This is my new favourite chocolate brownie recipe. Being a plant-based food blogger that likes to cook a lot of desserts, I have tried many chocolate brownie variations in the past, but I couldn’t quite get most of them to taste like a traditional brownie. This particular recipe is probably the closest I’ve come to a more traditional brownie. The brownies have a great texture and a good rise unlike a lot of my other brownies. I also absolutely love that unlike most of my recipes these do not contain nuts. I of course adore nuts and think that nuts are some of the healthiest foods that we can eat however my little boys preschool does not allow nuts due to allergy reasons and I actually struggle to know what to give him. I love giving him a little treat everyone’s in a while, I feel like it makes him eat his lunch better.
I have made this recipe three times twice using sweet potato and once using pumpkin. The photos in this blog post are with the pumpkin version. Both the recipes work well however I think I prefer the sweet potato version. The texture is better as the pumpkin can be a little bit stringy. I also find that the flavours of pumpkins vary widely and if I get a pumpkin that doesn’t taste very good and it can ruin the whole meal. Pumpkins are also incredibly difficult to cut! You can’t really taste the sweet potato or pumpkin in this recipe at all, however, they do help to add a little sweetness to the brownie and if I did the pumpkins or sweet potatoes are not very sweet it can make the brownies taste a bit bitter and dark. So try and get good quality produce with lots of flavour. Both the pumpkins and the sweet potato also add a good deal of fibre vitamin C and beta-carotene which helps boost the nutrition of the brownies as well as help with both iron absorption and blood sugar balance. The recipe uses wholemeal spelt flour which is low in gluten and taste similar to wheat. I think this is one of the reasons the brownies taste more traditional, however, buckwheat flour can be substituted for a completely gluten-free version.
I developed a recipe for the Everyday Rewards app using ingredients that I purchased from Woolworths. I really do enjoy using the rewards app and get excited every time my points reach a place where I can get $10 off my shop. it’s also fun to boost points for the product I buy on repeat.
| Vegan Chocolate Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Brownies | Print |
- 2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
- ½ cup cacao powder
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup neutral oil (I used avocado)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups mashed cooked sweet potato or pumpkin puree
- ⅓ cup + 2 TBSP warm water
- ½ cup dark choc chips
- FROSTING:
- ½ cup cacao powder
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup cacao butter
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line a square baking tin with parchment paper. Pierce sweet potato with fork and cook in microwave for about 15 minutes or until soft. Remove skin and mash sweet potato flesh with a fork. If using pumpkin, cut off skin and roast, cut in large chunks and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes. Once the pumpkin is cooked process in a food processor until smooth.
- In a large bowl combine flour, cacao powder, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in oil and vanilla. Mix to combine. Add mashed sweet potato and water, mix until just combined and fold in choc chips. The batter will be quite thick.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared baking tin and smoothen the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool before frosting.
- For the frosting, meltdown cacao powder in a saucepan over low heat, remove from heat and stir in cacao powder and maple syrup. Spread over brownies with a spatula. Slice and enjoy.
