The Real Deal Vegan Brownies

Must haves of the perfect Brownie

Brownies without any egg, butter and milk? Hell yes! 😍 And they are super easy to prepare and really delicious. In my opinion, they’re the tastiest ever. And best of all, they’re homemade! The basic ingredient and therefore the secret behind the fluffy consistency is, once again, the super food sweet potato.

I’ve often been asked for this recipe by friends and colleagues, and if you know me, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a wrist by pi kind of chef. So there was never really anything like a recipe. That’s why the brownies always taste slightly different and the ingredients vary depending on what I have in the house and what I’m in the mood for. However, I did some weighing up for the last batch of my brownies and put together a list. The recipe and the list of ingredients should serve as a basis from which you can deviate and try things out as the mood takes you.

Ingredients for a container of 15cm x 30cm

– 1 large Sweet potato (approx. 350g)
– 180g Flour of your choice (I’m using spelt flour)
– 50g Cacao powder (I’m using oilless cacao powder von Rapunzel)
– 90g Sugar of your choice (I’m using “Rohrohrzucker” or “Coconut Sugar”; please adjust the amount of sugar to your liking and depending on the sugar you are using – I don’t like my Brownies to be too sweet)
– 120g Nuts of your choice (I’m using Pekan- and/or Walnuts)
– 1/2 package of Reinweinstein-Baking powder
– 100ml Oat milk or another plant based milk of you choice (make sure to adjust the sugar amount, if you are using sweetened milk)
– zwei pinces of Salt
– some Coconutoil to grease the form

Preparation:

• Wash and skin the sweet potato and cut it in small equally sized pieces.
• Bring half a litre of water to a boil and cook the sweet potato for approx. 15 mins. You should be able to pierce it easily with a fork.
• Drain the sweet potato in a sieve and leave to cool slightly. Then mash them with a fork to a puree, just like my sweet potato gnocchi. The finer your mash, the fewer pieces you will have in your brownies. Be patient. 😉
• Now add the oat milk and mix everything well.
• Weigh out the flour, cocoa powder/chocolate and sugar and mix everything with the baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
• Now add the sweet potato and milk mixture and mix all the ingredients together.
• Roughly chop the nuts on a board and (pro tip) roast them briefly in a frying pan without fat on a high heat. Make sure they don’t burn. When they smell nice and turn slightly brown, add them to your batter and mix well again.

Walnuts have healing powers. They reduce stress and improve our brains’ performance (I always remind myself that they look like little brains 😊). They can also lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease and are even said to protect us from diabetes.

Pecannuts also belong to the walnut family and are not only extremely tasty, but also very healthy. They contain unsaturated fatty acids and, therefore, trend to strengthen the cardiovascular system. Like all nuts, pecan nuts contain many minerals and trace elements and (naturally) vegetable calcium and therefore have a favourable effect on our bone structure.

• Now preheat the oven to 180 degrees and prepare the tin. Grab a brush grease the tin well with coconut oil. I always use coconut oil from Alnatura, which has a subtle coconut flavour and goes wonderfully with the brownies.
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake the brownies in the oven for about 40 minutes. When you take them out, they should still be soft inside.
• Leave the brownies to cool slightly for 10 minutes and cut them into squares. My tin makes 15 large brownies.
• Pro tip: Cover the Brownies and leave them in the fridge overnight.

Now you have a solid basic recipe for really tasty vegan Brownies. Please comment on this post if you have already experimented with the recipe yourself and what your must-have ingredient is. Here are a few tips on what else you could add to your Brownies: coconut flakes, vanilla, chia seeds, grated orange zest, etc.
Happy Cooking! 💛