Vegan Brownies

A colleague who's allergic to everything under the sun shared this vegan brownie recipe with me. Egg-free, wheat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, yeast-free. And still pretty tasty!

I used Carob instead of cocoa, xylitol instead of sugar, and brown rice flour instead of all-purpose flour.

The final brownie loaf looked like this:



But then I thought I'd try and do another icing on the top - and found a recipe for vegan ganache. Warning: this ganache was CRAP. Maybe it's coz I couldn't find bittersweet chocolate and used Nestle's Milk Chocolate for Moulding & Baking (OK, this was the only thing in the brownie that's not sugar-free and vegan friendly, but it's only in the ganache!)


Boiling the soy milk for the ganache:


Firstly, the ganache was a really runny texture:


And secondly, it came out very runny and tasting kinda crap (but this could be because Nestle Moulding chocolate is probably crap quality.)
It also wouldn't harden again, even after cooling down:


It's a pretty tasty brownie block, but next time I'm gonna use 100% cocoa instead of carob. I'm sick of the taste of carob already.




VEGAN CHOCOLATE BROWNIES:
* 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used brown rice flour)
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup xylitol since carob powder is sweeter than cocoa)
* 1/2 cup + 1Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used 1 cup carob powder)
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk or soy milk (I used 1/2 cup soy milk since I used more carob powder)
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350F or 175C.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla. Mix dry & wet together until well blended.
4. Spread evenly in a 9x13 inch baking pan.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.
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CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
* 1/3 cup soymilk
* 4 oz (or 114gm) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
* 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Directions:
In a small sauce pan, bring the soy milk to a light boil.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate and syrup.

Mix with a rubber spatula, continue stirring until the chocolate is fully melted and the icing is smooth.