Vegan Brownies!
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Easy, delicious and chocolatey vegan brownies with chocolate chunks, perfect with a scoop of ice cream
Brownies
We all know how much I adore brownies, right?! I have an ever so slight obsession and I cannot contain it. I just want to bake brownies every day, and I do not get bored of them in the slightest. They are thick, they are chocolatey, and how can I not just want to eat more?!
I have endless amounts of brownies recipes published now, including the iconic triple chocolate brownies, but I wanted to make an equally as iconic vegan brownie recipe because I have had endless amount of requests for it… so here you go.
Vegan baking
Oh my days… another vegan recipe within not that long amount of time?! The shock.. the horror. I’m kidding, but seriously, these are delicious. I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet there, but damn they’re good.
After posting my vegan vanilla cupcakes at the beginning of the month to fit in with Veganuary, I thought I should post another one. I didn’t want to post my vegan chocolate cupcake recipe quite yet, as two in a row seemed a bit lame… so chose these bad boys. Honestly? Insane. You don’t miss the eggs
Recipe experimentation
These beauties came about after I was baking some cakes for my taste testers, and as someone new was going to be tasting them, and they had an egg allergy, I didn’t want to disappoint. Out of most bakes goods that are out there, traybakes seem to be the biggest hit amongst the most people, and brownies are definitely high up there.
After the experimentation with the vegan vanilla cupcakes, I knew that vegetable oil seemed to be a good way of creating a moist bake without making it too heavy or using too many weird ingredients. Sometimes I read a new recipe and haven’t a clue what half the things are!
I will always say in a post like this that I am not the most experienced vegan baker, because personally I am not vegan, but as I’ve always said its something I want to understand… and as these are so delicious I am willing to go there!
Dairy free milk
The lucky thing about a bake like this, is that most dairy free milks such as oat, almond or soya work – so you’re not restricted there. If you have a preference, you can use it. I know everyone has one that they prefer.
I wouldn’t advise coconut milk (as that is completely different and tends to use a thickening agent to create the texture of the milk). I tend to have either oat or almond in my fridge, because I adore an almond hot chocolate every now and again, so thats what I used for these
Chocolate and cocoa powder
As for the dark chocolate, before anyone comes for and accuses me of trying to poison people – side note, this HAS happened – you MUST check the dark chocolate you are using first has no dairy in! Along with the other ingredients such as the cocoa powder.
However, if its true dark chocolate, and true cocoa powder, it shouldn’t have dairy in. The reason dark chocolate is seen as the healthiest of them all, is because it usually has the least ingredients, the highest cocoa content, and the least dairy. Also, it’s damn delicious!
All in all, dark chocolate is a delicious thing to include in a vegan bake, and I have no shame of shoving in as much as I can. I fold through some chunks in this as well, which you can see in the pictures and it just looks so good!
Personally, I just use supermarket own dark chocolate because its the cheapest! I believe most Lindt chocolates do have dairy in, but most others don’t. If I bulk buy, I use Callebaut, and the dark chocolate doesn’t have dairy in and its just the most wonderful and smooth chocolate. Incredible basically.
Tips & Tricks
- I use any vegan milk chocolate or flavoured chunks of chocolate for my chocolate chunks inside the brownies, so you can pick what you want!
- These beauties are brilliant served with some vegan ice cream, or a drizzle of extra chocolate, or even warmed up and served with fruit.
- These brownies will last for 4-5+ days at room temperature or in the fridge
- These brownies will freeze for 3+ months
- I use this 9″ square tin in my recipe
- I use this cocoa powder
- I use this dark chocolate
Ingredients
- 250 g dark chocolate
- 100 ml vegetable oil
- 200 ml almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175 g plain flour **
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 200 g dark chocolate (chopped)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan, and line a 9x9" square tin with parchment paper!
- Melt your 250g dark chocolate carefully until smooth
- Pour in your oil, milk and vanilla and whisk until smooth
- In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt until combined
- Add the dry mix to the liquid mix, and stir until smooth. Try not to over mix - I just use a spatula - it will be very thick
- Fold through some chopped up chocolate, and then pour into the prepared tin
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until baked through. A little wobble is fine though, that makes them gooey
- Leave to cool fully in the tin and then set in the fridge for a couple of hours for an extra fudgey texture
Notes
- I use any vegan milk chocolate or flavoured chunks of chocolate for my chocolate chunks inside the brownies, so you can pick what you want!
- These beauties are brilliant served with some vegan ice cream, or a drizzle of extra chocolate, or even warmed up and served with fruit.
- These brownies will last for 4-5+ days at room temperature or in the fridge
- These brownies will freeze for 3+ months
- I use this 9" square tin in my recipe
- I use this cocoa powder
- I use this dark chocolate
- ** the original recipe used self raising flour. My love for dense brownies has increased so I have swapped the recipe to plain flour, but self raising flour does still work.
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J x
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Just a warning – don’t do what I did and swap the oil for coconut oil as they’ve come out so dry, cakey and crumbly!! Oh well, it’ll probably be nice crumbled over ice cream!
Would it be possible to use a vegan block butter for these brownies instead of the oil? If so, would it be a straight swap in terms of the amount? Thanks in advance.
I’ve just made these but its still quite wobbly after 30 mins cooking. Will it thicken as it cools?
The first time I made this recipe, I followed it as written, using all almond-based ingredients because we had guests. However, the result was very dry. This time, I made substitutions due to dietary restrictions: I used 75g of xylitol instead of sugar (as I’m sugar intolerant), coconut milk instead of almond milk (as I can’t consume almond products), and coconut flour instead of almond flour. Everything else remained the same.
When preparing the batter, I noticed it was extremely dry, resembling the texture of sand. Despite this, I proceeded with the recipe and baked it as instructed. After 10 minutes in the oven, the texture hadn’t improved. To salvage it, I removed the cake, added an additional 200ml of coconut milk and some baking powder, mixed everything thoroughly, and baked it for another 20 minutes. Only then did the texture turn out acceptable.
It seems that the recipe doesn’t adapt well to these substitutions, even though they have worked successfully for me in other brownie recipes. I wanted to provide this feedback in case others encounter similar issues or if there’s something in the method that might need adjusting to accommodate these types of ingredients.
Hey. Unfortunately, these substitutions weren’t going to work as you have done – this recipe is designed to be baked as written with ingredients used. Coconut flour is extremely drying, and this recipe requires the sugar content. Unfortunately you’d probably need to find a different recipe that is already made with the ingredients you want to use, for best results.
Obsessed with all your recipes! Can you swap out the oil for vegan butter? If so how much V butter?
Xx
Hi how would you adjust this recipe so that it is still vegan and also suitable for someone that is coeliac please? Thank you
Just use gluten free flour and a quarter teaspoon
xanthun gum ,make sure chocolate is gluten/wheat free 🙂
just made these, added walnuts and cherries along with the chocolate chunks and they turned out great. they cooked in the time specified on the recipe which never happens with vegan baking in my experience! yummy stuff!
I made these and though they taste amazing they were really soggy. It seemed like maybe too much oil in them but I followed the recipe exactly. Should I try reducing the amount of oil or should I up the cooking time?
Oh no! It may be the chocolate used as some vegan bars are much more oily than others, so then you could lessen the added oil x
Texture is great after a few hrs in the fridge. They taste super dark tho, I’d probably search out vegan milk choc chips next time I think.