Homemade Chocolate Brownies… mmm.
Jump to Chocolate Brownies Recipe.
Even though reducing our consumption of chocolate and sugar probably ought to be a priority for anyone wishing to have the least negative impact on their planet and body. Let’s be real, sometimes you just need to indulge and I’m not here to judge…
Let me paraphrase an eccentric sport and health coach who once said,
“Better a happy [Chocolate brownie] than a sad salad”.
So with that in mind, should one absolutely must… It’s much better for all involved to handmake these Chocolate Brownies from whole, fair and organic ingredients. That way, you have more control over the quality and quantities. Rather than buying dodgy mass-produced, mystery flavour-packs of pre-fabricated, questionable and chemically-laden products made by these faceless corporations, machines and robots that certainly don’t care about the planet or your well-being. No matter how many green and ‘nice’ keywords words figure on the packaging, homemade – with love by real people is always best.
Suitable for most diets and food restrictions, I adapted this quick and easy vegan, gluten-free recipe for a pan-full of gooey Chocolate Brownies from this French plant-based patisserie blog Perle En Sucre.
For my part, I’ve reduced the sugar content. Sometimes I go even lower than the recipe below but it makes it very rich and some don’t like that dark-chocolate deepness too much. I also played around with the types and blend of gluten-free flours until I found my favourite composition for the Chocolate Brownies recipe.
Please note – all ovens are different and you may need to adapt the cooking time and/ or temperature to suit yours.
Also worth noting – respect the measurements and times. Any changed parameter, no matter how seemingly insignificant, can wreak havoc on the results of a recipe.
Thankfully this recipe is quite forgiving!
However, I urge you to bear the above in mind when making changes and specifically when using anything other than the recommended rectangular dish (approx. 25 x 15 cm).
Using metals, glass, ceramic, silicone and even different shapes of cooking dishes will all affect the outcome. Consider your materials and modify accordingly – FYI my dish is ceramic (approx. 20 x 30 cm), which means I have a slightly flatter brownie, but IDC.
After moving and having different ovens over the years, with some tweaking, I’ve found this recipe to be pretty much a fail-safe go-to for Wheat and Gluten-Free, Non-Dairy, Plant-Based, No Eggs aka Vegan, EASY and FAST, tasty homemade Choccie Brownies that I hope you enjoy as much as we do.
Fast & Easy Chocolate Brownies Recipe
Chocolate Brownies Ingredients
(All organic, fair-trade as a minimum)
- 200 g of best-quality dark/ dessert chocolate (Depending on taste/diet preference but if the people you are making for are not vegan and prefer ‘milk’ chocolate then opt for 65% cacao content max.)
- 50 ml of cold-pressed, coconut oil
- 180 ml of sugar-free, no-added-flavourings oat milk (Bonus points if you make your own with time, oats and water, I don’t currently as the brand I can get is simple on the ingredients.)
- 80 g of unrefined sugar (Any brown sugar NOT white, the rich taste profile is essential.)
- 2 pinches of unrefined sea salt (Any grey, pink or ‘real’ salt NOT table salt EVER.)
- 80 g of oat flour (Finely ground is best.)
- 50 g of corn flour (The yellowly whole corn milled into flour stuff.)
- 30 g of cornstarch (The white stuff they call cornflour in the UK.)
Optional Ingredients
You can leave these out but I don’t, adding them gives the chocolate brownie that lil’ suttin’suttin’ extra.
- 2 tbsp of Maple syrup (If adding, must be Maple and NOT ‘Golden syrup’, again for rich taste profile reasons.)
- Dash of Cayenne pepper powder (Steady on with the dash or it will be a sinus-clearing brownie.)
- 80-100g Optional extras (Can be customised with any extras to suit your tastes. Think nuts, seeds, dried fruit, chocolate chunks etc. – Generally, if I can be bothered to shell them, I use locally sourced walnuts but often skip this because I’m lazy and enjoy it “plain” so much. )
Method
- Prepare all ingredients you will use and the baking dish with baking paper, and set to a side for later.
- Preheat the oven to 180-220°C – depending on whether it is a “good” oven or not! (Go with lower if you are unsure; better a gooey, underdone Chocolate Brownie than a dry, crumbly biscuit in a pan.)
- Using a bain-marie, melt the broken chocolate pieces together with the coconut oil and oat milk, add the sea salt and mix with a spoon to blend it all together.
- Remove the pan from heat and carefully remove the glass bowl from the pan onto a tea towel, allowing to dry any droplets under the bowl.
- OPTIONAL: Add Maple syrup and Cayenne pepper to the mix now, if using.
- Add sugar and mix with a spoon until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl mix together the three different types of flour until uniform.
- Add the flour mixture to the melted chocolate mixture and mix until there are no lumps. The consistency should be smooth-ish, thick yet runny.
- Pour the brownie mix into the prepared baking dish and cook in the preheated oven for 15-25 minutes – after 15 minutes check with a skewer or knife at 5-minute intervals, ’tis ready when the poking device comes out clean.
- Allow the dish to cool and the Chocolate Brownie to firm up at room temperature before serving. If you prefer a ‘set’ consistency then allow to cool completely and refrigerate lightly prior to serving.
Put any leftovers into an airtight container in the fridge. If you manage to resist they would probably keep for up to a week. The longer it is left to refrigerate the firmer it will become. Remember to take it out 30 minutes to an hour before serving if you want to avoid this.
Troubleshooting: Read everything on this entire page again carefully and make sure you’ve not missed anything. If you are still struggling, then get in touch.
Please do feel free to share any modifications and tips you’ve found useful/love in the comments below.
Tag me in your pictures @thesortinghouse or send them in a PM if you try this Chocolate Brownie recipe yourself!