Vegan brookies
Vegan brookies
How do you guys feel about ‘brookies’? I know, when I first heard about them I was a bit like ‘what?!?!’, but after a very mindful sampling 😉 , I’m totally in.
If brownies and cookies were to fall in love and walk off into the sunset together, their passion would most likely result in a brood of brookies.
Vegan brookies look like a cookie yet they taste like a brownie. Crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside and screaming ‘chocolate’. Sounds great, right?
They come in handy when you crave something intensely chocolatey but don’t want to commit to making a whole tray of brownies. And no, just because they are slightly less evil, doesn’t mean they are good for you. They are not healthy and are pretty much guaranteed to wreck whatever diet you are on, but who cares when they taste that good, right!? 😉
- 130 g / 4.5 oz dark chocolate (I used 70% cacao)
- 1 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 45 g / scant ½ cup hazelnuts*, ground finely (½ cup hazelnut flour)
- 30 g / ¼ cup buckwheat flour
- 15 g / 2 tbsp cornflour / cornstarch
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp / 90 ml aquafaba
- 90 g / 3/8 cup caster sugar
- chopped hazelnuts, for decoration (optional)
- Break up chocolate with your hands – or hit an unopened packet against your workbench a few times for a sort of therapy 😉 . Place chocolate and coconut oil in a glass bowl over a water bath (bain-marie). Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Simmer on a very low heat until the chocolate has melted. Give the mixture a good stir and take the bowl off the heat to cool down.
- Place ground hazelnuts, cornflour / cornstarch, buckwheat flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Mix very well.
- Pre-heat the oven to 175° C / 345° F. Line a baking tray with a piece of baking paper.
- In a clean metal or glass bowl whip aquafaba until you get stiff peaks. It is very important that the bowl has no grease residue as this will prevent the aquafaba from reaching stiff peaks. Once the aquafaba is at the stiff peaks stage (turn the bowl upside down, if aquafaba does not slide down at all, it means that it has reached stiff peaks) start adding sugar very gradually, half a tablespoon at the time, whipping well after each addition.
- Gradually (and gently so that you don’t knock too much air out of the whipped aquafaba) fold flour and baking powder mixture into whipped aquafaba with a spatula or a spoon.
- Next, incorporate melted chocolate slowly until you achieve an even looking batter.
- Spoon the batter onto the prepared baking tray. I went for 9 large cookies, but you can make 12 smaller ones instead. Decorate the tops with chopped hazelnuts (if using) or sprinkle with some salt.
- Bake for about 10 (smaller ones) to 12 minutes (larger ones). Remove the tray from the oven and allow the cookies to cool down completely before eating (they may be a little fragile until they are cool). Your cookies will end up with lots of little cracks on the surface (like you get on top of a brownie). Mine didn’t as I accidentally used too little sugar for the photographed batch.
Thank you for your comment and your kind words about my recipes. I'm sorry that the words I use upset you and brought back painful memories - this was obviously not my intention at all. While I come up and publish recipes online for everyone to use, I am just another human reared in this toxic culture that imposes certain look, body shape expectations, on females especially, from an early age so I am certainly not free from food-related issues and that's probably what comes through in my writing sometimes. I do believe that certain foods are healthier, better for our bodies than others but I also recognise that sometimes we, humans, eat for pleasure and not just nutrition and that's ok too. I try to strike a balance between the two but as I often have a plethora of dessert test bakes around me, I don't always succeed and I get frustrated with myself. Also, some of the things I write like 'the cookies being evil' are obviously meant as tongue in cheek. I will try to pay more attention to the wording, but at the same time the write up is a form of personal expression and I don't want to pretend I am someone I am not. Hope this makes sense. Ania
I'll be honest, I'm not sure - from memory coconut sugar behaves a little bit different during baking (which may mean you won't get crispy tops) although I haven’t used it in a while as it’s insanely expensive here. Perhaps worth trying on a smaller (1/2) batch? Hope it works, Ania!
thanks !
your blog is such an inspiration & it makes my plant-based lifestyle even better, thanks a million x
thank you, they look fabulous !
I just made these brookies and they are delicious!!
Thank you for this amazing recipe :)
I want to use these for a catering (OF COURSE MAKING SURE YOU GET THE CREDIT!!! HOPEFULLY TAKING A FEW SNAPS AS WELL!), but I am not allowed to have *A N Y* nuts at the location!
Maybe pulverized sunflower seeds? Would you/have you substituted gluten free all purpose flour (rice base, not dried bean base)?
Thanks So Much!
Thank you, I'm pleased to hear that you like these. I haven't tried using a gluten-free flour mix, but I'm pretty sure it will work (although I would avoid the mixes that feature xantham gum). As for hazelnut meal substitution, I would perhaps try ground pumpkin or hemp seeds. Sunflowers seeds should work too. Or you could maybe swap hazelnut meal for brown rice flour. Hope that helps! Ania
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed these! As for your question, I am a bit puzzled as chickpea water / liquid IS the same thing as aquafaba - so not sure how to interpret what you said above. When it comes to the spreading issue, the only thing I can think of is that your aquafaba wasn't maybe whipped enough (was it definitely at stiff peaks?) or did you use caster sugar or have you made any substitutions at all? Ania
90 ml of aquafaba sounds spot on and yes, it does expand a lot in volume once whipped so that sounds all fine and as it should be. Hmm, if aquafaba was stiff and you used regular sugar (as opposed to coconut sugar or liquid sweetener, like maple syrup) then it should not really matter either. So sorry but I really don't know why they spread more than mine :( Ania
Have a good day :)
Chocolate and carob are two very different ingredients and so they will behave differently, I imagine. I have made these cookies many times (with chocolate) and never had any problems so I would say that carob is the reason why they turned into liquid during baking.
Ania
I haven't tried but it should work fine, no problem. Just make sure you replace both buckwheat flour AND corn strach with all purpose flour. Good luck! Ania
Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Always a big hit at the events i bring them to :)
I use sweetener so that'll be why they didn't go crispy :)
Making second batch as we speak :)
That explains why, sweeteners behave very differently to sugar during baking. As for the flours, fold them in gently (as per photo in the post) so that you don't knock out too much air from the whipped aquafaba. Good luck!
If said egg replacer can produce stiff peaks like whipped aquafaba then sure, otherwise I don't think it will work. Hope that helps! Ania
Can I use anything else than buckwheat as it's not easily available in city where I live
You could simply get raw buckwheat groats and mill them in a coffee grinder. Failing that you could probably another type of gluten-free flour instead. Good luck and please let me know how this swap has turned out! x Ania
I hope this helps!
I am totally using this recipe next time I get chocolate!