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Chocolate fudge vegan brownies recipe! Made even sweeter with strawberries and sea salt. From The Wicked Healthy cookbook.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of The Wicked Healthy Cookbook for review and was given permission to share this vegan brownie recipe with you. Opinions are all my own. Thank you for supporting Rhubarbarians!
Hello, Rhubarbarians! Got an awesome sweet treat for you today: VEGAN BROWNIES! You've all gone crazy (in a good way crazy) for the vegan banana bread I posted a while back, so I thought you'd dig this strawberry chocolate brownie recipe.
I'm actually not much of a baker. ESPECIALLY a vegan baker. I'm learning a little bit every day though, and I've fallen in love with baking with Rhubarbaby. He helped me make these brownies and I could tell he was so proud of himself. ❤️ I really want to try making this vegan banana cake with him. Or maybe these vegan chocolate chip cookies.
This recipe comes to you courtesy of The Wicked Healthy Cookbook by Chad Sarno, Derek Sarno, and David Joachim. The dudes behind Wicked Healthy Food.
My first impression of this book: THE AWESOME COVER! Oh man, I love the red beet juice on the apron and how it looks like blood, but then says "FREE.FROM.ANIMALS" in red letters right there. So cool.
As I started to read the book and peruse the recipes, I have to admit, I was a little intimidated. A lot of the recipes seem very gourmet to me, and not something this mom of a toddler would actually make in her kitchen. But, when I got to the vegetable section I found myself wanting to make EVERYTHING.
Recipes I want to try: kale queso, all the loaded baked potato recipes, brussels nachos, stir-fried farro fawcett (ha!).
They all just sound so tasty, right?
I decided on these vegan brownies because I knew they were approachable enough for you, my readers, and they incorporated some summer berries in there. BOOYAH. Bullseye.
Here's a word from Chad, one of the authors, about these vegan brownies:
"My family loves chocolate. I made these brownies one night as a late-night snack, and they went crazy for them. We had some freeze-dried strawberries on hand, and with a sprinkle of flake salt on top, the combo just bowled them over. I mean, what's not to love.
I took a bit of a different route here and used fresh strawberries. I had them in the fridge, and I figured that fresh is always best, right?
I took the advice in the book about replacing the baking soda with baking powder for more of a cakey brownie, because I was worried about the water content in the fresh strawberries. Honestly, I wish I hadn't. I was craving melt in your hand, dense, fudginess. I should have just rolled with it.
The brownies still ended up amazing! I drizzled some chocolate syrup on the top for that extra extra chocolate-ness. SOOOOO GOOD!
How to make chocolate vegan brownies:
First, you will need to preheat your oven and prepare your dish. Then, make sure you get your flax egg going by mixing flax meal and water and letting it sit for a few minutes.
Combine your dry ingredients in a small bowl while the flax egg sets. Blend all the wet ingredients together with the flax egg and add more chocolate. Fold in the dry ingredients and the strawberries. Pour into your pan, top with salt, and bake.
Let sit for 45 minutes (whyyyyyyy??!! haha.) and you have made brownies!
Some notes about these chocolate vegan brownies:
- The original recipe calls for freeze dried strawberries, but I used fresh. Feel free to use either, they are both amazing!
- The recipe as written will create fudgy, dense brownies. I took the advice of the author and switched the baking soda for baking powder for more cake like brownies, as you can see in the photos. (see notes in recipe)
- The chocolate drizzle in the photos is not in the recipe. I just used pre-made chocolate syrup to drizzle on the brownies.
Chocolate fudge vegan brownies recipe! Made even sweeter with strawberries and sea salt. From The Wicked Healthy cookbook.
- 2 Tbsp golden flax meal
- 3 Tbsp water
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp plant based butter (sticks, not whipped margarine), melted
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup nondairy milk
- 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 4 oz dark chocolate bar, chopped or shaved
- 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
- 1/2 tsp flake salt, for finishing
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square nonstick pan with parchment paper or lightly coat with spray oil.
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Use a fork to stir the flax meal and water in the bowl of an electric mixer or in a mixing bowl, stirring well. Let sit for a few minutes so the flax can absorb the water and thicken up. The consistency will be similar to blended eggs.
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Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and sugar in a small bowl.
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To the mixing bowl with the flax, add the melted butter, almond butter, nondairy milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix on medium-low speed or stir by hand until thoroughly mixed. Stop the mixer, remove the bowl, and fold in the chopped chocolate. When mixed, fold in the four mixture and strawberries until the batter is smooth and thick.
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Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Tap the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles, then scatter the flake salt evenly over the top. Bake until the brownies just start to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted in the center comes out mostly clean but not quite, about 25 minutes.
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Let cool for at least 45 minutes if you can. Then cut into squares and serve.
These are dense, fudgy brownies. If you prefer more cake-like brownies, use about 1 tsp baking powder instead of the baking soda.
Serve with amaretto gelato and plant based whipped cream (both recipes in The Wicked Healthy Cookbook) for a wicked brownie sundae.
I hope you’ll give these strawberry chocolate vegan brownies a try! Snap a pic and give me a shout on social media #Rhubarbarians!
Trish
P.S. Want to see what I’m cooking up this week? Check out my Instagram stories! And don’t forget to join my FaceBook community of vegetarian cooks!
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