 1tbs flax meal per replaced egg)? Some flours are already great binders and do not rely on the eggs to stay together, while I find other flours are not as stable and really need the egg. I’m about to buy some tigernuts on Vitacost and was tempted to get some tigernut flour as well.
Hi Anne!
That’s tough – I don’t think that this recipe would hold up without the eggs, as tigernut flour is less a binder and more mealy. You could try to experiment, though.
Hi Jenny,
I love the emails I get from you and find everything informational and delicious! I have read that tigernut flour yields a very grainy texture. How you do feel it works here? I love the idea of tigernut for the reasons you described in your article, especially that it’s also very low carb due to it’s high fiber count.
Many thanks!!!
Diane
Hi Diane,
Tigernut flour does have a gritty texture that is *somewhat* mitigated here, but not entirely.