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Vegan Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies {made with Quick Oats}
These brownies are everything a brownie should be – rich, fudgey, thick, and full of chocolate. These dark chocolate brownies are melt in your mouth good. The best part about them is that they are much lower in sugar and oil than your typical brownie and do not use any added flour. A gluten-free, vegan brownie, made in one bowl, without any funny substitutions? I am in!
I have two brownie pet peeves – brownies that are too thin and brownies that are too dry. Since making this blog I have tried countless healthy brownie recipes (literally) and I have not been fully satisfied with any of them (except for this brownie cake) they are always too thin, too cakey, too dry and the list goes on… Last night something magical happened, I was experimenting with make a brownie cookie and these fudgey, rich brownies popped out of the oven – all of my brownie dreams have now come true.
Today is a very special day – it is my mom’s birthday ! Sadly, I am on the other side of the ocean so I am not able to celebrate with her. The good news is I will be home in two weeks and we can do lots of celebrating then (yippee!). My mom makes the best brownies. You see, the love of chocolate runs in the family meaning my chocolate addiction is simply genetic and I am pretty sure most of it got passed down through my mom. My mom is a wonderful baker – I was so lucky growing up enjoying her homemade cinnamon buns Christmas morning, eating her chewy, warm chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven, and having homemade birthday cakes every year. When I think of brownies I think of the delicious ones my mom always made – full of chocolate and very fudgey. I wish I could send these brownies to my mom but since that is simply not possible, my gift to her in the meantime is a healthy chocolatey brownie, which uses simple ingredients and is whipped up in under an hour.
Instead of flour in these brownies I used good old quick cooking oats. Originally I was planning on using oat flour (ground up oats) but I was feeling much too lazy for that. Quick cooking oats are much tinier than your average oat so they practically melt into the brownie batter. When you blend everything together a beautiful, thick, chocolatey brownie batter is born. If you do not have a blender you might see a couple of oats in the finished result but if you love oats like I do this really shouldn’t be a problem 😉 A lot of the fugdiness and sweetness of these brownies comes from using roasted sweet potato – if you do not have sweet potato on hand I would try experimenting with pureed pumpkin, squash or maybe even applesauce! I always keep sweet potatoes on hand because they are so healthy (Hello vitamins and antioxidants!), filling and basically taste good with just about everything.
These brownies are the perfect treat that are much healthier than your average go-to brownie recipe which is full of sugar, butter and more sugar. Sprinkle them with a bit of icing sugar or a touch of sea salt and voila a beautiful memorable dessert is born – perfect to indulge in as a chocolate treat or as a dessert during the holidays (basically, I will take any excuse to enjoy a brownie).
Happy Birthday Mommy! Sending you lots of love and chocolate hugs from across the ocean! Wishing you a beautiful day surrounded by lots of love, happiness and chocolate. Love your baby girl!
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Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies (Vegan)
- Total Time: 30
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats (use gluten-free if needed)
- 1/2 cup high quality cocoa
- 1/2 cup cane sugar*
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 heaping tsp corn starch (making sure it is GMO free – if you don’t have on hand, just sub in 1 tsp gluten-free flour)
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules* (enhance chocolate flavour)
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil (canola and peanut oil also work well)
- 1/2 cup hot coffee* (enhance chocolate flavour)
- 1/2 cup mashed sweet potato*
- 2 heaping tbsp honey*
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375ºf or 190ºc. Roast Sweet Potato for 45 minutes until soft when poked with a fork. Once the sweet potato has cooled down (10 minutes), with a knife, cut a slit down the centre lengthwise of the sweet potato and scoop out the insides. Lightly mash with a fork. Measure out 3/4 cups sweet potato. For alternative microwave method see notes beneath recipe.
- Lower oven temperature and pre-heat oven to 355ºf or 180ºc.
- Put first seven dry ingredients in a large size bowl (oats through to optional coffee granules). Mix until all the ingredients until are evenly dispersed.
- In the same bowl toss in the last four ingredients (oil through honey).
- Using a stick blender, blend your ingredients until you can barely see the oats and all the ingredients are well mixed in to each other. Your brownie batter will be thick . (If you do not have a stick blender, you can simply mix your ingredients together using a spatula or spoon but make sure to mash your sweet potato very well before adding it to the brownie mixture in this case. Also you might see some oats in the baked brownies if you do not use a blender but they will still be very fudgey!)
- Place brownie mixture into lightly greased square brownie pan. Smooth out the top with back of metal spoon (batter with be a bit sticky).
- Lick spoon clean (not optional) 😉
- Bake for fifteen minutes. A toothpick will not come out clean but they will continue to bake as you take them out of the oven and leave them to sit. The top of the brownies should have a bit of a sheen to them and be fully cooked.
- Let sit for 15 minutes. Cut carefully using a knife and Voila! Enjoy!
Notes
- – If you are using microwaved sweet potato, this will result in your sweet potato not being as sweet – I would then recommend to add two more tablespoons of syrup or honey. Microwave sweet potato by washing sweet potatoe, poking holes all over it with a fork, and putting it in a large bowl with a bit of water. Microwave for five minutes until soft when poked with a fork.
- – If you do not have cane sugar on hand use brown sugar
- – If you do not have any coconut oil on hand you can also use walnut oil, canola oil, peanut oil…
- – If you are used to a very sweet brownie I would add in 2 more tbsp of honey or syrup – using the amount in the recipe yields a “dark chocolate” brownie – so slightly less sweet 😉
- – if you do not have sweet potato on hand, you can also use pureed pumpkin or applesauce (I have not tried the applesauce but I am almost positive it would work!)
- – If you are opposed to using coffee use your favourite type of hot milk instead
- Nutritional Benefits: High in Vitamin A and manganese, no cholesterol, and also provides you with a healthy dose of fiber.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
My Question to you!
I love Christmas for many reasons – getting together with family, enjoying hot chocolate around the Christmas tree, and watching everybody open their gifts Christmas morning. I also love Christmas for the desserts – we always cook a lot of desserts around Christmas time in my family – pies, brownies, butter tarts, Christmas cookies… If I had to choose I love the warm apply pie with vanilla ice cream the best ….
What’s your favourite holiday dessert?
