Brownies for Nichole

These creamy, thick, and dark chocolatey, fudgey brownies are just SO good. They're excellent alone or complimented by fresh fruit, like delicious blueberries to cut that dark fudgey flavor. You will find yourself reaching for seconds (and thirds and fourths...)...

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

1 ½ tablespoons flaxseed meal (ground up flax seeds)

3 tablespoons warm water

1 cup flour (I used whole wheat)

3 tablespoons cacao powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

6 tablespoons vegan butter

¼ cup honey (The original recipe, from the cookbook "But I Could Never Go Vegan" by Kristy Turner uses a vegan honey alternative as a sweetener, but we get locally sourced honey so that's what I used here. Feel free to sub it for any kind of syrup or sweetener of choice :) )

⅓ cup coconut sugar or vegan brown sugar

2 teaspoons chocolate extract (or vanilla)

1 cup vegan dark chocolate


Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray an 8x8 inch baking dish. Line the dish with parchment paper (or a silicone baking mat- I LOVE mine!), with a bit hanging over the edge so you can lift the brownies out of the pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flaxseed meal and warm water. Set aside. In a medium bowl mix the flour, cacao, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a double boiler, or a glass dish over boiling water, or in the microwave,  melt the chocolate and vegan butter together and stir until completely smooth. Add honey, sugar, chocolate extract, and flaxseed mixture and mix well.

Combine the flour mixture to chocolate mixture until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread the batter into the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean).

Feel free to serve with fresh fruit (I used fresh in season blueberries!) and although delicious on their own, they also taste great topped with vanilla icing. Enjoy!