Vegan Brownies

This was a tough one to crack – for some reason vegan brownies are not very straightforward! This is my most tested recipe that I have been working out on and off for months. I wanted to create a recipe that didn’t use black beans, flax, bananas, apple sauce, tofu, or any other ingredients typically seen in most vegan brownie recipes. It was really important to me that this was accessible and the taste was amazing – you can not tell the difference between these and non-vegan versions. Typical vegan brownies are too dry, oily, crumbly, the list goes on. These are super gooey, so if you are in the market for something more cakey, I would look elsewhere. 

Aquafaba

Aquafaba really is the key to these vegan brownies. I have previously highlighted the benefits of aquafaba in my vegan cinnamon roll recipe. But as a quick overview, aquafaba is the liquid from a can of chickpeas. It works as an amazing egg replacer, specifically egg whites. In a traditional non-vegan recipe, there are a lot of eggs. The reasoning is, the more eggs, the fudgier the brownie will be. They also work as a binder to incorporate all the ingredients. The aquafaba in this recipe helps bind all the ingredients together, but also at the beginning stages helps dissolve the sugars. Dissolving the sugars is important as it helps with achieving a shinier top!

I also use a little cornstarch to help solidify these aquafaba vegan brownies. They stay really fudgy in the center because of it. I made these without the cornstarch and they almost came out a little cakey! So if you’re aiming for a gooey texture, the cornstarch is really important.

Vegan Butter

I opted for vegan butter in this recipe. There are a couple reasons why I did this. It was mostly because of flavor; they taste ten times better with vegan butter! The other reason is that when I tested these vegan brownies with oil, they were way too oily! This is a common issue with other recipes. There just isn’t enough of a binder with all that oil for them to not come out that way. In my first test, they were literally a pool of separated oil and chocolate. Not good! After maybe 12 test batches of vegan brownies, I finally nailed it, all thanks to the vegan butter! There are also a lot of emulsifiers in vegan butter to help it act more like traditional dairy butter, so it really helps out the texture of the final product.

Chocolate

It is crucial to use a high quality chocolate in this recipe since the main flavor of brownies, is well, chocolate. I recommend using a dark chocolate at around 60-70% mark. I love using TCHO’s chocolate discs because a lot of them are vegan, and I can buy in bulk! The prices are fairly reasonable, too. Now, for the cocoa powder, make sure you are buying unsweetened. You don’t really need to splurge on this, as there is so little compared to the amount of chopped chocolate in it. But is important you use a dutch process cocoa powder and not a natural cocoa powder. Unlike dutch process, natural cocoa powder is acidic as it is not treated with an alkali solution, so make sure you’re buying dutch process for these vegan brownies.

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Vegan Brownies

by: Katelyn

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• VG
• DF

The best vegan brownie recipe! Made with cocoa powder and dark chocolate, these vegan brownies are fudgy, gooey, super chocolaty.

• Difficulty:Easy
• Prep Time:15 mins
• Cook Time:35 mins
• Serves:9
• Freezable:No

Nutrition per portion

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp (85g) Aquafaba
• ¾ cup (150g) Sugar
• ½ cup (110g) Brown Sugar
• 8 tbsp (113g) Vegan Butter
• 8 oz (226g) Vegan Dark Chocolate (60-70%) Roughly Chopped, Divided
• ¼ cup (25g) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp (4g) Vanilla Extract
• ½ tsp (3g) Kosher Salt
• 1 ¼ cup (175g) All Purpose Flour
• 1 tbsp (12g) Cornstarch

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray an 8x8 pan with spray oil and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, add the aqaufaba, sugar and brown sugar. With a hand mixer, mix on high for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is light in color and almost fluffy.
3. Add in the vanilla and mix again for another 30 seconds until the vanilla is dispersed. Set aside.
4. Add 5 oz of the roughly chopped chocolate and the vegan butter to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time until all the vegan butter is melted and chocolate is soft and melty (this takes about a minute total). Add in the cocoa powder and whisk until the chocolate mixture is smooth and no lumps remain.
5. Add the chocolate mixture into the sugar and aquafaba, and gently fold until all is combined and no streaks remain.
6. Sift the flour, cornstarch and salt into the chocolate aqaufaba mixture. Gently fold until the mixture is combined and no flour remains.
7. Add in the rest of the roughly chopped chocolate (3 oz) and fold in to combine.
8. Pour your brownie batter into the greased 8x8 pan and even out the top with an offset spatula. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes if you like very gooey brownies or 40 minutes for something a bit more set (a thermometer should read at least 203°F). Remove and let fully cool (about 1 hour) before slicing!