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Serves a Crowd

Chocolate Brownies With Tofu

by:
April 30, 2017
2.5
2 Ratings
Photo by Julia Gartland
  • Prep time 10 minutes
  • Cook time 20 minutes
  • Serves 15
Author Notes

If someone told me that a brownie without butter, oil, and eggs could be delicious, I would never have believed them. I am a vegan and have a huge sweet tooth, so I wanted to learn how to bake vegan desserts. Since silken tofu is a great replacement for many non-vegan ingredients required in baking, I started experimenting. The first time I attempted these brownies, I was not satisfied, but the second time was a success: These brownies are rich, chewy, and so very chocolatey, as all brownies should be. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I and my friends do! —Eleni

Test Kitchen Notes

This recipe was selected as something to serve for a college student picnic since one of the students was vegan. Because of rain, we adjourned to a local pizza restaurant, but I made them the brownies for class. No one guessed the secret ingredient (tofu!) and the feedback was extremely positive. I would make these again if hosting a vegan. They are super simple to assemble, although it took some time to combine wet with dry. I found them difficult to cut and turned to my pizza cutter. —trvlnsandy

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Ingredients
  • 2 cups dark brown sugar
  • 350 grams silken tofu
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 150 grams small and large semisweet chocolate chunks
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 180° C/350° F. Line a (25- by 20- centimeter/10- by 8-inch) baking pan with parchment paper. [Editor's note: 8- by 8-inch also works.] Then grease the edges of the pan with vegetable oil.
  2. In a large food processor, add the sugar and silken tofu. Blend until it's lump free. Then add the vanilla and maple syrup and blend.
  3. In a separate bowl mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Combine the two mixtures by combining the dry ingredients into the food processor.
  4. Place half the mixture in the cooking pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chunks to cover the surface. Then pour the rest of the mixture on top.
  5. Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, until the sides of the brownie start to pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with little crumbs on it.
  6. Allow to cool completely before cutting. To store, place the pieces in an airtight container.
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12 Reviews

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Ginny S. August 14, 2019
I've made this exact recipe probably no fewer than 40x. I supply a small restaurant in my area with all their bakery items. These are one of the most popular of perhaps 10 desserts I provide for them. I'm not sure why Sienzo dislikes them so much. Of course they are not exactly like a non vegan brownie, but they are very tasty. They are slightly cake like and they take longer than 30 minutes to bake thoroughly, but I do double the recipe and that could be the reason.
sienzo January 2, 2019
Tastes awful, don't waste your chocolate!
FrugalCat May 26, 2018
Last time I had brownies with a "secret ingredient" was in college! (wink)
ali126 October 18, 2017
Please excuse my typos in the comment below! And I didn't sub in 2 CUPS of coffee, but 2 TABLESPOONS. Yikes, sorry.
ali126 October 18, 2017
It's a beautiful fall day and I bought silken tofu at Whole Foods last night; never cooked w the silken kind before. Daughter, age 22, is vegan, and I am a diehard brownie lover, such s Maida Heatter and Baker's One Bowl recipes. But there's a restaurant in our town called Mundo Vegan that sells very good, chilled vegan brownies--$7 each! Not a typo, but delicious. I don't know their recipe but the chef said they have been perfecting it. Anyway, I didn't have any brown sugar or a car at the moment to get some, so I made a lot of substitutions but I bet they will be great. I think I'm going to chill them like that restaurant does. I only had 1.25 cups superfine sugar and 1/2 cup agave syrup instead of brown sugar. I used 1 c rye flour and 1/2 c garbanzo bean flour. (NY Time Melissa Clark has a brownie using rye flour and Alicia Silverstone's cookbook uses garbanzo bean four, if I remember correctly. ) I had no maple syrup, subbed in 2 cups of brewed coffee. I think that's it. Also, I have made brownies w chocolate chips mixed in or scattered on top, but liked this technique of putting half the batter in pan, layering in the chocolate chips and then topping w the rest of the batter! I will come back and post how they are but have to scoot because younger daughter's schoolbus arriving soon. [Ttoo bad I know she won't try them; she is a brownie purist. If she detects tofu, she's out.] Thanks for this recipe!
Eleni October 19, 2017
Wow, you made very interesting substitutions! Let me know how they turn out :)
ali126 October 19, 2017
HI Eleni. Thanks for the note. The brownies are good and the vegan daughter likes them. As predicted, the younger one said "what? you fed me tofu in the piece of vegan brownie i tasted?" haha. I regret not having the real ingredients you suggested, because the dark brown sugar would add a different/better texture and taste and the maple syrup would be great. I will try them again with those true ingredients! thanks. :)
clementscooks May 29, 2017
These look so good! Do you think that they can be made with a gf flour sub (Bob's 1 to 1) Thanks!
Melanie S. April 30, 2017
These look so good! Can't wait to try this recipe :) Thanks for sharing
Eleni May 1, 2017
Thank you for your comment! Let me know if you like it :)
Katerina E. April 30, 2017
Sounds amazing!!! I will deffo try this!!!!!
Eleni April 30, 2017
That's great! Hope you like it :)