So when I say ultimate I’m not messing around: whether you are vegan or not, this brownie recipe is the only one you’ll ever need. SERIOUSLY! My lovely baking buddy Sally and I tried out these Jamie Oliver vegan brownies yesterday and served them to our 3 member regular tasting club and ourselves, and it got 5 star reviews all around. It’s stuffed with nuts which really add something to the texture, but I have no doubts it will be amazing without. Of course we changed a few things here and there to make it more to our taste (more chocolatey and less sweet), as always ^^ . Now about the sauce. I call it a toffee sauce because even though it technically is a caramel sauce, it doesn’t taste like caramel. It tastes EXACTLY like toffee sweets. Its absolutely glorious, and best of all it’s vegan! Well, my version is vegan anyway, the original recipe by Danielle isn’t.
Now that I think about it, you could probably tweak the proportions a little and make toffee sweets out of it… Maybe a follow up on that later 😉 You can serve these brownies with a scoop of ice cream if you are feeling truly decadent.
Okay let’s get baking!!
Ingredients (For one medium tray bake)
- 170g of flour (I think this would absolutely work with gluten-free flour too!)
- 4 tsp of baking powder
- 200g of dairy free dark chocolate
- 4 heaped tablespoons of cacao powder
- 5 tbsp of sunflower/rapeseed oil
- 150g of sugar (we used 2/3 cane sugar 1/3 golden muscovado sugar for extra flavour)
- 1/3 of a tsp of vanilla pod extract (the powder stuff) or 1 tsp liquid vanilla extract
- 230ml of plant milk of your choosing
- 200g of your own blend of crunchies: we used about 40% almonds, 40% walnuts and 20% roasted coconut) If unsure go walnuts, always and for everything (no I’m not biased #Grenobleforever )
- 1/2 tsp of salt
For the toffee sauce (2 small jars)
- 60ml of water
- 200g of granulated sugar
- 160ml of vegan cream (preferably whipping cream but I think regular works too)
- 3 tbsp of vegan butter/margarine
- 1-1½ tsp of salt
- optional: 1 tsp cacao for chocolate toffee, or 1 tsp cinnamon for cinnamon toffee!
Method – Brownie
- Preheat your oven to 180C/170C fan and grease a medium baking tin of your choosing (square of rectangular preferably), then line with baking paper.
- Chop all of your chocolate into fairly small chunks, reserving 25% to one side that is slightly more roughly chopped. Chop all of your nuts into medium chunks (think of how bit you personally would like them to be once you eat the cake).
- Place a heatproof bowl on-top of a pan of simmering water and tip the smaller 75% of your chocolate chunks into the bowl. Allow to melt slowly, giving it a mix from time to time. Remove once melted.
- While the chocolate is melting, place the flour, baking powder, cacao powder in a large bowl and mix well. Then add the sugar, vanilla (if in powder form) and salt, and mix until evenly incorporated.
- Once well distributed add the oil, plant milk and eventually vanilla extract (if in liquid form) along with your melted chocolate. Mix well.
- Add the chopped crunchies/nuts along with the 25% of roughly chopped chocolate chunks and incorporate evenly. You can reserve a part of the nuts to top the brownie if you want a more interesting looking cake.
- Fill your prepared baking tin with the batter and even out the surface, eventually add the nuts your reserved for decoration and bake for 20-45 min depending on the height of your tin – you’ll know the cake is ready when the edges start to harden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out dry but only just (not wet, but not completely clean either). Cover your brownie with an aluminium sheet if the nuts start to burn before the cake is completely cooked.
- Take out and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Once you’re done licking every last trace of the batter off your kitchen utensils, you can get on with the toffee sauce:
- In a medium saucepan (a little bigger than you’d expect to need) heat up the sugar and water, mixing with a wooden spoon/ utensil until the sugar is completely dissolved over medium heat. Metal utensils will give an excuse for the caramel to re-crystallize.
- Once the sugar-water starts bubbling lightly, increase the heat and DO NOT STIR UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! Let the caramel bubble away until it reaches a light to medium amber colour, then remove from the heat.
- Slowly add your cream of choice to the caramel and whisk – this will create lots of bubbles, hence why you want to have a slightly larger saucepan.
- Once you have incorporated all the cream, whisk in the salt and vegan butter/margarine. Adjust the salt to taste.
- bottle one half up for next time (keep in the fridge for a few weeks), and enjoy the other half with the brownie or any ice-cream!
Serve up your brownie with the toffee sauce and perhaps some ice-cream
Just look at that sauce!
Enjoy!
Lola's Food Adventures 