These brownies are fudgy and delicious, higher in protein than a regular brownie and vegan to boot. They’re still a treat food though. A very, delicious, chocolatey, fudgy treat food. And they have a secret ingredient.

Aquafaba. Yep that’s the secret. It’s chickpea water, the water that you drain from the can when you’re using canned chickpeas. It’s miraculous stuff and whips up just like egg whites. I’ve been playing around with different things to do with it because I love repurposing stuff that you’d normally chuck out and this brownie was my first success.

Before starting this experiment. I read a few different articles and recipes that used just egg white rather than a whole egg in them (see them here and here). I was worried doing this would lose some of the fudginess but that definitely doesn’t happen here. It took a couple of tries but I’m really into this recipe!

They also freeze well, just make sure you but parchment paper between layers so the gooey brownie doesn’t stick together. I’ve actually eaten one straight from the freezer… so impatient.

These brownies still contain sugar, I used coconut sugar but you could replace this with demerara sugar or brown sugar. I cut the sugar down to 2/3 of a cup but I think you could scale it back even further as the 70% chocolate also contains sugar. I made it with less and they were sweet enough for me but it does mean that top of the them is less glossy and crisp.

Makes 18 small slices

Ingredients

180g dark chocolate (70% )

2/3 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup aquafaba

2/3 cup coconut sugar (can sub for rapadura or just brown sugar)

1/3 cup spelt flour

1/3 cup cacao or dutch pressed cocoa powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbs peanuts, roughly chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius and line a 10 by 20cm baking dish with parchment paper, you want a little overhang on either side so you can lift the brownie out in a single slab later.

Melt 150g chocolate over a double boiler in a large bowl (you will mix everything in this bowl so give yourself some room). Once melted take of the heat and stir in vanilla and peanut butter. Add water and mix gently until well combined.

Meanwhile beat aquafaba until foamy and then while beating gradually add 1/3 cup of sugar. Continue to beat until soft peaks have formed.

Mix the flour, cacao, cinnamon and remaining sugar into the chocolate mixture. Stir in 1.3 of the aquafaba mixture until well combined. This should lighten up the mixture. Now fold in the remaining aquafaba until just combined. The mixture should be thick, glossy and gooey looking.

Pour into the prepared baking dish. Roughly chop the remaining chocolate and scatter along with the peanuts over the top of the brownie. Bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes. or until the top has set, the edges are crunchy and the middle is fudgy but not liquid.

Allow to rest in the tin for a couple of minutes then use the baking paper to remove it and cool on a wire rack.

HH. x

Note: You can freeze half the batch if your a little lacking in self control!