7.30.2009

Vegan Brownies

Remember when there used to be a sense of regularity in my posting? I think summer laziness and regular life-ness seems to have kicked in.

We've hit some semblence of summer here in southeastern MA. Which means temps in the high 70s/low 80s with a bajillion percent humidity. And that for nearly every day there's a chance of "isolated thunderstorms". Jim Cantore, you're my favorite Weather Channel meterologist, but, really, I could use some change.

Speaking of change, what started out towards the end of last month as a general aversion to meat has evolved into a more vegetarian diet. Which both family and most of my friends think I'm crazy for. LOL What a big difference between CA and MA, right?

I found this recipe over at Vegetarian Times' website. I've made various vegan cupcakes before, but had yet to work with tofu. The recipe came together very quickly, which is good as I started making it 30 minutes before leaving to go see HP6 (again lol).

The end result? A very moist, very chocolate brownie with a spongey texture. My "public's" reactions have been varied. I'm the only one that thinks they're really chocolatey. My mom and Dave thinks they're more cake-like than brownie like. My dad will eat pretty much any brownie, so yay for him getting some soy protein. :) Of the three coworkers who tried them... one says too much like dark chocolate (she doesn't like dark chocolate), next said they were good, and the third loved it, giving it an A+. I think he just likes the fact that they're lower in calories, but hey, I gave him half the batch after he declared them delicious. :)

It was really hard to get a decent picture of these. It was cloudy on Sunday when I took the pictures, so natural light was not my friend then. Scarily enough, this picture is the best of the ones that were taken. lol



Ingredients:
2¼ cups natural cane sugar
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup soft tofu
3/4 cup chocolate soymilk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.

Combine applesauce, tofu, soymilk, and vanilla in food processor, and process until well blended. Add tofu mixture to dry ingredients, and mix well. Scrape batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 350F for 45 minutes, or until batter is set and top is dry. Cool in pan; cut into bars and serve.

3 comments:

CaSaundraLeigh said...

These sound good--although every type of brownie usually sounds good to me! :-)
Thanks for sharing!

Alisa said...

Yum, that's right,I never met a brownie that I didn't like...and this is interesting because of the tofu and soymilk added. - Alisa@Foodista

Peabody said...

I really only eat animal protien a few times a week, and it is usually fish. Though I have to make it for my hubby.
Though the PNW is very okay with veggie eaters. :)