Hello, blog readers! I am back to blogging. ha, ha! Yeah, I know. But I found the best brownie recipe ever! I spent almost a week thinking about if I should put it on the blog or not. Because this site has been abandoned again, this time for over six months. I had my 10 year vegan anniversary on the way and the blog had it’s tenth birthday, too. Once more I wasn’t sure if I should continue this page or simply just take it offline (because I still pay for it!).
In the past I have often been frustrated by how superficial and anonymous blogging has become. When I started I knew most of the vegan bloggers out there and commenting on each others blogs was natural and most of the fun. But now blogging seems to be mostly about perfect illusions of shiny lifestyles. Furthermore I am often annoyed by my own inability to get and keep in touch with people. I cannot keep track of what my favourite fellow bloggers and Instagrammers are up to. I don’t find the time to email them or leave honest comments. Of course caused by the fact that I work full-time, have a family, and honestly don’t really find much time anymore to manage a bilingual blog. But it still sucks.
Since I can be the most impulsive person you have ever met, what the heck. Here’s a new recipe. These are honestly the best vegan brownies ever! I took them to work and my coworkers were all blown away. And I swear you too want to try these! I discovered the nonvegan version in the German translation of a book by America’s Text Kitchen. It contained some interesting observations on the crispy top on brownies and some indirect tips on egg replacers. If you want crispy, crackling brownies, you need sugar. And if you need a kick-ass egg replacer use mayonnaise! The sugar thing I have been telling you for years, right? But the mayonnaise thing I didn’t know. I have been vegan for 10 years and never once have I managed to properly veganise a nonvegan brownie recipe. Who would have thought that mayonnaise is the secret?
Best Vegan Brownies
These brownies are exactly what you have been searching for! They come with a rich chocolate aroma and have the perfect texture: chewy and moist on the inside and crispy on top.
- 30 g Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons instant coffee powder
- 150 ml boiling water
- 60 g bittersweet chocolate (, finely chopped)
- 160 ml vegetable oil
- 50 g melted vegan butter
- 120 g vegan mayonnaise
- 40 g aquafaba
- ½ teaspoon ground vanilla powder
- 250 g granulated sugar
- 250 g powdered sugar
- 250 g flour
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 150 g bittersweet chocolate (, chopped)
- Preheat oven to 180°C and line a 20 x 20 cm square pan with parchment paper.
- In a bowl combine cocoa powder, coffee powder, and boiling water.
- Whisk until smooth.
- Stir in 60 g of chocolate until melted.
- Add oil, melted butter, mayonnaise, aquafaba, and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
- Add sugar and with a handheld mixer, beat until the sugar is dissolved.
- Add flour and baking soda and beat again until most of the flour is incorporated. A couple of lumps are okay.
- Fold in chocolate and pour batter into the pan.
- Bake for 60 minutes.
- Let cool for two hours and remove the parchment paper.
- Store in the fridge over night and then bring back to room temperature (2 hours) before you cut and serve them.
- Store in an airtight container.
The aquafaba can be poured right from the can. No need to whip it up.
Enjoy the recipe and have a great Sunday!
45 comments
I LOOOOVE brownies. Just discovered your blog and being from Austrian descent, some of your recipes reminded me of my grandmother and mom. thank you for that alone. Is there a way that you can switch to American measurements somewhere on your blog?
Again, don’t leave. Love you already.
Hi Deb, welcome! Many of my recipes have American measurements, which I calculate myself. I don’t have a way to switch automatically as I have made bad experiences with such plugins. But this online calculator is very helpful: https://bakingcalculators.com/
These were so good. I made them in a smaller pyrex (not a 9 x 13, whatever the next size down is). Everything about them was perfect. Crackly top, fudgy center…these are the best brownies I’ve ever had.
These brownies are perfect, and they make my flat smell wonderful. Thank you for dusting off the blog!
I just discovered your blog, and I am so impressed with the beautiful vegan baked goods you’ve managed to produce. I love vegan baking, and I’m so excited to try some of your recipes. These brownies look absolutely perfect; I think they’ll be first on the list.
P.S. As a professional translator, I also love that you keep your site bilingual! Very impressive! Thanks and danke shoen!
Hello, my brownies came out extremely oily. They were literally oozing oil. I replaced the vegan ingredients with non vegan ingredients like eggless mayo and salted butter. I also used half the recipe. They did form a good top but it was just too oily to be eaten. I used Compound chocolate which is made with vegetable oil. Can you kindly point out where I may have gone wrong? Also which brand of chocolate did u use and what was the cocoa percentage in that? Thanks alot!
Sorry to hear this didn’t turn out for you. If you make so many changes to a recipe, this is usually the reason why it. doesn’t come out that well. I don’t know anything about compound chocolate but I assume the oil in the chocolate will make a huge difference. And so will the butter. With those ingredients you made a lot of changes relationship of saturated vs. unsaturated fats. (With the compound chocolate, you added unsaturated fats or hydrogenated fats and they will stop the brownies from setting properly). That relationship is crucial to this recipe and shouldn’t be changed. Also, did you store the brownies in the fridge over night before serving? If you don’t they will most probably be oily. I don’t remember what brand of chocolate I used, sorry! Usually I use regular bittersweet chocolate with a cocoa content about 70 – 80%.
Hello! These brownies look mind blowing!
I tried them today and I just had a few doubts.
Does the batter kind of boil even after being baked in the oven for 30 minutes?
Can I sub the vegan ingredients with non-vegan ingredients? Like eggless mayonnaise and salted butter ?
Also I have used compound chocolate which is locally available in India as I could not find bittersweet couverture chocolate. Could this be the reason that my brownie looked underbaked?
The boiling is normal because these brownies have so much sugar.
If you want to sub non-vegan ingredients, please use a non-vegan recipe. I am a vegan and don’t have much experience with non-vegan ingredients.
The brownies have to be underbaked because that is what makes them brownies. These are fudgey brownies and not cake brownies. If you don’t like the texture, you may want to try a recipe for „cake“ brownies.
Den Blog gerade entdeckt und ba-bam! begeistert bin ich schon!!! Esse rein pflanzlich und freue mich auf Deine ezepte!
I made these. They are so delicious. So. Very. Very. Thanks for figuring out the magical vegan brownie recipe!
Hi… sag mal, 1 1/2 Instaltkaffe? Meinst Du 1-Portiontütchen? Wie viel Gramm oder „spoon“ sind das?
Danke für den Hinweis. Es sind 1 1/2 Teelöffel.
Hallo Mihl,
zunächst: die Brownies sehen ganz wunderbar aus! Und danke, dass du immer weitermachst. Ich bin seit 2009 stille Leserin und freue mich, dass dein Blog der ersten veganen deutschen Blogrunde überlebt hat.
Ich suche schon lange nach einem Brownie Rezept bei dem ich am Ende Brownies bekomme, die wirklich Brownies sind. Eher fest, fudgy mit einem Übermaß an Schokolade. Meistens bekommt man eher eine Art Schokokuchen. Nicht, dass Schokokuchen schlecht wäre, aber eben nicht das, was man sucht ;)
Eine Frage hätte ich: Kommen wirklich 500g Zucker rein? Tut mir leid, wenn die Frage blöd ist, aber ich muss einfach fragen :D
Liebste Grüße,
Charlotte
Hallo Charlotte,
ja, 500 g. Das ist kein Tippfehler. Der Zucker ist für die knusprige Kruste verantwortlich. Aber in den Kommentaren zu diesem Rezept findest Du auch den Tipp, das man den Zucker anscheinend um 100 g reduzieren kann – mit dem gleichen Ergebnis.
can i use a gluten free flour, or even almond flour?
I haven’t tried that, but I don’t see why not? At least a gluten-free flour should work. If you try, let me know how it worked out.
Dass wir uns nicht persönlich kennen, ist doch egal, oder? Man kann ja nicht mit der ganzen Welt Bekanntschaft machen – und sei froh, so nett wie ich sind nicht alle Holländer ;-). Reicht doch, dass viele so wie ich deinen Blog schätzen.
Außerdem gibt es unter den vielen Bloggern auch ziemlich viel Mist. Das macht dich nicht überflüssig, eher umso wichtiger, würde ich sagen. Ob nun jeden Tag, oder mal alle paar Wochen, Hauptsache es ist noch Leben in deinem Blog drin. Ich freue mich auf jeden Fall! Mach weiter so!
Hallo Hans, ich kenne sehr viele nette Holländer und Niederländer! Danke für Deinen lieben Kommentar, es freut mich sehr, dass Du Dir die Zeit genommen hast, zu schreiben und danke für Deine Geduld:)
I’m so glad you haven’t closed the blog! These brownies look great – did you use your own three-ingredient mayonnaise in them? I have a jar in my fridge – it’s the only mayo I use now :)
Hey Mia, thank you! I am so glad you like my mayo! For this recipe I used a storebought one though. It usually has extra lecithin and that works perfectly when mayo is used as an egg replacer.
Also – I can’t remember when I found you but I have followed your blog for awhile (not always commenting). I know what you mean about the change in blogging (I didn’t get into vegan blogging until 2011, but had other personal blogs for a decade before that). Instagram in particular bothers me in its superficialty/fakeness, I got some good responses when I posted about it after a long (8 month) Instagram break, it seems like a lot of people agree there’s a problem. But I’m not entirely sure what the solution is! Still thinking about that one… :)
Ah,well.The solution might be only to follow the accounts that look genuine? I am glad to know that others feel the same way.Thanks for sharing, Caitlin.
Mayonnaise, whoa! I always though the crackly top came from sugar and melting chocolate (something about the temperature too, maybe?), plus beating it vigorously and many times. Those look perfect!!
Yes, it’s the sugar that makes the crackly top.The mayonnaise works as an egg replacer.
Die sehen sooooo waaaaahnsinnig lecker aus! Vor allem die Kruste! *_*
Bei einer Freundin gab es früher immer welche mit so einer Kruste, leider eine Backmischung. :(
Am Wochenende werden die definitiv Nachgebacken! Ich liebe Schokokuchen bzw. Brownies. Wahrscheinlich werde ich auch auf meinem Blog davon berichten. :)
Achja, ich mag Deinen Blog sehr! Die Rezepte sind super (leider habe ich bisher viel zu wenig nachgemacht) und die Bilder sind wirklich richtig toll!. Ich kann verstehen was in Dir vorgeht zum Thema bloggen, geht/ging mir ganz ähnlich. Ich bin trotzdem gerne hier auch wenn nur noch selten etwas neues kommt. :)
Liebe Grüße,
Johanna
Danke, Johanna! Das Buch aus dem ich das Rezept habe, hat sich auch Backmischungen zum Vorbild genommen und die Autoren wollten genau diese Backmischungsbrownies hinkriegen. Scheint geklappt zu haben.
Danke für Deinen netten Kommentar. Ich freue mich sehr über Eure Antworten. Gut zu wissen, dass es vielen so geht.
I am also really glad you dusted off the blog! Instagram is nice, but it is also nice to have indexed recipes that I can always look up for. Also I had tried the brownie from America’s Test Kitchen and even with scaling down the sugar to 400g the crust still formed, although it will not be the extra 6g of sugar per portion that will hurt you :)
Yeah, you are right about Instagram. Posting the recipes there didn’t really work for me. And that’s good to know about the sugar!
please continue – it would be sad to see the blog go…
Thank you!
Not too surprised- at least right now. XD I’ve been reading American Cakes, which is a history/recipe book about common cakes in America. I really enjoyed the chapter during the Great Depression and World War 1 & 2 because there were so many odd ingredients! One cake mentioned (but the recipe wasn’t given) was a mayonnaise cake. I really want to try it out. There was also a chocolate sauerkraut cake! Another weird one I’d like to try.
That sound like an interesting book! I often find that the German way to make cakes and the American way can be quite different. It’s good to get a new perspective. Wow, sauerkraut! Now that sounds really weird. But why not?
I’ve tried a chocolate mayo cake in the past and every now and again I look at my jar of mayonnaise and wonder how it would go in a vegan chocolate cake but never considered brownies. I made (and blogged) some vegan brownies last month – I really liked the texture but they did not have the crisp topping so I am quite impressed by the look of these.
And like other commenters, I would be very sad if your blog shut down because it has such a wealth of recipes on it – I know what you mean about blogging changing (I had my 10 year anniversary in April) and I sometimes feel a bit old fashioned because I still enjoy following old school bloggers who are about connections as much as sponsors and design. But I really love a blog with heart and yours has heaps. I am too busy to read blogs as much as I used to bu I do love it when you have a new post pop up in my feed.
Thank you, Johanna! That is such a nice thing of you to say and I do appreciate your comment a lot. And there’s nothing wrong with being old fashioned!
The fear that you might shut down your blog after reading this has led me to begin frantically writing down all your recipes. I have always loved your blog but now am wooing a lovely German fellow who is testing the waters of veganism, and your recipes have been a big help in him realizing he doesn’t have to give up any of his favorite things.
I hope you don’t delete your blog and would love to see you continue to post, but I know life gets complicated and these things happen.
Just wanted to let you know how lovely I think all your posts are, and thank you for the recipes over the years!
Wow, Hanna, I am sorry about that! Even in case I would shut down the blog, I would probably transfer the recipes to a free site or make them accessible somehow.
Thank you very much for your nice comments and it’s great to hear your favourite German person is giving veganism a chance! What are his favourite recipes (from the blog or else)?
Welcome back. As an American subscriber, I realized not too long ago that you had not posted anything in quite a long time and wondered if you had discontinued your blog. This posting reminded me of a previous recipe you had posted that I wanted to try–Rhubarb Rice Pudding Tartlets. Have put the ingredients for that on my grocery list. For your information, America’s Test Kitchen has come out with a new cookbook titled „Vegan for Everyone“ which I recently purchased. Joyce
Hi Joyce, thank you for your nice comment! I imagine my blogging habits must be frustrating for my readers sometimes! I hope you get to try the tartlets, they are really nice! I didn’t get to eat much ru´hubarb this year otherwise I’d have made them again.
Hi Joyce, thank you for your nice comment! I imagine my blogging habits must be frustrating for my readers sometimes! I hope you get to try the tartlets, they are really nice! I didn’t get to eat much rhubarb this year otherwise I’d have made them again.
Also ich freue mich immer, wenn Du etwas postest!!
Es geht mir momentan genauso, dass ich so wenig Zeit finde, zu schreiben, obwohl ein paar Ideen in meinem Kopf spuken und Fotos auf der Kamera…
Mache gerne weiter so, auch wenn es wieder ein paar Monate dauern sollte, ich lese Deine Beiträge weiterhin sehr gerne!!
Lieben Gruß, Natascha
Mmm Hmm, yes!
our neighbor growing up always made mayonnaise CAKES, so I know how good these brownies must be! :)
Wow, I wish I knew your neighbour. I am still blown away by the whole mayonnaise in sweet things discovery.
Schön wieder einen Post von dir zu lesen. Finde deine Rezepte und Bilder nämlich wirklich toll!
Das Aquafaba kommt hier flüssig rein oder?
Hallo Carina, danke Dir! Ja, einfach reingießen.
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