So, this blog is going to be slowing down for awhile. Tony and I are both ridiculously busy with school, I have launched a new blog, The Weekly Graze. I absolutely want to KK to keep alive, but it might be a little quiet around here for the next few months. However, I did just post a brownie recipe on The Weekly Graze, and I’m going to totally post it here, too!
Let me start by saying, I am about to share a recipe for the best vegan brownies on the planet. That’s right.
I’ve been craving brownies for the last few weeks. Up until last night, I didn’t have a vegan brownie recipe that I trusted. So, I was wading through recipes both in cookbooks and on the interwebs and all of them were chock full of weirdo ingredients like coffee, tofu, and ridiculous amount of oil. Okay, maybe I can get behind coffee in brownies but, that’s just not what I was looking for. I was looking for a dense and moist, yet slightly cakey brownie, with the requisite shiny, crackly top layer. And I wanted a very chocolatey, very traditional brownie flavor. Y’all know what I’m talking about.
My preferred method with vegan cooking and baking is to take a traditional, non-vegan recipe and make straight forward substitutions for the non-vegan ingredients. This doesn’t produce a stellar result 100% of the time but I’ve found that the best vegan recipes are simple. So, I decided to take a Martha Stewart brownie recipe and make 2 simple substitutions: ground flax and water for eggs (this is a widely accepted practice) and Earth Balance for the butter.
The result is dense and fudgey, yet not too gooey and they definitely aren’t squares of cake. What they are is incredible. The flavor is totally insane – maybe the most delicious brownie I’ve ever eaten. I think the key here is to get high quality chocolate and cocoa powder because you’re going to taste the difference due to the sheer amount of chocolate in the recipe. And yep, they have the perfect crackly top layer.
Folks, I present to you the only brownie recipe you’ll ever need:
Vegan Double Chocolate Brownies
adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe
6 tablespoons of Earth Balance
6 ounces of semisweet vegan chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup of unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon (and maybe a tiny pinch more) salt
1 cup sugar
2 flax eggs - in a separate bowl, whisk 2 tablespoons of ground flax with 6 tablespoons of water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a buttered 8×8 square baking pan with parchment, leaving an overhang because you’ll be lifting them out later.
2. Put Earth Balance, chocolate, and cocoa powder in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stir until butter and chocolate have melted, let cool slightly
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, put in flax eggs, sugar, and vanilla and mix on low-medium speed for about 2-3 minutes. Add chocolate mixture and mix on low until well combined. Add flour mixture and incorporate by hand with spatula, scraping down sides as you go, until well combined.
4. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly with spatula. Bake for about 40-45 minutes. Check them after 35 minutes – if you listen to them and they’re bubbling furiously as though not set and a knife comes out gooey, leave them in longer. I wouldn’t exceed 45 minutes unless after cooling they’re just not set, then you can pop them in for a bit longer. I cooked them for 35 minutes, found they were too gooey to cut, and put them back in for about 5-10 more minutes.
5. Lift out onto a cooling rack and let cool slightly for 15 minutes. Lift out using parchment overhang and place on a wire rack to cool completely before cutting.
ENJOY!
