Well, there’s nothing like chocolate at Valentines, and
nothing so chocolatey as a brownie, so I thought I’d put together a post of
three of my best brownie recipes, designed for different needs.
These are recipes that I have improved over time by adjusting
ingredients and techniques.
With brownies, the order in which the ingredients are
combined matters to achieve the best results: combining the sugar with hot
melted chocolate and peanut butter increases crackly-ness, and “blooming” the
cocoa and instant coffee in hot liquid increases their flavor. The addition of
three key ingredients: a little cinnamon, instant coffee, and almond extract also
helps to maximize and round out chocolate flavor.
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| Rich vegan brownies |
Rich, Dark and Crackly Vegan Brownies
These are the darkest and crackliest of the three brownies,
rich enough to be a real special occasion treat.
Ingredients:
¾ cup vegan chocolate or carob chips
6 Tbsp peanut butter
1 cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa or carob powder
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp instant coffee or caffeine free coffee substitute
¾ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ salt
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
½ cup pureed silken tofu (be sure to blend until completely
smooth)
1 ½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp almond extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix flaxseed, tofu and extracts; set aside. Whisk together
flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Mix cocoa, cinnamon,
and instant coffee in a separate bowl. Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter
together in the microwave. Immediately stir in the sugar. Then stir in the
cocoa mixture. Add flax mix, then pour it all into the flour bowl. Mash
together with fingers until combined. Press into a parchment lined 8 by 8 inch
baking pan.
Bake for 25 minutes. It will look gooey and underdone, but
will firm up as it cools.
Let cool for 15 or 20 minutes, then score with a knife in
the pan, taking particular care to slice through the edges which will be
difficult to cut later. Cool for another 45 minutes to an hour before taking
out of the pan. Finish cutting or breaking apart the brownies, and serve.
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| Rich brownies, with water instead of tofu |
Note: I have made this recipe using 6 Tbsp water in place of
the silken tofu, and it is even darker and cracklier. However, it’s also a little more prone to greasiness. It’s your
call. You could also try half of each--using 1/4 cup pureed tofu plus 3 Tbsp water.
Reduced Fat Vegan Brownies
With a third less peanut butter and 75 % less chocolate
chips, these are a significantly lighter version of the above recipe with very
little loss of flavor, thanks to a boost in low calorie cocoa powder.
Ingredients:
¾ cup plus 1 Tbsp whole-wheat pastry flour
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup plus 1 Tbsp cocoa or carob powder
1 tsp instant coffee or caffeine free coffee substitute
½ tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
7 Tbsp water
1 ½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp almond extract
1 cup sugar
¼ cup peanut butter OR other nut butter
3 Tbsp vegan chocolate or carob chips
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Whisk together the water and ground flaxseed with the
vanilla and almond extract. Set aside to thicken.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine cocoa powder,
instant coffee and cinnamon.
Melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips together in a
microwave—this should take no more than 45 seconds. Immediately, while still
hot, add the sugar to the peanut butter and chocolate and stir. Add cocoa
mixture and stir that in too. Dump in the flax eggs and stir until smooth. Pour
everything into the flour bowl and combine until homogenous without overmixing.
Your fingers will probably be the easiest way to accomplish this.
Pour into a sprayed 8 by 8 inch baking pan (lined with a
foil or parchment sling if you wish) and spread it out with a greased spatula.
Bake for 18-24 minutes, a little more or less depending on how gooey or crunchy
you want them.
When you pull them out, they will appear underdone by every
test—toothpick, spring back, even wiggly in the middle—but they firm up as they
cool and will turn quite hard if you keep cooking them.
Let cool for 20 minutes, then score where you intend to cut
them, particularly the edges. Let cool another 30 to 40 minutes, then pull them
out of the pan (this will be easier if you made a sling) and cut or break them
apart, depending on how thoroughly you scored them. Enjoy!
Tip: Making a sling—if you line a baking pan with foil or
parchment paper and leave flaps on the sides, you can use those flaps as
handles to lift the brownies out when they are done without having to scrape
and struggle.
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| Reduced fat vegan brownies |
Sugar Free Vegan Brownies
Unfortunately, truly 100% sugar free brownies are never
going to have the lovely shiny crackle top that is so distinctive and
appealing. This is an effect that simply cannot be replicated with
non-nutritive sugar substitutes, which supply only the sweetness of sugar and
not the physical and chemical properties of thereof.
There’s no reason that you can’t top your brownies with
something different but equally nice, however. I’ve covered these sugar free
brownies with a crumbly streusel topping that I think compensates rather nicely
for the lack. I’ve also made these brownies containing all cocoa instead of
melted chocolate to eliminate the difficulty of finding low sugar vegan
chocolate.
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| Sugar free vegan brownies with streusel topping |
Ingredients:
Brownie Batter:
½ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Sweetener such as stevia or splenda equivalent to 1 cup of
sugar
½ cup cocoa or carob powder
1 tsp instant coffee or caffeine free coffee substitute
½ tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
6 Tbsp water
3 Tbsp oil
1 ½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp almond extract
Streusel Topping:
¼ cup cocoa or carob powder
3 Tbsp whole-wheat pastry flour
Sweetener such as stevia or splenda equivalent to 1/3 cup of
sugar
2 ½ Tbsp oil
2 tsp water
¼ tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together the streusel topping: whisk together the cocoa,
flour and sweetener. Then combine oil, water, vanilla, and cinnamon. Drizzle
the oil mixture over the flour mixture while tossing with a fork. Use your
fingers to toss and crumble the mixture until it looks like clumpy wet sand.
Set aside.
Combine flaxseed and water; set aside. In a medium mixing
bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and sweetener. In another bowl,
mix cocoa, cinnamon and instant coffee.
Add oil and extracts to flaxseed mixture. Stir wet
ingredients into cocoa bowl, and then pour everything into the flour bowl.
Using your fingers or a potato masher, mix until fully dissolved and combined,
adding up to 1 tbsp of water if necessary to make it come together. Press into
a parchment lined 8 by 8 inch baking pan (a spatula greased with cooking spray
will make this easier). Sprinkle streusel over the top and press lightly. Bake
for 23-24 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before cutting.
Variations and Tips:
Nutty Brownies: ½ to 1 cup chopped nuts of any kind can be
added to any of the three recipes. Toasted walnuts would be most traditional,
but others would work fine too. Spiced or candied nuts could even be used for a
unique touch.
Chunky Brownies: You could add 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks. Other chunks you could add include vegan marshmallows, other types of chips and little pieces of caramel or other candy.
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| Brownies, baked in a loaf pan for extra edge pieces |
Spicy Brownies: Try doubling the cinnamon to 1 full
teaspoon, and adding 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper.
Extra Edge Pieces:
If you love the crunchy edge pieces and want more of them, try baking
your brownies in two 8 by 4 inch loaf pans instead of the 8 by 8 inch cake
pan. Cut into 8 squares each, every
single piece will have an edge.
Egg Replacers for Brownies: When you replace eggs in vegan cooking, it's best to analyze the eggs' function in the recipe and figure out which properties we need to replicate (and which ones we don't need). Since brownies are dense, you don't really need extra leavening or softening from an egg replacer. What you do need is binding, and in brownies that are high in fat or oil, emulsifying. This leaves us with two frontrunners: ground flaxseed and pureed tofu. The flaxseed is one of the most effective binders, so it does fine for the lower fat brownies. Tofu contains lecithin, the same type of natural emulsifiers that is in eggs, so it prevents greasiness in higher fat brownies. Brownies made with tofu are slightly less crackly and dark than those with flaxseed, however. I've combined both flax and tofu in my richest brownies to achieve the best of both worlds.
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| Brownies! |
Have a sweet Valentine’s!
