Vegan Peanut Butter Brownies

Whenever we have Solaris' extended family over, multiple food allergies must be taken into account for the menus.  We have his mother who is allergic to some type of beans, his older sister and uncle who are gluten intolerant, and then my own lactose intolerance too.  After a few years of this, the menu has become some what of a pattern - there are really only 2-3 different items and they just revolve as each year or so goes by.

Now as you'll probably have guessed by now, neither Solaris nor myself are ones for conformity or complacency. We love the tried-and-true comfort foods, but we also love to experiment and find new favorites. Fortunately for us (and our families), recently we found Emily Mainquist's Sweet Vegan and took this weekend as an opportunity to try out a recipe and see how it went.

The following is a slightly modified version of Emily's dairy-free, vegan brownies. These are NOT gluten free but can be made so with a flour substitution. Try them out - we're serious. They are absolutely gorgeous!

Vegan Peanut Butter Brownies

Serves 9-12

260 grams unbleached plain flour (or rice or spelt flour for Celiac sufferers)
340 grams unrefined cane sugar
25-50 grams cocoa powder (dependent on preference - 25 is a good base and 50 is quite strong)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
65 grams natural unsweetened peanut butter
90 grams dairy-free and gluten-free chocolate chips (or chopped bakers chocolate)



1. Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F and lightly grease a baking tin or line with bakers' parchment.

2. Combine flour, cane sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. (You may need to use a pastry cutter to work the sugar into the flour.) Add the water, oil, and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Pour into the pre-greased pan.

3. In a double boiler or glass bowl over a warm pan of water, melt the chocolate chips.

4. If you have an all natural, very runny peanut butter, spoon the peanut butter into each corner and the centre of the brownie mix.  If you have a thicker peanut butter, thoroughly mix it with the warm, melted chocolate, and pour it over the brownies.

5. Using a table knife or spatula, swirl the peanut butter into the brownie until the mixture has a marbled appearance. If you have used runnier peanut butter and still have the melted chocolate, drizzle this over the brownie mixture.

6. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out MOSTLY clean. Cool completely before cutting. This is a very moist brownie, so I'm afraid cutting it neatly it easier said than done!