greenstorm | Day of Baking

So no work yesterday. Instead, I went shopping, got some flours, and made three iterations on vegan brownies.

The recipe was as follows:

Basic Vegan Brownie recipe:

2c flour
2c sugar (reduced to 2/3 c for edibility)
3/4c cocoa
1tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1cup water
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup applesauce
1 cup water
1tsp vanilla
2/3 cup chocolate chips (check for milk products)

I also added 2tbsp flax seeds ground in a blender with 4-6 tbsp water to each iteration- they act as an egg substitute, and help hold things together (they also help hold hamburgers together really well, as I also found out that day)

They all went in at 350 for about 35 mins.

So for the first run I made the recipe as-is, with wheat flour. It rose super-high, like a cake, and didn't cook all the way through, so the center was gooey and fell.

For the second run I straight-across substituted a mix of half-buckwheat half-spelt flour for the wheat flour, reduced the sugar a little, upped the paking powder just a little, and upped the salt a bit to about 1 1/2 tsp. They were fantastic- dense, cooked through, not at all crumbly, and they had this intense rich taste that came from the buckwheat.

For the third run I blended the flax seeds, 2/3c water (actually orange spice tea, cause I was curious), and 12oz of silken tofu, then mixed with the rest of the ingredients (which actually was reduced to 1 1/2 cup spelt flour, no wheat or buckwheat).

This took a lot longer cooking, maybe an extra ten mins, and I turned the oven down to 300 for the last ten mins.

It was much, much less sweet with a custardy consistency, better cold than warm, and I would use margerine instead of oil next time to play up that custard texture.

It was a lot of fun.

Then Kynnin and Angus came over and ate some brownies, all the roommates were around, there was dinner, and now I am going for a work interview with someone named Justice.

What a nice day.