Vegan Peanut Butter and Cardamom Brownies,The

Vegan
Peanut
Butter
Cardamom Brownies
and
I’m obsessed with brownies; rich, chocolatey, fudgy,
incredible brownies. I’ve also got a soft spot for peanut
butter and in case you hadn’t noticed, I cannot possibly go a
day without eating cardamom.
It’s not often I go in to the kitchen completely sure of what
I’m going to produce. I’ll have something in the fridge or
cupboard I know I want, then I forage about until I find the
perfect partners for what I fancy and they could be totally
bizarre combinations I’ve never tried before.
If I’ve learned anything from all my years of experimental
cooking is that you have to be fearless. FEARLESS. Yeah sure,
sometimes things don’t turn out the way you plan but that’s
what takeaway pizza is there for. I’ve rescued even the most
disastrous of dinners and 98% of the time, the antidote
consists of lemon, salt and sugar. They are like magic for
repairing even the spiciest of curries.
Baking is different. As sweet as it can be, baking can also be
very cruel – especially eggless and vegan baking. I’ve had
more disasters than successes and too many slabs of sunken
cakes and burst macarons to count on two hands, presuming I
had the arms of the goddess Laxmi. Having said this, I’ve made
countless batches of eggless and vegan brownies over the
years… It’s finally safe to say I think I’ve nailed it.
So when I wandered in to the kitchen on this particular day, I
was fully prepared for what was going to happen and even
though I was about to step in to that baking danger zone, I
was f e a r l e s s.
What was about to happen was
It was the coming together
heaven, creamy-salty peanut
flavours of cardamom which I
something truly beautiful, btw.
of super-moist dark chocolate
butter and the deeply-aromatic
cannot imagine life without.
Blended black beans give these brownies an incredible texture
and allow them to retain even more moisture, which produce
perfect brownies without the need for eggs, or any dairy
products. This makes these brownies 100% vegan and egg free.
What could be better?
Vegan Peanut Butter and Cardamom Brownies
Makes 18-20 brownies
Ingredients
For the Brownie Batter:
250g plain flour
60g good-quality cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
40g black beans, drained, rinsed and blended until smooth
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
150g light brown sugar
100ml groundnut or sunflower oil
320ml soy milk (or regular full-fat milk for a non-vegan
brownie)
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
For the Peanut Butter and Cardamom Swirl:
100g crunchy peanut butter (you can use smooth if you prefer)
50g non-dairy spread such as Pure (if you’re not vegan, use
unsalted butter – I’ve tried both ways)
50g light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160C/320F.
2. Line a 34 x 20 x 3cm H. (13 1⁄2″ x 8″ x 1″) brownie tin
with greaseproof paper and oil. I add an extra long sheet of
greaseproof paper lengthways to make handles for easy lifting
out later. It really makes it much easier to remove from the
pan.
3. To make the peanut butter and cardamom swirl, mix together
all the ingredients until smooth. Place in the fridge until
later.
4. To make the brownie batter, sift together all the dry
ingredients in a large bowl.
5. Whisk together all the wet ingredients including the bean
paste and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Whisk again.
6. Gradually add the dry brownie batter ingredients in to the
wet and whisk briefly until well combined. It’s really
important not to over beat the batter.
7. Pour the batter in to your prepared brownie tin and smooth
out the top. Next text your peanut butter swirl mixture from
the fridge, give it a quick beat and dollop teaspoon-sized
nuggets on top of the brownie batter. Use a butter knife or
spoon to swirl it through.
8. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. It will still be a bit
wobbly but this is good. Allow to cool in the pan for 15
minutes before running a knife around the edge of the tray to
loosen up any brownie stuck to the edges. Using the clever
little handles you made with greaseproof paper earlier,
carefully lift the brownie out and place on a wire rack to
cool completely.
9. Slice in to squares or rectangles. Enjoy with a cold glass
of almond or hazelnut milk.
Love Sanjana
The Ultimate Eggless Brownies
This. Is. It. You can stop the search. It has arrived: the
ultimate eggless brownie. Oh, and did I mention that they can
be made vegan too?
Oh happy day.
In other news, I would like to inform you that I will be
absent for a short period of time due to education
commitments. Bad times. Of course I would rather blog about my
one true love in life (yes, I’m talking food) day in and day
out but to get to where I want to be in the future, I must
engage with the whole academic shebang. So I’m told.
So please don’t be offended if I’m not here to ‘ouhh’ and
‘ahh’ at your glorious recipes, for I will be drowning in the
misery of English literature and would obviously prefer to be
‘ouhh-ing’ ‘and ahh-ing’.
I’m working on an essay at the moment regarding this extract
from Edwidge Danticat; it is the Epilogue to ‘Women Like Us’,
Krik? Krak! I would just like to share some pertinent lines
with you:
Are there women who both cook and write? Kitchen poets, they
call them. They slip phrases into their stew and wrap meaning
around their pork before frying it. They make narrative
dumplings and stuff their daughter’s mouths so they say
nothing more. […] No, women like you don’t write. They carve
onion sculptures and potato statues. They sit in dark corners
and braid their hair in new shapes and twists in order to
control the stiffness, the unruliness, the rebelliousness.
Are there women who both cook and write? Is it a myth that
women who cook are chained to their stovetops, their husbands
and a life of misery? Why has cooking been perceived as a
‘female role’ for so long and why has it taken so much time
for this notion to become less of a worldly opinion? Or do
these ideas still exist? Do we really live in a world free of
stereotypes, or do we just think we do? And if there are women
who both cook and write, then I assume I must be a Kitchen
Poet. Although in writing I, and many other food writers aim
to unshackle the mind and shine new light on ideas, not
push them into the darkness. Open your eyes, your minds, your
mouths and unleash the ‘rebelliousness’ because that’s real
cooking. Then write about it. This is my liberation.
Now I must love you and leave you… With these purely
decadent, dense and delectable brownies.
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tbsp melted butter (for a vegan recipe use oil)
1 cup buttermilk (or 2 tsp yogurt dissolved in 1 cup water
with 1 tbsp lemon juice mixed in) or for a vegan recipe use 1
cup soy milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice mixed in
2 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1 tbsp chopped nuts of your choice (I used pecans). Hazelnuts
would be perfect too
2 tbsp chocolate chips dusted in a little plain flour
(optional)
Method
1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together and then add all of
the wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly and transfer into a
greased, lined tin.
2. Bake at gas mark 4 for 20-25 minutes. Poke with a skewerit should come out semi-clean for a fudgy brownie or bake for
a little longer for a cake.
3. Allow to cool for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire
rack.
4. Allow to cool thoroughly for maximum chocolaty taste.