Vegan Chocolate Stout Brownies

After two weeks of Paleo recipes, I thought I’d freak you all out by posting something vegan. What can I say, I like to keep people on their toes.

I find it crazy that the vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe I posted months ago has so far been the most popular recipe on my blog. I guess vegans are in need of good recipes. These brownies more than qualify. They are decadent in every sense of the word. They don’t require anything super fancy (unless you don’t stock flax seed and what kind of crazy person doesn’t have flax seed in their pantry) and there’s no way you’d know they were *gasp* vegan.

To be honest, I don’t have a tried and true non-vegan brownie recipe. I’ve had quite a few “from scratch” brownie baking fails so I was nervous about trying a vegan one. But, chocolate and stout? How could I turn this one down. I will happily eat that fail from the pan with a fork while watching Nashville on ABC. How pleasantly surprised was I that this was the farthest thing from a fail!

Guinness, while delicious, is not vegan. You’ll need to find stout specifically listed as vegan. I found a vegan imperial stout at Whole Foods. The stout flavor isn’t very strong in these brownies. Instead, it’s one of those tastes that makes everyone go “what’s in these?” It’s almost a tangy, fruity flavor.

Make sure you have enough time before you start these. The step of reducing the stout adds more time than it would take to whip together a traditional batch of brownies.

Perhaps I did not use enough of the stout to make the glaze, but mine wasn’t really pourable as the original recipe instructs. My glaze was a bit thicker and needed to be spread with a knife, but it wasn’t much trouble.

You know what was trouble? Trying not to eat all of these before I wrapped them up for a gift. I even had Girl Scout cookies in the freezer and still kept going back to the vegan chocolate stout brownies… just one more slice… just one little sliver.. That is how good these are.

Chocolate Stout Brownies
by Vegan Cookbook Aficionado

Ingredients
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon flax, ground
1 cup stout

1 3/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into ½ inch pieces
6 tablespoons margarine, melted
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Stout Glaze Ingredients
4 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup reduced stout
2 tablespoons margarine

Directions
Bring stout to a boil in a medium sauce- pan; cook until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 12 minutes. Let cool. Reserve 1/4 cup stout.

Place 2 ounces chocolate and margarine in a medium metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted and smooth.

In a small bowl whisk together the water and flax meal. Let it sit for 5 – 10 minutes so the mixture gets goopy. You can place the mixture in the refrigerator to enhance this.

Place your oven rack on it’s lowest position and preheat your oven to 350F. Line an 8 x 8 inch baking dish with parchment paper or aluminum foil, allowing excess parchment paper on opposite sides so you can pull the brownies out of the baking dish later.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together the sugar, espresso, vanilla, 1/4 cup of the reduced stout, flax mixture and melted chocolate mixture, mix until smooth and combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until just combined, then fold in the chocolate chips. The mixture will become extremely thick.

Transfer the batter to your prepared pan and smooth with a spatula. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until edges begin to pull away from the pan. Remove and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Prepare the glaze:

Stir remaining 4 ounces chocolate in a medium metal bowl set over a sauce-pan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Add reserved 1/4 cup reduced stout, and remaining 2 tablespoons margarine whisk until well blended.

Pour warm glaze over brownies. Let stand at room temperature until glaze is set, about 40 minutes.

Tags: beer, brownie, chocolate, stout, vegan