These decadent, fudgy dark chocolate vegan brownies will quickly become your new favorite brownie recipe!
The best vegan brownies
You will love these decadent chocolate brownies, with no black beans, no tofu or dates, no butter or coconut flour, and no eggs.
I enjoy unusual ingredient brownies, and my Sweet Potato Brownies are super popular with readers. But sometimes you want a budget friendly, basic gooey brownie recipe with simple ingredients.
Sometimes you want a brownie recipe that doesn’t require ordering specialty ingredients on Amazon or making a trip out to Whole Foods.
And sometimes what you’re craving is the fudgy chocolate brownies you remember from childhood, just with better-for-you ingredients so you can indulge more often.
This is the ultimate best vegan brownie recipe for these occasions, with the stamp of approval from even hardcore carnivores!
Also make this Chocolate Mug Cake
Vegan brownie recipe video
Best brownie recipe I have ever made!!!
WENDY
*FEATURED READER COMMENT*
Can you make brownies without eggs?
The biggest challenge with vegan brownies is binding them together and adding moisture without the use of eggs or dairy.
Many of the vegan brownie recipes on the internet call for flax eggs, aquafaba, or ground chia seeds as an egg substitute. Others use silken tofu to add moisture.
These ingredients do work wonders in vegan baking, and I highly recommend you try them out sometime if you haven’t already. But not everyone has flaxmeal or chia seeds on hand when asked to make a last minute dessert for a party or for a vegan friend.
So today, I wanted to come up with a recipe that calls for only pantry staple ingredients and still yields chewy, moist, and sinfully rich chocolate brownies.
If you do feel adventurous, be sure to try my Black Bean Brownies.
They are the most popular gluten free and vegan recipe I’ve ever published, with over 3,000 reviews and 5 million shares across social media.
More vegan brownie recipes
Or if you want a decadent single serving chocolate brownie that can be made in the microwave in under five minutes, whip up this plant based Brownie in a Mug.
Can vegans eat brownies? As the above recipes prove, the answer is absolutely yes.
Dairy free chocolate brownie ingredients
The recipe calls for regular unsweetened cocoa powder, optional Dutch cocoa powder, flour, salt, water, sugar or unrefined coconut sugar, cornstarch, oil, baking powder, pure vanilla extract, and optional chocolate chips.
Cocoa powder – If you cannot find Dutch process cocoa, it is fine to use a full cup of regular unsweetened cocoa powder. However, for the most authentic boxed brownie flavor, I recommend including the Dutch cocoa if you can.
Flour – Spelt flour is my personal favorite for these vegan brownies. Gluten free or white all purpose flour or oat flour also work. Do not substitute coconut or almond flour here.
There is a sugar free and keto brownie recipe included in the recipe box below for those who wish to make paleo brownies with almond flour.
Oil – Vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or melted coconut oil are all good options for vegan baking. Substituting the oil with banana or applesauce is not recommended, because it will yield dense and gummy brownies that lack depth of flavor.
For oil free vegan brownies, make these Healthy Brownies
Topping ideas for vegan brownies
- The pictured brownies are topped with a scoop of Coconut Ice Cream.
- Or serve the chocolate fudge brownies plain or topped with sliced strawberries, cherries, or raspberry jam and Coconut Whipped Cream.
- You can also top them with store bought chocolate frosting (many brands are surprisingly vegan), plant based caramel, or Homemade Nutella.
- Finally, I love this easy chocolate ganache: 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or agave, and 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil, melted. Stir ingredients together to form a thin sauce. Spread over the brownies, and refrigerate or freeze 20 minutes to set.
How to make vegan brownies
Step one: Whisk the water, oil, and vanilla extract. If using flaxmeal, whisk it in as well. Set aside.
Step two: Preheat the oven to 330 degrees Fahrenheit, and grease a baking pan or line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. For thick brownies, use an eight inch pan. For thinner brownies, opt for a standard nine by thirteen inch baking pan.
Step three: In a large mixing bowl, stir all remaining ingredients very well. Then mix in the liquid ingredients to form a vegan brownie batter.
Step four: Use a spatula or spoon to smooth the chocolate batter into the prepared pan. Place the pan on the center rack of the oven, and bake for sixteen minutes. (Increase the cooking time to twenty four minutes for brownies in an eight inch pan.)
Step five: The vegan brownies should look under-baked when they come out of the oven. Let them cool, then refrigerate uncovered. They firm up after a few hours, and the flavor and texture are so much better the next day.
Step six: For freshness, store leftover brownies in the refrigerator, uncovered or very loosely covered the first night. Then fully cover the chocolate baked goods in an airtight container for up to four days.
You can also slice and freeze leftovers with a sheet of parchment paper in between layers of brownies so they do not stick together. Warm up or thaw before serving.
Vegan Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 cup water (240g)
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (15g)
- 2/3 cup oil (130g)
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (80g)
- 1 cup flour (120g) (spelt, white, all purpose gluten free, or oat flour. Or make flourless Keto Brownies)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (90g)
- 2/3 cup white sugar (135g)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch or ground flax seeds (16g)
- 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Whisk the first 3 ingredients, then set aside. (If using flax, whisk it in as well.) Preheat oven to 330F. Grease a 9×13 pan, or an 8×8 pan for thick brownies, or line with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, stir all remaining ingredients. Then stir in the liquid ingredients to form a brownie batter. Smooth evenly into the pan. Bake 18 minutes, or 24 minutes if using an 8×8 pan. The brownies should look underdone when they come out. Let cool, then refrigerate uncovered (or very loosely covered). They start to firm up after a few hours and are nice and sliceable by the next day. The brownies are richer and sweeter the next day as well. After the first day, refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to three months.If desired, top with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting or one of the vegan brownie topping ideas included above.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Easy Vegan Chocolate Recipes
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These seriously are the BESTt!! Have made several times. Thank you!
Thanks for this recipe. It looks great, and I am planning to make it. I have a couple of questions:
1. Are you saying to put the glaze on after the brownies are fully cooled?
2. One of the people who will be eating these is allergic to coconut. Can I make the frosting/glaze with plain ol’ vegetable oil?
Yes frost afterwards. We haven’t tried vegetable oil so can’t say, but you can simply frost them with melted chocolate chips if you’d prefer 🙂
I think 1 cup of cocoa powder was too much. The powder overflavoured sugar and mine were not sweet enough. Also I think it’s too much oil, I could taste it. Are the ingredients correct?
Hi! Ingredients are definitely correct because it already has over 200 reviews so there definitely isn’t a typo. But I’d love to help troubleshoot yours – what specific ingredients did you use? The more specifics you can give,the better.
I followed each measurement as instructed. I even used American cup size considering I live in the UK. Here are my ingredients:
Alpro soya milk unsweetened
Organic virgin coconut oil
Dr Oetker Madagascan vanilla extract
Allinsons Wholewheat flour
Organic cocoa powder (Real Food Source)
fine sea salt
½ cup Organic coconut palm sugar
⅓ cup pure cane caster sugar (Trade Aid)
Organic flaxseed powder/flaxmeal (Real Food Source)
My family and I had a bite and the rest ended up in the bin.
By the way, a cup of cocoa powder is around 120g, a cup of flour is 125g, the amount of sugar is not even a cup. Sorry but that’s not a correct ratio as cocoa powder has a very strong flavour. I used a different vegan brownies recipe after this disaster, used much less cocoa powder, more sugar, less oil and they’re great, neither astringent/bitter, nor too sweet.
Hi, I’m not sure why you would use 120g cocoa powder, because 1 cup of cocoa is only 80g. So yes, yours would definitely not taste right if you added more cocoa than is called for in the recipe.
And what cup exactly you mean? The US cup is 120g by any measurement concertino website, Canadian cup or metric cup are different sizes. I’ve just decided not to use American recipes as your cup measurements is not accurate. Metric or Imperial measurements are much easier to follow and digital kitchen scales don’t make me worried and waste ingredients.
I’m not sure what the website is that you’re referencing, but if you weigh 1 cup of cocoa powder, it will read 80g. Katie’s measurements are accurate, but of course you can choose to not make her recipes if you’d prefer a site that gives measurements in non-American terms. We use American cups and measurements because that is what Katie personally cooks with.
Can I make these into brownie cupcakes
So which is better– cornstarch or flax? Flax is healthier — I’d rather use it unless the cornstarch tastes better.
Honestly does not matter – they are just used to bind, so you shouldn’t taste either 🙂
I prepared using the exact recipe with gf flour. They are perfect! The best brownies I’ve ever had!
Tried these out last night and absoltely love them! I left them over night as recommended, and this morning ended up with lovely fudgey squares if brownie! They tasted very much like the sainsbury’s brownie bites in the cartons, great success and will be trying again 😀
I love that the ingredients were common!
Oh my… I made these last night, popped them in the fridge overnight, and this morning I had the tastiest brownies ever. Oh boy. I do love the rich cocoa-ness of them, and mine weren’t super sweet, so they’ll go nicely with a dollop of ice cream! 🙂 So easy to make, and so delicious – they won’t last long! Thank you for an amazing recipe! ♥
Thank you so much for trying them!
These came out really good as muffins! I used oat milk and cornstarch.
Hi!! What do you mean by ap gf flour?
Ap gf flour = All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour 😊