Classic Vegan Brownies

29/2/2020

If you Google vegan brownies a plethora of recipes will pop up.
I'm positive that 99% of these recipes will lean towards being highly processed or extremely healthy; made with 'bleached' ingredients (white flour, sugar & vegan butter) or uses black beans, sweet potato, dates or nuts.
These variations do have a time and place, but I wanted to create a brownie that tastes and looks like true brownie (made with butter & eggs), however made without the use of refined ingredients.

"A brownie should have a dense, but moist fudgy centre and a glossy top."

How on earth am I going to do that?

Attempt #1
After doing some research online, I've developed a recipe that I thought was set for success.

Sugar - coconut sugar
Butter/ oil - apple sauce (also used as a sugar substitute)
Eggs- aqua faba (chickpea water from a can)
Flour - wholewheat rye flour (rye has a natural sweetness in comparison to other flours)

The result of this bake wasn't too crash hot and most of it ended up in the compost bin.
Despite nailing the ingredient swaps, that ratio of ingredients were simply off.

Too much flour, resulting in a gummy mouth feel
Unpleasantly bitter because of the excessive amount of cacao powder
Flat as a tack- "Alex, obviously eggs make it rise."

Attempt #2
Goals for this batch:

Reduce flour by 75% - hoping the cacao butter in the chocolate will set the brownies
Reduce cacao powder by 75% - keeping in mind I'm using dark 70% dairy free chocolate, I simply want to enhance the flavour not add
Lightly whipping the aqua faba to emulate an egg's lightness, as well as adding baking powder to the mixture

This batch actually turned out pretty good, with nice flavour and definitely satisfying a brownie craving.
I could stop here... but, this recipe was missing the rise and fall of a classic brownie top. I want that crisp top!

Attempt #3
See recipe below. :)

Ingredients
200g 70% dark chocolate
2 tbsp (12g) cacao powder
1 tsp (2g) instant coffee
½ tsp salt
½ cup (125g) apple puree
1 tsp (6g) vanilla extract
½ cup (75g) coconut sugar
½ cup (120g) aquafaba (chickpea water)
½ cup (80g) wholemeal rye flour (or flour of choice)
1 tsp baking powder

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°c and line a 20cm square brownie tin with baking paper.

Add chocolate, cacao powder, instant coffee, salt, apple puree and vanilla in a medium sized saucepan.
Set heat to low and gently warm until the chocolate has melted and combined with the other ingredients.

In a bowl add the coconut sugar and aquafaba.
Using an electric beater, beat mixture until it looks like maple syrup and the sugar crystals have dissolved.
Pour syrup into the melted chocolate mix and stir until well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, add rye flour and baking powder.
Stir to remove any lumps using a whisk.

Add flour to the chocolate batter and fold until just combined.

Pour brownie batter into your prepared tin and bake for 15mins.
(The brownie will continue to set once out of the oven.)

Allow to cool slightly in the tin before continuing to cool on a wire rack.
Once the brownies are cool, they're then ready to cut.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Makes 9 brownies

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Classic Vegan Brownies

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