Vanessa’s Valentine’s Brownies

This a take on the brownies that I use to win over colleagues, gift to friends for birthdays or have as a
dinner party dessert. As they have big chunks of chocolate in they can be served heated up which
melts all the chocolate – perfect to pair with banana or vanilla ice-cream.

Yum!
This recipe was actually originally a recipe from my pre-vegan days, made with dairy & eggs. However once I became vegan It became my mission to veganise all my favourite recipes, and this
is one of my best loved and most successful recipes!
Seriously- Everybody loves it!

Usually I make it with chopped walnuts instead of fruit but I wanted to do a special Valentine day treat with beautiful red features – a luxurious sharing melt-in the mouth gift for your loved one. However if you don’t like the idea of fruit in your
brownies, stick in a handful of chopped nuts instead of the dried raspberries.

So what magic do I use to make these brownies??

I learnt that one of the keys to keeping these gooey without eggs is to use a load of milled linseed.
This does have the effect of making the mixture look strange to begin with, but I promise, just mix it
all in well and it will work. Don’t be scared by the quantities. I make a variation of this pretty much weekly and it turns out perfectly every time!!

Any kind of sugar will do – standard caster sugar, or if you want a healthier version use coconut palm
sugar. Equally, with the oil, you can use what you have to hand e.g. rapseed oil, sunflower oil or even
coconut oil.

How you decorate is up to you – simple or more extravagant both taste delicious. You could just do a simple cocoa dusting, and top with some fresh raspberries (frozen raspberries also work well if you can’t get hold of fresh). Or you can melt a load of chocolate with non-dairy milk and spread it all over the brownies as a ganache, then top with raspberries. I hope you and your loved ones enjoy them…

I hope you love them as much as I do!

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Vanessa's Vegan Raspberry Brownies

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

35 mins

Total Time

45 mins

 

Gorgeously squishy brownies made with love and some tangy raspberries. All vegan, all delicious. 

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: baking, Vegan

Servings: 12 pieces

Author: Vanessa

Ingredients

• 250 ml vegetable oil
• 260 g caster sugar. 1.25 cups
• 200 g milled linseed
• 550 ml water
• 90 g cocoa powder extra for dusting, optional
• 180 g 1 2/3 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 30 g Freeze-dried raspberries
• 300 g dark vegan chocolate, chopped

For Decorating

• 300 g dark vegan chocolate (for the ganache topping)
• ½ cup non-dairy milk
• Fresh raspberries for decorating

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180⁰C. Line and grease standard brownie tin.
2. Mix together the oil and sugar, until the sugar is totally dissolved.
3. In a separate bowl mix the milled linseed and water, until it creates a jelly-like substance.
4. Add the linseed and water to the oil and sugar, and mix well.
5. Sift the cocoa powder, plain flour and baking powder and add to the sugar, oil and linseed mix. Mix all ingredients together well. Don’t worry if you still see bits of linseed after a very good mix – that’s normal and won’t show up when baked.
6. Add the chopped chocolate and raspberries and mix in. Pour into baking tin and make sure mixture is level.

7. Bake for 30-35minutes. They will be done when a skewer comes out clean (but of course the skewer may have melted chocolate on it).

8. Once baked, leave to cool in baking tin for 30 mins or a bit more. Then tip out on to a cooling rack.
9. Once fully cooled, cut into squares.
10. To decorate, melt chocolate with the non-dairy milk in a glass bowl, over water that has boiled. Put your gas on a very low heat, just for a minute or so, then switch off the heat and allow the chocolate and milk to melt from the heat of just the water (so it doesn’t split the milk). Once melted, spread on the brownies, allowing bits of the chocolate ganache to drip down the sides for added effect.

11. Top with raspberries once the ganache has cooled a little.

12. Or for more simple decoration, dust the brownies with cocoa powder, and perhaps top with a few raspberries.