Fudgy vegan brownies
Fudgy vegan brownies
Brownies have always been one of my favourite sweet treats. Today, after quite a few rounds of testing (which wasn’t all that bad), I bring you a tray of perfect fudgy vegan brownies.
They are crispy on the inside and fudgy on the inside, the way every good brownie should be. They are intensely chocolatey, come together quickly and due to their small size, bake so quickly that you’ll have plenty of time to make yourself a cup of coffee before they are out of the oven.
The key to the fudgy interior is taking them out of the oven just in time. They may look underdone as the tops harden and crisp up as the brownies cool down, but trust me – they are not. They are heavenly!
They certainly got a huge thumbs up from my fiancé. I made a whole tray for the photoshoot. I had the best intention of sharing them with my neighbours, but this plan has somehow fallen by the wayside. We both ate them all and I won’t tell you how many (or how few rather) days it took us cos I’m ashamed…
When it came to the last brownie, I caught Duncan making eyes at it and said that there is NO WAY I’m giving up my half. He said that he is going to get it by surprise attacking me…that boy is a charmer, eh? 😉
- 2 tbsp flax / chia meal OR 3 tbsp reduced aquafaba*
- 220 g / 1 ¾ cup white plain cake (as opposed to bread) flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 6 tbsp / 3/8 cup raw cocoa powder
- 110 g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 60 ml / ¼ cup espresso + 75 ml / 5 tbsp boiling water
- 200 g / 1 cup caster sugar
- 80 ml / ¼ cup + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp mild olive oil
- 30 g pistachios, chopped (optional)
- If using flax or chia, prepare them by mixing 2 tbsp of ground seeds with 3 tbsp / 45 ml of water. Put aside in the fridge to allow it to thicken.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180° C / 350° F. Line a standard 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake liners or line the bottoms with circles of baking paper and insert a strip of baking paper into each hole to be able to take them out easily. Oil the sides of each muffin hole. Do not rely just on greasing the tin with olive oil alone as in my experience hardened tops are likely to come off when trying to remove brownies after baking (see the photo I put on my Instagram – @lazycatkitchen).
- Weigh your flour, add baking soda and mix the two together, sift. Set aside.
- Chop your chocolate very finely. Put it into a big mixing bowl, with cocoa powder and salt. Stir well.
- Boil a kettle of water and make an espresso. Make sure you time it so that they are both ready (and hot) at the same time. Pour 75 ml / 5 tbsp of boiling water and 60 ml / ¼ cup of hot espresso into the bowl with chocolate. Stir it well until chocolate dissolves into hot liquid. Do not add any more liquid.
- Add in sugar, flax / chia egg (by this time it should turn all sticky) or cooled aquafaba and olive oil. Using a hand mixer, blend the mixture until it’s smooth.
- It’s time to add flour and the baking soda mixture. Add a little at a time and stir it into the chocolate mixture with a spoon. Do not be tempted to use an electric mixer as it will overwork the batter and spoil the brownies. Stir gently and just enough until there are no flour pockets any more, but no more than that.
- Spoon the batter (it will be quite thick) into the muffin tin. Smooth it with a spatula and sprinkle chopped pistachios on top. Bake on middle shelf for about 11-12 minutes. Remember the brownies will continue to cook for a little while longer once removed from the oven and the tops will harden as they cool. The top should be nice and crispy, but the inside gooey. Remove them from the oven and let them sit in the tray until they are cool enough to remove. If you try to remove them too quickly, they may fall apart.
*Aquafaba (AF) or bean brine is leftover cooking water from cooking most legumes. I use chickpea water and have not tried using any other type yet. You can get it from a can of low sodium chickpeas or make your own. In this recipe, I used homemade aquafaba. When making your aquafaba, soak dry chickpeas in lots of water overnight, rinse and put in a large pot with lots of water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 1 hour (until beans are soft). Remove cooked chickpeas with a slotted spoon and what’s left in your pot is aquafaba. If it is too runny (ideally it should resemble egg whites), reduce it a bit by simmering it on a low heat (without a lid) until it reaches the consistency similar to an egg white. Cool it down before using.
Can I use Spelt flour instead of Cake flour?
Thank You!
I haven't tried so hard for me to assure you. I suspect that spelt's flour absorbency rate is different so you may need less or more liquid to get the right texture. Good luck! Ania
Thank you for this recipe. I'm confused about the liquids. I thought that it was a total of 135 ml of liquid ("Pour 75 ml / 5 tbsp of boiling water and 60 ml / ¼ cup of hot espresso"). But in your comments to Jaycie, you said 75ml total. Would you please clarify as I would like to make sure to do the right thing! Thank you so much and have a great day!
The recipe is correct, the total amount of liquid needed is 135 ml / ½ cup + 1 tbsp (it could be all hot water or a combination of hot water and espresso to reinforce the chocolate flavour). I was explaining to Jaycie about the coffee part, I wasn't talking about all the liquids the recipe calls for. Having said that you are right and I did make a mistake in my reply to her, I was meant to say 4 tbsp (60 ml) not 5 tbsp (75 ml) although luckily 1 tbsp is not likely to make much of a difference. Hope this helps! Ania
I don't normally drink coffee but have some instant in the house at the moment. How much should I use (e.g. how many tablespoons to how much water) to make an espresso?
And then I imagine I add five tablespoons of hot water on top of that? Or is it a quarter cup of ground coffee and then add five tablespoons of boiling water?
Apologies for my coffee ignorance :)
But it's so delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
That's lovely to hear that you enjoyed these so much. I don't do calories, I'm afraid, but there are lots of apps online (like this one) that should be helpful in this regard. Ania
No, I haven't, I'm afraid. Good luck! x Ania
I would say 'yes' to sugar, but unsure if it will work without the mixer as I have not tried, it may be hard work as the mixture is quite dense. Ania
Lucie (all the way from France :) xx
Sure it will, just make sure the oil you are about to use does not have an overpowering taste as it may be detectable in the final product otherwise. Ania
I'm so sorry to hear that they did not come out right for you. As for the salt taste, is it possible that it wasn't mixed in enough - I mean the recipe calls for only ¼ tsp and with chocolate and cacao that's never going to be a prominent flavour, it's only just used to intensify the taste of chocolate. Another thing is that with baking it is extremely important to use scales rather than cups for dry ingredients as using cups is an inherently imprecise way to measure anything other than liquid - could that be to blame for the texture being off? You don't go into details so it may not be applicable here, but that's all I can think of based on the information provided. Ania
Thank you very much for including the non-American measurements, I cannot tell how much time I have always spent calculating Fahrenheits to Celsius ! Not to mention the "cups" measurement that makes me nuts :D
Most of my favourite vegan recipes are from the US so I have to recalculate a lot of things for my European mind :D
Thank you for being so thoughtful about followers from the rest of the world ;)
Cheers,
Szasza from Hungary :)
Excited to try the "real" recipe soon !
Sure, coffee is only there to reinforce chocolate flavour so feel free to replace with just hot water to melt the chocolate. Hope that helps! Ania
Could you maybe explain what they should be like when they’re ready to come out? Like, springy top/still wobbly/whatever it is! I’ve been dairy and egg free all my life so I’ve NEVER made a truly successful brownie, so I don’t really know what to look for to tell that they’re ready! Thank you!
I'm sorry to hear you are not completely happy with these, but the instructions do state when to add oil and sugar (Method, Step 6) so I'm not sure where the confusion came from. And the mixture for these is meant to be thick (I mention that in the instructions also) so you shouldn't be worried about that. I suspect the outcome might have been affected by the order in which the ingredients were added. Ania
Chopped the chocolate, was afraid husband or at least my dojjo would wake up due to the noise. Ate the last little bit of chocolate instead of chopping, just to be safe. But no. Not a peep out of anyone. All fast asleep.
These brownies were SO easy to make and taste delicious! I was going to make your chocolate cookies at first, but the fudgy brownies reeled me right in. So glad they did :) The house smells fantastic.
Thank you for a wonderful recipe 💕😊
Sure you can, but it will certainly affect the texture of these puppies. It's the sugar that gives baked goods (and brownies in particular) crispy exterior crust. Hope that helps! Ania
I haven't tried doing that, but it should work. Not sure if putting the batter in the fridge is a good idea, perhaps it will be better off in a cooler spot in your house, at room temperature. Ania
Only comment I can make - they should be eaten same day because they were very nice and had a crispy top just after cooling down but overnight they lost the crispness. That didn't affect the taste though.
Tagged you in Istagram. :)
My SIL is vegan and I want to make these brownies for her.
I have a Nespresso machine, how many ml of fresh Nespresso do I need?
Thank you!
Wczoraj około północy odkryłam Twój blog i chyba znalazłam się w wegańskim niebie!!!
Od kilku dni chodzi za mną chętka na coś słodkiego ale i zdrowego no i proszę! Spadłaś mi z nieboa!
Dziękuję za ten cudny przepis. Zaraz lecę do sklepu bo brakujące składniki i do dzieła! ;)
Pozdrawiam,
Justyna :)
Can i use regular flour ?
What exacly the flour to use fir this recipies ?
Thank you.
As you can see in the ingredients list I used white cake flour - a flour that you would typically use to bake a cake (as opposed to bread). While all purpose flour will work too if that's what you mean by 'regular flour'. Hope that helps. Ania
Yes, you can and yes, it will. I reckon about 19-21 minutes, depending how you like your brownies. Hope that helps! Ania
I would love to try your recipe but I do not drink/use coffee.
Would I be able to replace the expresso by water or almond milk for example?
Thank you very much in advance,
Hélène
Sure, you can! Hot liquid is what is needed to melt the chocolate so either hot water or hot almond milk. Hope that helps! Ania
I think so as long the holes are the same size then that's no problem - if they are smaller (or bigger), you will simply need to adjust the baking time a little in order not to overbake. Hope that helps! Ania
I don't think that liquid sweetener will render the same result, I'm afraid, although I haven't tried using it so I may be wrong. You need to use 80 ml of oil in these, which doesn't translate very easily to cup measurement hence a strange looking cup equivalent. Hope that helps! Ania
I haven't tried making them gluten-free but it's worth a shot. I would suggest using a GF flour mix, rather than one flour, which usually contains some starches and often xanthan gum. I use a mixture of buckwheat flour (approx. 55 %), rice flour (30%) and cornstarch (15%) usually. Good luck and please let me know how they turned out! Ania
I'll be honest, I have not tried but I don't see why not. You can also always make 1/2 or even 1/4 of the portion :)
Not very long, about 10-15 minutes. Sticking them into the fridge helps too.
My oven underheats a bit so I baked them for an extra 5 minutes on 190°C
Thank you so much for the recipe I will definitely make them again very soon :)
Unfortunately, cacao powder and chocolate behave quite differently in recipes so I don't feel confident that swapping chocolate for more cacao will work without other changes to the recipe, I'm afraid. BTW, I didn't use any specialised vegan chocolate - most dark chocolates are naturally vegan without calling themselves such - worth taking a look at the ingredient list!
Ania
its a bit harder to find here chocolate bars that dont contain milk and the ones that dont are usually more expensive :/
Thank you so much! I'm not sure about margarine but sunflower (or coconut or any other really) oil should be fine, absolutely! Let me know how you got on!
Ania
Have pinned a couple of your recipes. Keep them coming! Hela