Rich Chocolate Vegan Brownies

When one’s been baking with oodles of butter and eggs, like I’ve been doing for so long, the idea of baking without them is a bit confounding. But I am deeply intrigued by vegan baking, and have been pouring over recipes books looking for healthy cookie recipes. In The Vegan Family Cookbook by Brian P. McCarthy (Lantern Books, 2006) I stumbled upon this brownie recipe that I am kind of amazed by. Not only does it negate the need for animal-based ingredients, but it gives the option of including whole wheat flour–hurray!

The only caveat for me here is that is calls for granulated sugar. I’m not a huge advocate for refined sugar, and recommend replacing the sugar with a natural sweetener. I use Sucanat for baked goods that have a rich flavor, it works perfectly with chocolate recipes like this.

1 cup flour (you can use half whole wheat flour here, if you prefer)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar (or Sucanat, as noted above)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/3 cup soy milk
1/3 cup extra light olive oil
1/4 cup silken tofu
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar (or Sucanat), baking powder, salt, walnuts and chocolate chips.
3. In a blender, blend the soy milk, oil, tofu and vanilla.
4. Add blended mixture to the flour mixture in the large bowl and stir until just combined. Batter will be thick.
5. Spread batter out evenly into an 8-inch square, oiled baking dish.
6. Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Read more: All recipes, Desserts, Food, brownies, dessert, healthy, vegan

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Vita P.

5:22PM PDT on Apr 19, 2013

Chocolate yum!!!

April 19
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Svetlana B.

7:14AM PDT on Mar 22, 2013

Yum Thanks for sharing

March 22
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Nimue P.

4:44PM PST on Feb 19, 2013

Thanks.

February 19
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Christine S.

8:39PM PDT on Aug 27, 2012

Kamryn- semi-sweet chocolate chips are vegan (they contain cocoa butter, not dairy butter)- but of course watch out for milk chocolate chips, or some brands sneak in milk powder or milk fat even in dark chocolate chips- but that doesn't happen too often.