Vegan Chocolate Brownies

I have never baked brownies from scratch before. When I saw this recipe in Vegetarian Times, I just had to give it a try. This recipe uses soft tofu & unsweetened applesauce instead of butter and eggs and this is the first time I have used tofu to bake a dessert. One mistake I made was to buy soft tofu that was crumbly and not the silken type soft tofu which made the mixture look curdled before baking, but was fine after mixing all the ingredients together. Also I thought there was a very faint taste of tofu in the first brownie I tasted, but I didn’t taste it afterwards (may be I got used to the taste??) But all in all it’s a great recipe with 124 calories, 3gms of protein, 1gm total fat and 0g cholesterol.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times magazine.

Ingredients:

Natural Cane Sugar - 2¼ cups (I used regular white sugar)

All-purpose flour – 1¼ cups

Unsweetened Cocoa powder – 1¼ cups

Baking powder – 1½ tsp

Baking Soda – 1½tsp

Salt – 1/8tsp

Soft Tofu – 1cup

Unsweetened Applesauce – 1 cup

Chocolate Soymilk – ¾ cup

Vanilla essence – 2tsp

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9”x13” pan with cooking spray.
  
• Combine sugar, flour, baking pd, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  
• Combine applesauce, tofu, chocolate milk & vanilla in a food processor; process until well blended.
  
• Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well.
  
• Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until batter is set and the top is dry. Cool in the pan; cut into bars and enjoy.
  

These brownies can be frozen for later use, but I bet there won't be too many left for freezing.

This is my entry to Poornima’s (@ Tasty Treats) “For the Love of Chocolate” event.