brownies

24 servings — 40 minutes

To make great brownies, you need to pay a special attention to how you treat the eggs and sugar. These two ingredients need good whipping to add heft to the batter.

How do you know you've got the whipping right? If you lift your whisk after mixing, the eggs will dribble in thick ribbons which hold their shape on top of the batter for a few seconds. This is what bakers call the ribbon stage. This ability of eggs to swell is the basis of great pastries and desserts, for leavening they don't need baking powder or baking soda and instead rely on the air held in place by the whipped eggs.

These properties aren't unique to chicken eggs. It's possible to get good ribboning with both flax seeds and aquafaba (liquid from chickpeas), but aquafaba yields better results in baking.

Substitutions

Fat : Use 90 ml of canola oil instead of vegan butter. To make your own vegan butter, look for the recipe in The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner. It's possible to use less fat, but you can only substitute half the amount of fat before it affects the texture. For example, you can use 45 ml (1/8th cup) of vegetable oil (canola, sunflower) with 60 g (45 ml) of pumpkin puree.

Chocolate : Use unsweetened cocoa powder instead of bar chocolate, for every 30 g (1 oz) of chocolate add 15 g (3 tbsp) of cocoa powder plus 15 g (1 tbsp) of vegan butter.

Tip : To prevent burning the bottom of your brownies, place the pan on a preheated cookie sheet. Brownie tips courtesy of the kitchen project

vegan butter113 g
dark chocolate250 g
aquafaba135 ml
water135 ml
natural brown sugar75 g
granulated sugar100 g
salt1.25 g
all purpose flour120 g

Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 °F).
Combine 113 g (1/2 cup vegan butter) (or 90 ml of canola oil) and 250 g of coarsely chopped unsweetened chocolate (can use sweeter varieties if you don't like bitter chocolate) in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. If you're an experienced baker, you can place the butter and chocolate directly in a saucepan over a low flame. Be sure to stir the mixture constantly. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and let cool.
Whip 135 ml (9 tbsp) of aquafaba (see how to make aquafaba), 75 g (5 tbsp) of natural brown sugar, 100 g (1/2 cup) of granulated sugar and 1.25 g (1/4 tsp) of salt using an electric mixer on high speed, until tripled in size, 4-5 minutes. When you lift the whisk, the mixture should fall back on itself in thick ribbons and dissipate. It's possible to whip with a whisk, but it requires more energy.
Add a third of the aquafaba egg mixture into the chocolate and stir to combine. Fold in the rest of the aquafaba egg mixture in two batches. Sift in 120 g (1 cup) of all purpose flour in three parts, gently folding with spatula after each part.
Pour into a greased 8X8 baking dish. To improve the flavor of the brownies, place the unbaked batter in the refrigerator overnight (or a few hours). If you don't want to wait, place the baking dish in the oven and bake for ~20-25 minutes. Rotate the baking dish halfway through. Cook longer if using vegan butter. To check if it's ready, insert a toothpick into the center, if it comes out with a few moist crumbs attached to it, it's ready. Remove from the oven and let cool. Cut in 24 small squares.