Brownies!

Ten days ago Sarah posted a recipe for vegan brownies on her blog, What Smells So Good? Immediately I thought of what ingredients I had and what I needed. These were going to be made in my kitchen, no doubt.

I followed her recipe more or less. Below is her version with my modifications next to her ingredients:
*With my modifications, the nutritional information that she listed no longer applies.

High – Protein Vegan Brownies (AKA “Cadillac Brownies”)
Makes 24
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2.2 oz (10 tbsp) flour
2 oz (7 tbsp) soy flour [I used a blend of organic brown rice, soy, tapioca & arrowroot flours - it came pre-blended.]
6 tbsp unflavoured isolated soy protein powder [I used Ruth's hemp protein powder with flax and maca because I used up my rice protein powder last week and decided to give this one a shot again.]
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
¼ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 oz (12 tbsp) cocoa powder [I used raw cacao powder]
10 oz silken tofu
4.5 oz (2/3 cup) granulated sugar [I used organic cane sugar]
7 oz (1 2/3 cup) brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla [homemade, in my case]
1/4 cup canola oil [I used coconut oil because it's healthy & I thought that the flavour would work. After pouring my melted chocolate into the batter mixture I melted the oil in the still-warm metal bowl over the still-hot water, but with no additional heat.]
1/2 cup plain soy milk [I used almond, initially using only 1/4 cup - see notes immediately below.]
2 oz (5 tbsp) miniature chocolate chips
[I also added cacao nibs as well as instant dark coffee, dissolved in 1/4 cup water - hence 1/4 cup milk. You might have a better way to incorporate coffee, such as adding ground beans to the dry ingredients.]

1. Preheat oven to 350°F, grease a 9 x 13” pan and line the bottom with parchment.
2. In a small microwave safe bowl (or in a pot over medium-low heat), gently melt the chocolate (use no higher than MEDIUM power so chocolate won’t scorch). Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, isolated soy protein powder, flaxseed, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Set aside.
4. In a food processor puree tofu, granulated sugar and brown sugar until smooth.
5. Add melted chocolate, vanilla, canola oil, and soy milk to the processor and blend in well.
6. Add the dry mixture to the ingredients in the processor. Pulse in until just incorporated, do not allow processor to run continuously.
7. Add miniature chocolate chips and pulse in briefly, just to mix in.
8. Scrape into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.
9. Bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with moist crumbs (but not wet batter).
10. Cool completely in the pan before cutting and serving. Frost if desired.

Here’s what I changed about the method:
I don’t own a food processor so I used rotary beaters to cream the tofu and sugars. I added half the dry ingredients at a time, first beating with the beaters, then folding the second half with a wooden spoon. In the “olden days” they didn’t have food processors and stand mixers. When 25 minutes was up the batter still seemed raw (a knife came out with wet batter) so I put it back in for ten minutes.

What might have gone wrong:

• I fear that the hemp powder might make it taste kind of sandy. Maybe soy or rice would have been better choices.
• After plopping it into the pan I decided that the pan was too big and the batter too thick, so I transferred the mixture back into the bowl, added a few more splashes of milk and stirred after each addition, watching for consistency. Then I put it into my smaller cake pan (greasing another pan, cutting another square of parchment, dirtying another pan).

Smells awesome.

They will be tasted when cooled, this post will be updated*. Then the brownies will go to work and to one of the yoga studios.

I was tempted to make these gluten free but was afraid of doing too much experimenting. Without eggs it’s got one less thing to make it rise. It’s still got baking powder, but I suspect that it might still need the gluten. On the other hand, it would be a tasty experiment even if it ‘failed’.

Eat well, be well.

*update: They’re tasty with an intense chocolate taste, a bit crumbly but also dense. There’s something not “normal” about these and I suspect that it’s the hemp but maybe that’s all in my mind because that’s what I expected.

Update:
Now with photo. Ta dah! (I don’t excel at food photography. Perhaps I need a photographer houseboy/housegirl.)

Grover says hi.

That’s cinnamon on top.