Fudgy Vegan Brownies
These are the BEST vegan brownies. They’re easy to make, perfectly fudgy with a rich chocolate flavor and a gorgeous shiny, crackly crust we all love! A totally crowd pleasing and homemade recipe.
10 tries later and we finally have it. The perfect fudgy vegan brownies, completely from scratch! Seriously, these are so good you will never go back to a boxed brownie mix again.
Plus, they’re made without black beans or avocado, just good old fashioned brownie ingredients that you can’t even tell are vegan!
As I’ve been testing this recipe, I’ve done a whole lot of research into what gives a brownie it’s characteristic shiny crust and fudgy center.
There are a lot of theories out there. Some say it’s the sugar, some say chocolate, some say eggs, but I’ve tried so many things and many of them just didn’t work.
Until I tried one unique method: melting the sugar into a bit of water before adding it to the batter. This essentially creates (sort of) an eggless meringue which rises to the top of the brownies as they bake and give a crackly, shiny crust.
It works like a charm to get beautifully fudgy brownies. If you love this recipe and need more of a chocolate fix, try my vegan chocolate cake or vegan chocolate cupcakes.
How to make vegan brownies
In a small bowl, whisk together the 2 tbsp ground flax plus 5 tbsp of water. Set aside to thicken. You can also use 1/4 cup of applesauce in place of the flax if you’re worried about any weird flavor.
I’ve tried both methods and love them equally! Plus, a flax eggs and applesauce are much easier than aquafaba, which we don’t need here.
In a medium pot on the stove, add the sugar and water and whisk together. Heat over medium/low heat. Stir occasionally, but after about 5-10 minutes, the sugar should completely dissolve. You can see the two images below for reference.
Be sure you don’t add any extra water. The water will look somewhat cloudy, but you shouldn’t notice any clumps of sugar. This is key for the shiny crust!
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together all dry ingredients. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, give it a final whisk, then pour it into the dry ingredients.
Add all remaining wet ingredients, including the flax egg, and mix together with a wooden spoon until a batter forms. Careful not to overmix.
Fold in the chocolate chips if using. They’re optional, but they do help the crust get shinier.
Sprinkle with additional chocolate chips if desired. Transfer to an 8×8 baking dish lined with parchment paper to ensure the brownies come out of the pan easily.
If you only have a 9×9, that will work, but I generally recommend an 8×8 for brownies for the best results.
Bake for 35-45 minutes. About 38 was perfect in my oven, but all ovens are different. You’ll know they’re done when a toothpick comes out clean, but bake for longer if you don’t like a fudgy inside and prefer them more cake-like.
Remove from the oven, let cool, then slice into 16 squares & enjoy!
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What kind of cocoa powder should I use?
I’m not loyal to any one brand, but often buy the Whole Foods 365 cocoa powder. Hershey’s and Ghirardelli are all great options.
You can use dutch process or natural cocoa for this recipe. I do not recommend the Trader Joe’s cocoa powder as I do not think it has a rich enough flavor.
Which chocolate chips are best?
I’ve recently been loving the brand Guittard because they are made in a gluten-free facility (I love the semi-sweet chips), but Enjoy Life, Lily’s and Trader Joe’s all have great ones as well.
The chocolate chips are really optional in these vegan brownies, but I will say that the crust does get quite a bit shinier when you include them! Even just a few sprinkled on top makes a difference.
How to keep brownies moist
Honestly, you don’t need to worry with these ones! The method of dissolving the sugar into the water adds a lot of moisture to the brownies and they really should stay moist for several days.
Plus, we have the flax “eggs” and oil which will naturally add moisture to the brownies.
These vegan brownies will keep for 3-5 days in a container at room temperature. I like to warm them up in the microwave for a few seconds so they get gooey and fudgy, then serve with vanilla ice cream!
Pro tip for mixing the batter
Avoid using a whisk to stir the batter. This will force too much air into the batter and can change the final texture. A wooden spoon or rubber spatula is best!
Ingredients and swaps
FLOUR. I of course use gluten free all purpose flour for this recipe, but regular all purpose flour will work just as well if you are not gluten free.
Whatever you use, be sure you spoon and level the flour into your dry measuring cups, don’t scoop from the bag!
SUGAR. You can use another sugar like coconut sugar to make these refined sugar free, but the crust will not get as shiny as what is pictured.
A liquid sweetener like maple syrup will not work here. For best results, I recommend a finely ground white sugar.
FLAX EGGS. You can use flax eggs or apple sauce here, but I prefer the texture of the flax eggs. A flax egg is simple a mixture of ground flax seeds and water.
You may also like…
- Vegan Caramel Sauce
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Blondies
- Vegan Funfetti Blondies
- Vegan S’mores Bars
- Chocolate Mug Cake
- Flourless Brownies
Leave a comment and rating below if you try this recipe and let us know how it turns out! Be sure to follow on instagram for more recipes.
Best Fudgy Vegan Brownies
by: claire cary
Ingredients
Wet:
- 1 ½ cups very finely ground granulated sugar the brand Domino is best
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed OR 5 tbsp apple sauce
- 5 tablespoons water for the flax, separate from the sugar water
- ½ cup oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Dry:
- ¾ cup cocoa powder sifted if clumpy
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour I used gluten free, but regular works too
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the 2 tbsp ground flax with 5 tbsp water. Set aside to thicken. Skip this step if using the apple sauce.
- Some people notice a flavor when using the flax (I never have this issue) so if that worries you, stick to the applesauce. The texture will be slightly different, but still delicious.
- In a medium pot on the stove, add the sugar and water and whisk together. Heat over medium/low heat. Stir occasionally, but after about 5-10 minutes, the sugar should completely dissolve.
- Be sure you don’t add any extra water. The water will look somewhat cloudy, but you shouldn’t notice any clumps of sugar. This is key for the shiny crust!
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together all dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips if using (we’ll add these later).
- Some people notice a flavor when using the flax (I never have this issue) so if that worries you, stick to the applesauce. The texture will be slightly different, but still delicious.
- Once the sugar has completely dissolved, give it a final whisk, then pour it into the dry ingredients.
- Add all remaining wet ingredients, including the flax eggs once thickened or the applesauce and mix together with a wooden spoon r rubber spatula until a batter forms. Careful not to over mix, stir just until combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips if using. They’re optional, but they do help the top get shinier and add a richer chocolate flavor.
- Transfer to an 8×8 baking pan lined with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle with additional chocolate chips if desired.
- Bake for 35-42 minutes. about 38 was perfect in my oven, but check with a toothpick. Bake for longer if you don’t like a fudgy inside and shorter if you want them really fudgy.
- Remove from the oven, let cool completely, then slice around the edges of the pan and lift out the brownies using the parchment paper. Slice into 16 squares & enjoy! The longer you let cool, the easier/cleaner the cut will be.
Notes
Comments
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Golden flax is mild and light in flavor, maybe a little nutty.
Brown flax, what is usually sold (if it is not labeled golden it is the brown ones) is dark, earthy, and slightly bitter.
I always recommend using golden flax for most desserts and light breads, biscuits and such, and cakes.
Sometimes they are interchangeable, flavor wise, but that really depends on your taste buds.
Cooking wise they work the same.
Huge difference in flavor.
I think many people who complain about the flavor of flax haven’t tried the golden, particularly since it can be hard to find.
Sometimes the dark ones are actually surprisingly good in something you wouldn’t expect though, like in tortillas.
(Originally tried the recipe in Wheat Belly book for flax wraps, but only had dark flax, I thought they were great, with a little fudging of the recipe. 😉 Sadly then the stupid egg allergy hit too and I haven’t figured out how to make them without. 😥)
Anyway, just a tip on flax! 🙂
Oh one other, I never soak the flax to “egg” it up, I just mix it dry into the dry ingredients and after mixing let it sit 5-15 minutes. Haven’t had any problems. I think. 😄
One less dish to wash, and without a dishwasher, they add up fast! eek! There’s your Halloween fright lol, dishes!, aaah! 😆 -
Made for a vegan & GF friend, not bad for vegan brownies. A few tweaks I did:
I added 1/2 tsp of baking power for a bit of lift as there’s no egg. I found the texture a bit too dense without it.
For the mixing, it turned out a lot better when I mixed all the wet ingredients together first (oil, flax egg, the cooled sugar water and vanilla) in a stand mixer, then adding the dry ingredients in two halves to the wet mixture – the batter is much more even and end product less oily than the method in the recipe (dumping the wet into the dry).
Letting the batter hydrate for 5-10 mins before baking also helps with the oily finish – the shiny tops from the sugar water wouldn’t disappear.
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Love love love! I’ve tried a bunch of vegan brownie recipes and I think this may become my go to – it was simple and delicious, with authentic brownie taste and texture! Thank you!!
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The flavor is great!… but the bottom is extremely oily after baking. I made sure and added the correct amount of oil. Did anyone else have this problem?
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What kind of baking dish did you use? Did the center of the brownies seem fully cooked?
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I made these brownies for my daughter who is Vegan. I made these for her engagement party, we had about 45 people there and I could not believe how much people raved about how good these brownies were. I probably should’ve tripled the recipe because they were gone within an hour.
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So glad they were such a hit! Thank you!
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I was not expecting much but I figured any brownies were better than no brownies—boy was I wrong. These are fantastic!
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Thank you, Britt!
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Wow, these are amazing. I had run out of cocoa powder so used the Starbucks chocolate powder which is vegan and gluten free, and used Lindt vegan chocolate cut up as the chips. The results were that perfect blend of crunchy outside and gooey inside. We did heat up and serve with plant based cream or regular dollop cream. We have a dairy free child so making vegan foods works well for us and the applesauce made the texture perfect.
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I would not make these again. Weird texture, dry even though they were not overbaked, as if the ratio of cocoa powder is wrong. Something just did not work well.
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Sorry these didn’t work out for you! Did you make any subs to the recipe? What flour did you use and how did you measure?
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I made these for 40 people. I doubled the recipe. My daughter is a vegan and it was for her engagement party. They were all gone in a couple of hours. I had so many people come up to me and ask for the recipe. I used the applesauce instead of the flax used vegan chocolate chips. I got that nice crust on the top and it was fudgy chewy in the middle. I baked them for 37 minutes and they were perfect.
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So glad they were a hit!
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So simple yet so perfect. This will become a new staple for those mid-cycle cravings. I am going to try adding walnuts next time just to see if it works. Thank you!
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Adding walnuts should work just fine! Let me know if you try it.
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I’m so excited to find new desserts for my grandson who has many allergies, these have a great taste but mine sunk in the middle. I used bobs all purpose flour, red mill egg replacer. Any idea what mistake I may have made? I would appreciate any advice and thanks for the recipe!
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They may have just been underbaked! Be sure you don’t over mix the batter and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
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So yummy!!
I had my family all try it, then I tried and realised I forgot the salt. They gave it a 7/10. My unhealthy recipe with all the right things gets a 10/10. I know I can get this to a 10/10 once I nail my oven timing.
I left it in a little too long for my oven so it turned out more towards the cake side, however, those are my adjustments I need to make for my self. (Remember salt, shorter cooking time). The recipe is great! I’m proudly taking it to a lunch gathering! Thank you!
Very impressed with this recipe!-
Thank you, Rachel!
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Super easy and delicious! I used flax seed meal and didn’t notice a strange taste, although I frequently do use flax as an egg replacer. I even subbed half a cup of whole wheat flour for some of the white. They were so fudgy and held together beautifully. My 17 y.o. step son, who usually doesn’t eat outside of his comfort zone, immediately devoured one and asked for more. This is a new go-to! Thank you!
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The chocolate chips you used, were they vegan as well?
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Yes, just check the ingredients!
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What kind of oil? Vegetable? Canola?
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Either!
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