Name: Vegan Chocolate Chunk Brownies & "Nutella" Fudge Frosting
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal; 1 1/2 cups sugar; 6 tablespoons vegan butter; 3/4 cup cocoa powder; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder; 3/4 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 3 tablespoons plant-based milk (any kind); 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar; 1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut butter (check ingredients if vegan); 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1/3 cup dairy free chocolate chunks; 1/3 cup chocolate hazelnut butter (check ingredients if vegan); 2 tablespoons vegan butter (melted); 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons almond milk; 1/8 teaspoon salt; 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar; 1/2 about 60g vegan "milk" chocolate, roughly chopped; 2 teaspoons vegan butter

You know how there’s like the good recipes and then there’s the great ones? Take these Vegan Chocolate Chunk Brownies for an example.

I think the distinguishing factor is whether or not the recipe gets remembered and requested again or if it quickly falls into that lonely pit of recipe oblivion and is just a one time thing. Obviously there are no hard fast rules here, and there is definitely plenty of grey area. In general if it doesn’t make an impression then it doesn’t make the favorites list and become an instant classic.

This post is all about Vegan Chocolate Chunk Brownies

I think you’ve probably all figured out by now that I have a problem leaving plain and simple alone. It’s pretty bad. I’m always wanting to add that one extra thing that takes food to the next level. I consider this somewhat irritating habit to be both a gift and a curse. When it comes into play it usually ends in (eh hem, if I do say so myself) works of utter and complete genius! ……..or, more often, in complete failure. Wah, wah, wah….

So in thinking about all of the recipes that I actually use all the time and trying to figure out which ones I’m missing, I realized that I have somehow never come up with an “it” brownie recipe. Yeah, I’ve made a ton of different kinds of brownies in the past. I’ve tried everything from mocha brownies to healthy ones with beans and avocados in them (which considering that, were shockingly good by the way), but I’ve never created that basic brownie to top all other brownies, you know? That’s what got me started on this search to find it. I’ve been making small batches of brownies for a few weeks now as a kind of side project and testing different tweaks after each one. Luckily for me, there’s a handful of people around at all times that are willing to help me out in testing them and then make it ridiculously easy to vanish the extras. Ha, imagine that, a few extra brownies disappearing without effort.

There will always be another twist to add, or tip to follow in the baking world and it seems like so many people are out there claiming to have the “best” brownie recipe ever. That’s what I don’t want to do I don’t want to ruin a good thing with such a cliché, but at this moment this is my new go-to brownie. The “nutella” frosting and chocolate drizzle are just a bonus because I was having fun accessorizing my brownies for you guys like a 6-year-old with a barbie doll. These brownies can hold their own perfectly fine as is.

If you’re here and you’ve been looking for the same thing, then let me tell you a few of the things that worked and didn’t work for me personally. [If you just came to drool over pictures of yummy chocolate, no problem. Please feel free to skip the rest ’cause I’m about to go all boring-baker-stuff on you.]

I browsed through so many different recipes to get inspiration but at the end of the day I just started comparing each batch to my last one, mad-scientist style, until I was happy with the result. Let’s break this down, a brownie is only a few simple ingredients but primarily you need; some form of fat, some form of sugar, and some form of chocolate, and usually eggs but not in vegan brownies ;P. Then there are the smaller things that can make a big difference like baking soda or powder, the ratios of all these things, and the order and technique for putting them together.

What oil do you use in Vegan Chocolate Chunk Brownies?

So on the fat, oil based brownies or ones with mixed fats can be really delish. However, I realized how much of a purist I am when I contrasted those to an all-butter brownie. There is just so much flavor when you stick with butter (pun unintended until after I typed it and LOL-ed). When it comes to the sugar, many people add all or partial brown sugar to their recipe. I do love the depth that it gives but I found that it results in a drier brownie and I think the texture outweighs the flavor here. I mean, fudginess is what this is all about right?

Okay, then the chocolate is where things tend to branch out a lot. Oh, and I forgot to mention that this is one of the critical points of what I wanted to do. I wanted to create the perfect brownie with only cocoa powder. There’s no doubt that melting good quality chocolate into your batter can make them amazing but I feel like it sort of defeats the purpose of making brownies from scratch. This doesn’t apply to the extra chunks though, those are a must people!

Then on the baking soda/powder, I tried different variations with each but my favorite textured attempts were when I left it out all together. Then you’ll need some flour to hold it all together, some vanilla because yum, and skipping salt is way out of the question. After that you can cram these full of as many chocolate chips as you think you can handle. Then the toppings are, like I said, optional.

Now then, when you get to actually making these you’ll want to melt your butter completely. It helps to mix it with the cocoa and the sugar. However, you don’t want to get it too hot or you’ll shock your sugar and seize up the cocoa. Just get it to melted temperature and you’re good. Once you mix in the other ingredients try not to stir too much. It messes with you end texture, you only want to stir the final batter until it’s smooth. Okay, and last but not least I should probably mention the pan size. The recipe is for a half-batch and works well in an 8×8 pan or, what I use, a 7×11 pan. The pictured bars were a double batch baked in a 13×9 because a half-batch just doesn’t cut it for my family.

Wow, that was a LOT of words to tell you about these brownies but I really want you guys to have success with these and experience the (okay, I’m gonna say it) “best” vegan brownies ever! Scratch that, I want you to experience the best brownies that you’ve ever made because that’s half the fun. K that’s it, so get baking!