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
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Balls
I thought vegan’s don’t drink milk… Is there a similarly good recipe you can recommend without milk? Thanks
She is a vegan so only uses almond milk, soy milk, or cashew milk here and in all her recipes that say “milk of choice,” or coconutmilk! I can personally vouch for Silk working in this particular recipe.
what is in the bobs gf flour? Is it a low carb flour? If it’s not, could you use almond or coconut flour in these?
ok IMPORTANT !! i ‘m making these right now and do not understand why sugar is used 2x ? I used turbinado for the 1./2 of the first part of sugar in the recipe then a little further down it says after the warning to only use xanthan if using Bob’s GF flour to add another 1/3 cup of sugar .. help it’s time to bake 🙂 thx i probably will not hear anything back in time so i will stir together the ingredients and then if it seems to need additional sugar, will add the other ~ thx
It’s important to use ALL of the sugar listed in the recipe.
This recipe is great! Nice cakey brownies.
Cause I switched to a lower carb, Raw Till 4 diet, I switched from flour, more to black beans, as the main ingredient.
No Guilt, Healthy Black Bean Brownies made in the food processor with no bowl required! Bake and slice into the most decadent, rich and fudge brownies
Lowfat, No sugar, Lower carb, High protein, Vegan.
Just 5 ingredients!
Recipe @
http://nynomads.com/2017/03/vegan-black-bean-brownies/
I want this recipe. Where’s it at?
What an amazing recipe! I left the brownies in the oven for an extra two minutes and they firmed up really well. I omitted the 1/3 cup of refined sugar/stevia. The brownies were sweet enough. The icing is delicious — I added a little more cocoa powder. The coconut oil was perfect!
My daughter will be taking a boxful for her friends tomorrow.
Thank you!
HI,
As a MAJOR chocolate lover, i’m sure you can relate. Was really looking forward to making this recipe and I had the ingredients on hand, almost out of the cocoa powder, but just enough. I printed the recipe and combined the first three ingredients only to realize, the PRINTING of the recipe MESSED UP the list of ingredients! Instead of a straight list, some ingredients were listed side-by-side. So I combined the milk, vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Now I am out of enough cocoa powder to try again. Just wanted you to know in case you are able to control how the ingredients appear in the print version.
Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the trouble. I’m getting it all on different lines and haven’t been able to recreate the issue, but we’re putting a ticket in with Katie’s web developer to look into it!
Substituted corn starch for potato starch, half the sugar for erythritol, chose full fat coconut milk for milk of choise so went with half the volume for oil, and my Gawd these are moist. I feel like I still could go with less oil. Thank you Katie!
The instructions talk about adding flax here but there is no flaxseed in the recipe. Also another person commented that she made the flax version. Where is the flaxseed in this recipe or where is the flax version? Thanks for getting back to me.
The peanut butter or cookie dough versions, both linked in this post, have flax.
I wonder why I did not get the same results. Mine turned out wet and fudgey but with no brownie/cakelike consistency at all. I used white flour, coconut oil, flaxmeal, and followed the recipe exactly…
Just put them in the fridge overnight, They firm up beautifully!
Hi Lindsey! I haven’t made this recipe yet, however after researching brownie consistency and types, I believe the coconut is at least partly to blame. Oils with high ratios of saturated fat and low ratios of unsaturated fats make for very fudgy brownies. Coconut oil has a ratio of 92%:8%; the highest saturated fat content of any vegan oil I’ve come across this far. For the plant milk, did you use full fat coconut milk, like the kind in a can or So Delicious Culinary carton? If so, that also would increase the saturated fat content and fudginess. Other plant milks like almond have less fat. This recipe seems like it is meant for fudgy brownies, rather than cakey/chewy brownies. Cakey brownies are made with oils that are about a 29%:71% ratio, according to America’s Test Kitchen. Next time, you could try using one part coconut oil and 2 parts grape seed oil, macadamia oil, or avocado oil. They are high in unsaturated fat. You could try omitting the coconut oil and use one of the other oils I mentioned, or a healthy vegetable oil. If you’re trying to use only coconut oil, try adding more flax and/or flour. Also, did you use real sugar? The darker and sticker the sugar, the more cakey the brownies will be. I hope this helps!
Brownies are my boyfriend’s all time favorite dessert, and after trying these, he told to me to ALWAYS use this recipe. I used canola oil, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, and stevia baking blend. Refrigerating over night is a great tip. Thank you!