Vegan Cookie Brownies

 

Any friend of mine, coworker, family member, hell anyone I’ve met on the street has had these cookie brownies. They have always been my default “hey can you bake something” food. They are a bit more fun than a normal brownie and will definitely quench any chocolate craving.

Brownies

    

 Ingredients  

-1 cup water

-3/4 cup oil

-3 cups flour

-3 cups sugar

-3 cups ground flax seed

-1 cup cocoa powder

-1 tsp salt

 

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.

2. Start by adding the water and oil into a bowl.
3. Slowly add in all other dry ingredients and mix well.

 

Cookies

 

 Ingredients 

-1 cup margarine
-3/4 cup sugar
-3/4 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup apple sauce
-1 tsp baking powder (when using apple sauce as an egg replacement you need to account for 1/2 tsp of baking powder for every 1/4 cup of apple sauce)
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 1/4 cups flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-vegan chocolate chips 

 

Instructions

1. Cream together margarine, brown and white sugar, apple sauce, baking powder, and vanilla.
2. Slowly sift in flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Once all ingredients are thoroughly mixed add in as many chocolate chips as you find fit. I used about half the bag.

 

Chocolate Sauce

 

Ingredients  

-vegan chocolate chips

-almond milk 

 

Instructions

 I didn’t take exact measurements when making this sauce but its pretty easy to eyeball. 

1. Heat a small saucepan on low-medium heat. Its important not to overheat this because the chocolate will burn, and burnt chocolate smells pretty awful. This should probably be done over a double boiler but I was too lazy to set one up. If you take the same route as me just be very careful.

2. Add the chocolate chips and almond milk into your pan. I would say to add about 1/4 cup milk for every cup of chocolate chips.

3. Once the chocolate chips are completely melted pour the sauce into a cup and set it aside to cool down.

 

Assembly

1. Whether your lining your pan with tin foil or not, make sure to grease your pan with oil or margarine. These come out pretty sticky and it can be difficult to get them out in one piece if you don’t grease the pan.

 2. Line the bottom of your pan with a layer of brownie mix. This is easily done with a spoon.

3. On top of the brownies place a layer of cookie dough. I find the easiest way to do this is with your fingers. If your fingers start to get sticky keep a cup of water near by to dip them into. Be sure to completely cover the brownies. 

4. Add a layer of brownies on top of the cookie dough. This is a pretty thick brownie recipe so I usually use my fingers on the top layer as well.

 5. Bake for about 30 minutes. These are going to seem a bit undercooked when you take them out but they will harden more after cooling.  They do stay fairly gooey.

6. Drizzle the chocolate sauce that we set aside earlier on top of the cookie brownies.

7. I would recommend cutting these into squares and removing them from the pan before putting them in the fridge because they can be kind of hard to cut once they’ve hardened.

Bonus Recipe: Once these have been in the fridge for a few days they make a really great cookie brownie milkshake. Put chocolate coconut milk ice cream and almond milk in a blender and add in a decent amount of crumbled up cookie brownie. 

Side note, its a good idea to bake while wearing all black.

Vegan Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes

These cupcakes are some of the easiest I’ve ever made. No fillings, no frosting, these only take about 10 minutes to prepare before baking. My friends referred to these as “breakfast cupcakes”. They are extremely sweet, dense, and fairly heavy.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcake

 

Ingredients

-1 cup margarine (I used a cup of soy free earth balance)
-1 cup sugar
-2 cups flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-8 tbs arrow root
-1/4 cup oil (I used safflower oil)
-1/2 cup almond milk
-1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°
2. Combine all cupcake ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth. The order of adding  ingredients isn't terribly important in this recipe, just make sure everything gets blended well.

Pineapple Topping

 

Ingredients

-1/2 cup melted margarine
-1 can crushed pineapple
-3/4 cup brown sugar

Assembly

I made these cupcakes two ways to see which would come out better. Some in cupcake holders and others in the unlined pan. I wouldn't say one came out better than the other, it will just depend on your taste. If you are bringing these somewhere I would recommend making them inside the liners, they will be a lot easier to transport.

For the unlined cupcakes I greased the pan with butter and sprinkled it with some flour to prevent the cakes from sticking.

 

1. In the bottom of each cup place 1 tbs melted butter, 1 tbs brown sugar and 1 tbs crushed pineapple.

I would recommend not using the standard pineapple chunks that come in the can but putting them through a food processor or chopping them by hand. If your chunks are to large they will take up to much room in the pan.

 

2. Spread a large spoon full of cupcake batter over the pineapple mixture. These will rise reasonably so I would not fill these up to the brim. 

I would fill your cupcakes a little less than these, I had a lot of over flow after baking. This is easy to scrap off though.

 3. Bake for 20 minutes. Give them at least 10 minutes to cool down before trying to remove them from the pan.


To remove the cupcakes from the pan I slide a knife around the edges of each of them to loosen them up. I flipped the cupcake pan onto a lined cookie sheet and pounded the back of it to get the cupcakes to slide out. If you have any trouble getting them out make sure that they are mostly cooled down, and even if they come out looking like mush they still taste great.

The cupcakes in the liners can be eaten with a fork and do not need to be removed from their wrappers.

Vegan Stout Beer Cupcakes

 

This recipe is extremely simple and doesn’t require a lot of elements or preparation. The cupcake comes out lightly spiced while the glaze holds most of the stout taste. I chose to leave these simply dressed with nothing more than the glaze. 

 

Stout Beer Cupcake

 Ingredients

- 3 3/4 cups flour

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 tbs cinnamon (I opted out of the cinnamon due to allergies and used some cloves instead, but I think these cakes would be a lot better with a bit of cinnamon)

- 1 1/4 tsp nutmeg

- 1 1/4 cups oil (I used safflower oil)

- 1 1/4 cups molasses

- 1/2 cup light brown sugar

- 4 tbs arrow root

- 1 1/4 cups stout beer (I used Guinness) 

Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Mix together your dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. In another bowl beat together the oil, molasses, brown sugar, arrow root, and beer. You should pour out your 1 1/4 cups beer before you start baking to give it some time to settle and reduce foam.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients into the second bowl of wet ingredients. Stir until well mixed.
5. Divide batter into a lined cupcake pan. I was able to make 12 cupcakes. These should bake for around 20 minutes, or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.

 

Stout Beer Glaze 

Don’t get frustrated if this recipe seems a bit complicated.

Ingredients

- 2 cups powdered sugar

- 1/4 cup beer

 

 Instructions

1. Mix them together

 

Assembly

A little goes a long way while putting the glaze on these cakes so be sure to watch your heavy hand.

At this point your cupcakes are drunk and chances are you are to. Don’t feel bad if they end up up looking like an inebriated disaster. Though I was sober through this entire process and don't have much of an excuse for this.

I decided to call it a day and leave the cupcakes alone. A friend of mine however had a different idea. I put my feet up and let him go to town on finishing the decorating. 

 

And here I give you the worlds most terrifying cupcakes.

 I apologize for the sugar coated nightmares.