Eggless Brownies from a Box

Baking without egg does not necessarily require baking from scratch.

These are my favorite two ways to make eggless brownies from a boxed brownie mix.

(1) Take a can of black beans. Drain and rinse the beans. Return the beans to the can and fill the can to the top with water. Puree the beans and water in a food processor until very smooth. Add the bean puree to the brownie mix and stir to combine well. Bake according to package directions. You may need to add just a couple of minutes if your oven is fussy like mine. This version is dense enough to stand up to some mix-ins like chocolate chips, orange zest, chopped cystallized ginger or nuts.

(2) Instead of bean puree use 1 Cup of sour cream and an extra teaspoon of baking powder. This makes a slightly more delicate brownie that doesn't stand up quite as well to mix-ins, but my spouse prefers the texture and flavor over the bean version. Maybe I am just a hog for chocolate, but I like them equally well.

Mocha Brownies

This recipe is based on the Espresso Fudge Brownies recipe in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. The brownies really are fudge-y. They can stand up to some mix ins like orange zest or chocolate chips or pieces of walnut. But they don't need it. They are good on their own.

Rich Mocha Brownies

3 ounces of semi sweet chocolate chips (or chop up a bar of baking chocolate)

5 Tablespoons butter 

2/3 Cup sugar

1/3 C milk

1 Tablespoon corn starch

3 teaspoons espresso powder (use decaf if you want to share with children)

1 teaspoon vanilla

just over 3/4 Cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3 Tablespoons cocoa powder

Before you begin: Preheat your over. Line a baking pan with foil and spritz with oil.

Microwave the chocolate and butter in a large bowl at low power for 2 minutes or until you can stir the chocolate into the butter. Stir until smooth. Add sugar. Stir again.

Use a large measuring cup to whisk together the milk, cornstarch, espresso powder and vanilla. It will get a little foamy. Stir that liquid into the chocolate and combine well.

Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients. Pouring them in through a fine seive and tapping the dry ingredients through works well. Mix until it's all moist and a few small lumps are OK.

Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth it as much as you can. It will be thick.

Bake 22 - 24 minutes. You don't need it to be crumbless, just not gooey any more.

Cool on a wire rack. You can break into it after 30 minutes, but it is better if you wait.

Bite Sized Brownies - Vegan and Gluten Free

Mistakes were made. I won't go into gory details of my early attempts to bake brownies with oat flour and palm oil back when we were also avoiding dairy and wheat and I hadn't gotten a good feel for eggless baking.

These tasty little bite sized brownies which I found in the recipe section of the website for the Enjoy Life brand were the first vegan gluten free chocolate dessert that I could consistently make successfully.

They call them Choco-Loco Bites. I call them delicious.

Brownie Bites

What you need:
   1/2 Cup applesauce
   1/3 Cup water
   1/3 Cup canola or other neutral oil
   1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
   3/4 Cup cocoa powder
   1 Cup sugar
   1 and 1/3 Cups rice flour
   1 teaspoon baking powder
   1 and 1/2 Cups Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips
   Mini-muffin tin

Ingredient Note: In addition to being free of gluten and Top 8 allergens, Enjoy Life brand chips are also smaller than standard semi-sweet chips and the small size works particularly well in this recipe. If you don't have them but you do have other safe chips, use those.

Equipment Note: If you don't have a mini-muffin tin you can use a larger muffin tin by only filling 24 cups part way. Obviously, these will be a different shape. But they will still be good. 

What to do:
   Preheat your over to 350.
   Beat together the wet ingredients.
   Beat in the sugar and cocoa.
   Stir in the flour and baking powder.
   Stir in the chips.
   Spoon into greased mini muffin tins (24 mini muffins worth)
   Bake for about 25 minutes until firming at edges.
   Let cool completely before removing from the tin.