Monday, November 22, 2010

Girl Meets Brownie, Part 5

Despite the complete disaster of my last pan of brownies, I was still convinced that a brownie mix was the way to go. Like I said last week, it seemed like the best way to test different egg substitutes. But, apparently, I hadn’t learned from last week’s greasy pan of death, and I was simply setting myself up for another disappointment.

One of the great things about the vegan food community is how generous and enthusiastic they are about sharing their recipes. Typing “vegan brownie recipe” into the Google search box yields 340,000 results! One especially helpful website I stumbled upon was a site called egglesscooking.com. She, too, decided to tweak a brownie mix recipe on the way to her perfect brownie. The pictures looked relatively appealing, although, none of my brownie pictures even remotely convey the inedibility of some of these individual batches. So, I thought I would give it a try.

The Ghiradelli Brownie mix calls for 1/3 cup oil, and 1/3 cup water, and 1 egg added to the dry mix. Eggless Cooking recommended only 3 tablespoons of oil, 1/3 cup water, and an egg substitute formed by blending 1 teaspoon ground flaxseed and 1/4 cup water. She also recommended adding walnuts to give the brownies a little lift. I had pretty high hopes for this brownie. The reduced oil seemed to account for the greasiness of the last batch, and I have had the best luck with flaxseed egg substitutes so far, so this recipe seemed like an auspicious event.

Once again proving myself the eternal optimist, I pulled the brownies out of the oven, and allowed them to cool. Unable to wait, I cut a small corner piece. It was like taffy. So hard, dense, sticky and chewy. It got stuck in my teeth like a stale caramel. I was able to peel the entire batch of brownies out of the pan in one solid piece. The bottom was so shiny and hard that I could drum my nails on the bottom of the brownies as though it were a countertop. Epic Fail.


For more of my brownie adventure:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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