Chocolate + Raspberries = Heaven

There's just something in the combination of dark chocolate and raspberries. And there's just something about brownies. They're so easy to make and are perfect for satisfying sweet cravings. Usually brownies are made with bleached flour, white sugar and eggs but these brownies are a bit healthier option. They're made with cane sugar and whole wheat flour (I used 1½ dl whole wheat and 1 dl all-purpose flour but you can also use 2½ dl whole wheat flour). Margarine in the recipe can be replaced with canola oil if you don't like using saturated fats (even though margarine is vegetable fat, the double bonds between individual carbon atoms in the fatty acid chain are broken so it is artificially made saturated). The darker the chocolate you use, the healthier yout brownies will be (the chocolate I used contained 50% cacao but you can choose a darker one if you wish). There are also vitamins in raspberries and the cholesterol-rich eggs are replaced with healthy bananas.

Vegan-baking is a skill that takes time to master. It takes a lot of experimenting to find good egg-replacements but mashed fruit is often a really good choise. In this recipe mashed bananas make the browies moist and firm. Apple/pear mash also works well. Use one decilite of fruit mash to replace one egg. You can also use half a decitre of soy/potato starch flour to replace an egg. Soy yogurt works in some recipies as well. Milk is easy to replace just by using soy/grain milk. Gelatin can be replaced by using agar-agar (a gelatinous substance derived from polysaccharides in red algae).

I've made some changes into this recipe but original one can be found in the revised edition of the Vegan Cookbook released by an animal rights organisation Fauna. I got the book when I was in Like publishing company in work practice. That cookbook is what really got me into vegan cooking.

The reason I love this recipe so much is because it's so variable! Instead of raspberries you can use blueberries (I know blueberry brownies might sound weird but they're delicious), cranberries or orange peel and a tiny bit of orange juice. You can use pretty much any nuts you like, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans etc. If don't like nuts or you're allergic try using coconut flakes or chopped oat/digestive biscuits. Just use your imagination!

Vegan Chocolate-Raspberry Brownies

• 1½ decilitres whole wheat flour
• 1 decilitre all-purpose flour
• 1 decilitre dark unsweetened cacao powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
• 2 decilitres cane sugar
• 2 bananas
• 2 decilitres melted (vegan) margarine
• 100 grams vegan dark chocolate chips

• 80 grams chopped hazelnuts
• 100g (frozen) raspberries

Preheat the oven into 200°C. Cover a sheet pan with bakery paper. Mix the dry ingredients (not sugar). Mash the bananas and mix with sugar and melted margarine (you can get a smooth mixture if you use a blender but you can also mash the banana by using a fork and mix in the sugar and margarine). Carefully mix the dry ingredients into the banana-margarine mixture. Fold in the chcolate chips, chopped hazelnuts and raspberries. Spread the dough on a sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let the brownie cool down before cutting into squares. If you have a big oven you might want to do 1,5x dough and bake it a bit longer.