Since going vegan, I’ve missed those classic fudge brownies – the ones with that special crackly top.
For a long time, I couldn’t figure out how to replicate this. I tried to veganise an old recipe that was mostly egg based. I replaced the eggs with flax meal mixed with water, but it didn’t work. I left the brownies in the oven for an hour, but they wouldn’t cook and the batter boiled in the oven, resulting in munted brownies. I had to bin them.
I’ve tested out several vegan brownie recipes – one made with avocados, which, while delicious, lacked the dense fudgy-ness that I was looking for.
However, I came across this recipe from seitan is my motor, which was a total win. It turns out that the trick to the crackly top is vegan mayo! Who would have thought?
I tweaked a few things; in particular, I drastically increased the amount of chocolate in the recipe, and it was amazing. I also did not use parchment paper on the bottom, as it made the bottom become too crispy.
Best vegan brownies
- 30 g Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons instant coffee powder or espresso powder
- 150 ml boiling water
- 160 g unsweetened chocolate , finely chopped
- 210 g vegan butter
- 120 g vegan mayonnaise
- 40 g aquafaba
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250 g granulated sugar
- 250 g powdered sugar
- 250 g flour
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt.
- 150 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 180°C and generously butter a 20 cm x 30 cm rectangular pan. Then sprinkle flour over it.
Combine the boiling water with the cocoa powder and the instant coffee powder. Let cool until it is below 40°C.
Melt vegan butter with unsweetened chocolate in the microwave at low/medium power or using a bain marie. If using microwave, stop every 30 seconds and stir and let sit briefly. This is to ensure that it doesn’t get too hot. Overheated chocolate becomes munted chocolate. After melting the mixture, let cool slightly.
Add the water/cocoa powder mixture.
Add vegan mayo, aquafaba and vanilla to this mixture and stir until combined.
Add both sugars and combine. Add flour, baking soda and salt.
Add chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. Pour into baking pan. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean.
If you like, garnish with some vegan chocolate drops (I used Little Secrets dark chocolate).
Let cool at room temperature for two hours. Then slice and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving.
