Vegan brookies

Vegan brookies

vegan brookies

How do you guys feel about ‘brookies’? I know, when I first heard about them I was a bit like ‘what?!?!’, but after a very mindful sampling 😉 , I’m totally in.

If brownies and cookies were to fall in love and walk off into the sunset together, their passion would most likely result in a brood of brookies.

Vegan brookies look like a cookie yet they taste like a brownie. Crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside and screaming ‘chocolate’. Sounds great, right?

They come in handy when you crave something intensely chocolatey but don’t want to commit to making a whole tray of brownies. And no, just because they are slightly less evil, doesn’t mean they are good for you. They are not healthy and are pretty much guaranteed to wreck whatever diet you are on, but who cares when they taste that good, right!? 😉

vegan brookies the making of

vegan brookies baked

vegan brookies close up

vegan brookies half

vegan brookies stack

vegan brookies sideview

makes
9-12 brookies
PREP
20 min
COOKING
10 min
makes
9-12 brookies
PREPARATION
20 min
COOKING
10 min
INGREDIENTS
  • 130 g / 4.5 oz dark chocolate (I used 70% cacao)
  • 1 tbsp melted coconut oil
  • 45 g / scant ½ cup hazelnuts*, ground finely (½ cup hazelnut flour)
  • 30 g / ¼ cup buckwheat flour
  • 15 g / 2 tbsp cornflour / cornstarch
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ cup + 2 tbsp / 90 ml aquafaba
  • 90 g / 3/8 cup caster sugar
  • chopped hazelnuts, for decoration (optional)
METHOD
  1. Break up chocolate with your hands – or hit an unopened packet against your workbench a few times for a sort of therapy 😉 . Place chocolate and coconut oil in a glass bowl over a water bath (bain-marie). Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Simmer on a very low heat until the chocolate has melted. Give the mixture a good stir and take the bowl off the heat to cool down.
  2. Place ground hazelnuts, cornflour / cornstarch, buckwheat flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Mix very well.
  3. Pre-heat the oven to 175° C / 345° F. Line a baking tray with a piece of baking paper.
  4. In a clean metal or glass bowl whip aquafaba until you get stiff peaks. It is very important that the bowl has no grease residue as this will prevent the aquafaba from reaching stiff peaks. Once the aquafaba is at the stiff peaks stage (turn the bowl upside down, if aquafaba does not slide down at all, it means that it has reached stiff peaks) start adding sugar very gradually, half a tablespoon at the time, whipping well after each addition.
  5. Gradually (and gently so that you don’t knock too much air out of the whipped aquafaba) fold flour and baking powder mixture into whipped aquafaba with a spatula or a spoon.
  6. Next, incorporate melted chocolate slowly until you achieve an even looking batter.
  7. Spoon the batter onto the prepared baking tray. I went for 9 large cookies, but you can make 12 smaller ones instead. Decorate the tops with chopped hazelnuts (if using) or sprinkle with some salt.
  8. Bake for about 10 (smaller ones) to 12 minutes (larger ones). Remove the tray from the oven and allow the cookies to cool down completely before eating (they may be a little fragile until they are cool). Your cookies will end up with lots of little cracks on the surface (like you get on top of a brownie). Mine didn’t as I accidentally used too little sugar for the photographed batch.

NOTES
 *You can use most ground nuts / nut flours here: almonds, pecans and walnuts will work. If you are swapping ground hazelnuts out for something else, you may want to use the same type of nuts for the topping.

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NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
139
7%
sugars
12 g
13%
fats
8 g
11%
saturates
4 g
18%
proteins
2 g
3%
carbs
17 g
6%
*per brookie
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5.0
9 reviews, 37 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
Rebecca McElroy:
Hey Ania- I love your site and the recipe that I am commenting on is old but new to me and looks delicious- I can't wait to try it! I really appreciate all your work here and am a big fan in general. I want to say something very gently about the way you talk about food on your blog. You often speak about food as evil or dangerous or tell the reader that things are not healthy. I find this puzzling, and a little sad, and difficult to read for me personally with a history of disordered eating- it comes across as putting so much shame along with food. I wanted to gently ask if you could be mindful of the language that you use around food. If we can all reframe how we talk about food to remove moral language, then it will create a world with better mental and physical health. Thank you.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Rebecca,
    Thank you for your comment and your kind words about my recipes. I'm sorry that the words I use upset you and brought back painful memories - this was obviously not my intention at all. While I come up and publish recipes online for everyone to use, I am just another human reared in this toxic culture that imposes certain look, body shape expectations, on females especially, from an early age so I am certainly not free from food-related issues and that's probably what comes through in my writing sometimes. I do believe that certain foods are healthier, better for our bodies than others but I also recognise that sometimes we, humans, eat for pleasure and not just nutrition and that's ok too. I try to strike a balance between the two but as I often have a plethora of dessert test bakes around me, I don't always succeed and I get frustrated with myself. Also, some of the things I write like 'the cookies being evil' are obviously meant as tongue in cheek. I will try to pay more attention to the wording, but at the same time the write up is a form of personal expression and I don't want to pretend I am someone I am not. Hope this makes sense. Ania
laura:
Hi Ania! I was wondering if I can use coconut sugar (I grind mine in the blender to make it super fine). Thanks so much, love your recipes!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Laura,
    I'll be honest, I'm not sure - from memory coconut sugar behaves a little bit different during baking (which may mean you won't get crispy tops) although I haven’t used it in a while as it’s insanely expensive here. Perhaps worth trying on a smaller (1/2) batch? Hope it works, Ania!
Louisa North:
I made these on Sunday as a 'Holiday Treat' and they are SO YUMMY!! They are crispy on the outside but gooey in the middle! I was quite nervous about experimenting with aquafaba, but once it started to foam up as i was beating it, i was highly relieved! I will definitely be making these again, thanks for the recipe!
    Ania
    Ania:
    That's so lovely to hear, Louisa! Thank you for taking the time to leave such a nice comment too! Ania
Lydia:
& could they turn out ok if i do half the amount of brookies (65 g chocolate, 45ml aquafaba) ?
thanks !
    Ania
    Ania:
    Yes, I think halving the recipe should be fine!
      Lydia:
      thanks so much for the information!
      your blog is such an inspiration & it makes my plant-based lifestyle even better, thanks a million x
        Ania
        Ania:
        Thanks so much for your kind words, Lydia! :) Ania
Lydia:
could i replace the sugar for another ingredient? or just don't use at all?
thank you, they look fabulous !
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks Lydia! :) I'm sorry to have to say that sugar is crucial in these, it's responsible for crispy, cracked outer shell and soft interior and the sweetness of course. Hope that helps! Ania
Sophia:
Dear Ania,
I just made these brookies and they are delicious!!
Thank you for this amazing recipe :)
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much for kind words, Sophia! So glad you enjoyed them! :) Ania
Lori Faith Bouer:
These look *spectacular*...is there anything you can recommend to (I know I'm asking A LOT here!" make them nut free as well as gluten free and vegan?
I want to use these for a catering (OF COURSE MAKING SURE YOU GET THE CREDIT!!! HOPEFULLY TAKING A FEW SNAPS AS WELL!), but I am not allowed to have *A N Y* nuts at the location!
Maybe pulverized sunflower seeds? Would you/have you substituted gluten free all purpose flour (rice base, not dried bean base)?
Thanks So Much!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Lori,
    Thank you, I'm pleased to hear that you like these. I haven't tried using a gluten-free flour mix, but I'm pretty sure it will work (although I would avoid the mixes that feature xantham gum). As for hazelnut meal substitution, I would perhaps try ground pumpkin or hemp seeds. Sunflowers seeds should work too. Or you could maybe swap hazelnut meal for brown rice flour. Hope that helps! Ania
Anna:
Hi there, I made these yesterday and they taste great, however my batter was runnier then yours and the brookies ended up flat and sticking to the paper. I used 90ml of chickpea liquid for aquafaba, but was I supposed to use 90ml of aqaufaba instead? Aquafaba looked great and stiff , but perhaps I had too much of it. I measured everything else according to the recipe.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Anna,
    I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed these! As for your question, I am a bit puzzled as chickpea water / liquid IS the same thing as aquafaba - so not sure how to interpret what you said above. When it comes to the spreading issue, the only thing I can think of is that your aquafaba wasn't maybe whipped enough (was it definitely at stiff peaks?) or did you use caster sugar or have you made any substitutions at all? Ania
      Anna:
      Hi there, I used 90 ml of chickpea liquid which after beating it expanded a lot, so the volume looked like more, but maybe that's not where the problem lays. The aquafaba was really stiff although I used granulated sugar, not caster sugar. Would this create a problem? I didn't make any other substitutions.
        Ania
        Ania:
        Hello,
        90 ml of aquafaba sounds spot on and yes, it does expand a lot in volume once whipped so that sounds all fine and as it should be. Hmm, if aquafaba was stiff and you used regular sugar (as opposed to coconut sugar or liquid sweetener, like maple syrup) then it should not really matter either. So sorry but I really don't know why they spread more than mine :( Ania
          Anna:
          Hi Ania, I made them again, and this time they were a SUCCESS :). I beat the chickpea liquid for a very long time this time (my arm was numb afterwords :)) to make sure the aquafaba is really really stiff plus I was very careful when incorporating malted chocolate into it. I have added less sugar (just a personal preference) and I was very pleased with the result. Thank you for the great recipe, my family loves these so I will certainly making them again.
          Have a good day :)
          Ania
          Ania:
          Thanks so much for trying again and letting me know! I'm so pleased to hear that the recipe worked well and that they went down with your family too! :) Ania
Shyam:
I tried the recipe today it was a disaster..I would appreciate your help. I don't eat choclate so used sweetened carob chips..followed the recipe exactly apart from the chocolate but after keeping in the oven they spread like a liquid. What could have happened?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Shyam,
    Chocolate and carob are two very different ingredients and so they will behave differently, I imagine. I have made these cookies many times (with chocolate) and never had any problems so I would say that carob is the reason why they turned into liquid during baking.
    Ania
Monique Guillerm:
Would this be alright with regular all-purpose flour?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Monique,
    I haven't tried but it should work fine, no problem. Just make sure you replace both buckwheat flour AND corn strach with all purpose flour. Good luck! Ania
      Monique Guillerm:
      Thank you. I have made these a few times (with all-purpose flour) and they are heavenly!!
      Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Always a big hit at the events i bring them to :)
        Ania
        Ania:
        Thanks, Monique! That's so lovely to hear! Ania
These look amazing! Would brown rice flour work instead of buckwheat flour?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you! I haven't tried so I am not 100% sure, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
Ellie:
Ooops! I'd got too excited and scrolled straight to the recipe. Sorry! Explains why they aren't as light this time :(
    Ania
    Ania:
    Oh no! Gutted for you :( I will expand my explanation in the instructions to make sure it's clear even if someone misses the photo.
Ellie:
Do you whisk the flour mix in, or stir btw?
I use sweetener so that'll be why they didn't go crispy :)
Making second batch as we speak :)
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Ellie,
    That explains why, sweeteners behave very differently to sugar during baking. As for the flours, fold them in gently (as per photo in the post) so that you don't knock out too much air from the whipped aquafaba. Good luck!
Ellie:
Made these today with almond meal, they are lush! They didn't go crispy yo the outside but my oven is a bit temperamental so probably wasn't hot enough. Will definitely make again, thank you!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much for such a lovely feeback, Ellie! So pleased you liked them. The amount of sugar is what gives these cookies (and brownies) crispy / cracked shell so make sure you don't skimp on it ;)
Angelina:
I just tried your recipe and it's delicious! I used almond flour instead of hazelnut because that was what I had on hand. Mine are much thinner than yours but have a beautiful crackle top. It may be due to my inexperience with aquafaba, but no matter! Love them! Thanks!
    Ania
    Ania:
    That's so nice to hear, Angelina! :)
laris:
Can you replace the aquafaba for another egg-replacer?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Laris,
    If said egg replacer can produce stiff peaks like whipped aquafaba then sure, otherwise I don't think it will work. Hope that helps! Ania
Briju:
It's very tempting
Can I use anything else than buckwheat as it's not easily available in city where I live
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Briju,
    You could simply get raw buckwheat groats and mill them in a coffee grinder. Failing that you could probably another type of gluten-free flour instead. Good luck and please let me know how this swap has turned out! x Ania
    Marie:
    I use Kinnikinick gluten free rice flour you can order buckwheat flour on amazon.com if you are from US their is a lot of products you can order on Amazon for cheaper than in stores.
    I hope this helps!
    I am totally using this recipe next time I get chocolate!
      Ania
      Ania:
      Thanks Marie!
Rhian @ Rhian's Recipes:
Wow these look delicious!!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you :) x
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