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How to Make the Best Tasting Vegetarian Chocolate Brownies
Vegetarian Chocolate Brownies.
Perfect Chocolate Brownies.
Vegetarian Chocolate Brownies.
Vegetarian chocolate brownies are, in my opinion, the food of the gods, I can't get enough of them. This is just about the best recipe for brownies I have ever tried and believe me I've tried more than my fair share of brownie recipes over the years. These little cakes are soft, chewy and so moist you can almost drink them! I always make a huge batch of them and store some in an airtight tin, where I believe they will keep for two or three days. I can’t swear to this because in our house they don’t last more than a day.
They make a great gift too, put them into some pretty, small cake cases, fill a food bag and tie it up with a pretty ribbon. These brownies taste great warm served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a large dollop of cream. Dark chocolate is supposed to be good for you too, it's anti ageing and can help to lower blood pressure. It tastes better than milk chocolate too, in my opinion, it is richer with a slightly bitter taste that offsets the sickly sweet taste that milk chocolate often has. So you can fool yourself that you are doing your body good by eating a plate full of these great little treats, (and it might actually be true).
Homemade brownies work out a whole lot cheaper than the shop bought variety, I can make a large batch for about the same price as a couple of them purchased from the local supermarket. Saving money is always a good thing in my book and times are hard, so every penny saved is a real bonus. Why miss out on the finer things in life just because money is a little scarce at the moment? Just put on your apron and get baking.
This recipe is easy enough for children to make with a little bit of help from an adult. If you are making them with children in mind then it is possible to replace the rum or brandy with orange juice. I would add a small amount of orange zest too, they taste just as good made this way, the orange zest gives the brownies a lift and seem to make them just that little bit lighter tasting.
Melting Chocolate.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 4oz vegetarian dark chocolate
- 4oz walnuts, chopped
- 4oz prunes or dates, pitted
- 8oz butter, softened
- 4 large free range eggs
- 16oz soft brown sugar
- 4oz plain flour
- 2tsp baking powder
- 4floz brandy or rum, essence if making for children
- 1tsp vanilla paste or essence
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Put the brandy or rum into a small saucepan and heat through slowly.
- Chop up the prunes or dates into small diced pieces.
- Take the brandy or rum off the heat and add the chopped fruit and the vanilla essence. I always try to use the best quality vanilla essence I can afford as it really does make a huge difference to the taste.
- Preheat the oven to 180c and grease a deep baking tin, you can also line the bottom of the tin with baking paper to make it easier to remove the brownies once they are cooled.
- Chop the walnuts into bite-size pieces and spread them out onto a flat baking sheet, put the sheet into the oven and toast the walnuts for about ten minutes. This really brings out the flavour of the nuts and gives your brownies a nice well-rounded taste.
- Put the butter and the chocolate into a large glass bowl and heat for thirty seconds at a time in the microwave, take it out each time and give it a quick stir. Repeat this action until the chocolate mixture is smooth and there are no lumps in it. You can melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water if you prefer or you don’t have a microwave, as with the microwave method stir every thirty seconds and wait until it is completely smooth before removing from the heat.
- Stir in all of the other ingredients and beat well until combined. Pour this mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for forty minutes.
- The brownies are done when the top springs back if you gently push your finger into it. It should look a little bit crusty on the top and it might crack a little, don’t panic it’s fine.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for fifteen minutes before cutting into squares and putting the squares on a wire rack to finish cooling.
- You can also melt a little extra chocolate and spread it over the top of the brownies to form a hard topping. I have used white chocolate for this and they look really good, or you can simply dust them with a little icing sugar or superfine sugar.
LEFTOVERS?
WHAT TO DO WITH ANY LEFTOVER BROWNIES.
If you have any leftover brownies after a few days they can be used up by turning them into a great tasting crumble mixture. Simply crumble the brownies over some poached pears, apples or any cooked fruit, sprinkle with a little caster sugar and pop into a warm oven for a few minutes. This goes really well with chocolate ice cream or a chocolate flavoured custard, or just pour over some cream. This crumble mixture can also be frozen to use at a later date, you don't even need to defrost it, as it can also be used as a crumb topping for ice cream.
© 2010 Galaxy Harvey
