Hairy Bikers vegan brownies swap butter and eggs for plant milk, groundnut or walnut oil and ground flaxseed, with nut butter swirled through. And in Veggie Feasts, the recipe makes 12 in about 1 hour 40 minutes with cooling, at 365 calories each by my sums.
The pair promise these “still taste fantastic”, and call the nut butter swirl at the end “a great touch”. And 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed soaks in hot water for 5 minutes, doing the binding job eggs usually do.
Folding gently matters most, because overworking a flour batter makes brownies tough rather than tender. And the nut butter needs the same light hand, since they warn, “Don’t mix it up too much!”
Hairy Bikers Vegan Brownies Recipe
Description
A dark, cocoa-rich square dotted with chocolate chips and ribbons of nut butter, baked in a 20cm tin just until set. And they’re at their fudgiest after a few hours in the fridge.
Ingredients
For the brownies
Instructions
- Heat and line: Heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Then line a 20 x 20cm brownie tin with baking paper, or spray it with cake-release spray.
- Whisk the wet: Whisk the milk, oil and vanilla extract together in a bowl and set aside. Meanwhile, mix the ground flaxseed with the hot water and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
- Mix the dry: Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, both sugars and the salt together in a separate bowl.
- Combine: Beat the flaxseed mixture into the wet ingredients, then add the dry ingredients and fold them in as gently as you can. Then stir in the chocolate chips.
- Swirl in the nut butter: Scrape the mixture into the tin and dot spoonfuls of nut butter all over. Then swirl it through with the tip of a knife, without mixing it in too much.
- Bake: Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the brownies have just set.
- Cool and cut: Leave to cool completely in the tin, then cut into 12 squares. And for extra fudgy brownies, chill the squares in the fridge for several hours, or otherwise keep them in an airtight container.
FAQs
Which nut butter works best?
Peanut butter is their pick, though almond or hazelnut are both fine too. And I’d choose a smooth, runny jar, because it drops off the spoon and swirls more easily than a stiff one.
But these aren’t for peanut or tree-nut allergies, since groundnut oil is peanut oil, walnut is a tree nut, and so is the nut butter.
Which plant milk and oil should I use?
Any plant-based milk works, so use whatever you have, from oat to soya. And the oil is groundnut or walnut, though for a nut-free oil I’d use sunflower, which is my swap rather than theirs.
And their banana bread from One Pot Wonders also uses oil instead of butter, though that loaf still has two eggs.
Are they as fudgy as brownies made with butter?
Not quite, by my reading, since there’s no butter or melted chocolate to make them dense. Though the pair reckon these are the best vegan brownies they’ve tasted. And their Biker brownies with hazelnuts get their fudge from 250g of butter, four eggs and melted dark chocolate.
Are vegan brownies lower in calories?
Yes, by about 140 calories a square, since their Biker brownies come to roughly 505 each by my sums. But these come from a smaller 20cm tin, so each square is smaller too. And 150ml of oil and 100g of nut butter still go in, so they’re a treat rather than a diet bake.
Are all the ingredients vegan?
Check the labels, because some dark chocolate chips contain milk, some nut butters add honey and some cake-release sprays aren’t vegan. So buy chips marked vegan, as the recipe asks, and a nut butter that’s just nuts and salt.
And from the same book, they make a vegan Christmas cake and a vegan chocolate mousse too. But their black bean veggie burgers aren’t vegan, because an egg binds them and the sauce uses mayonnaise.
