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These vegan brownies are truly the best. Fudgy and gooey in the middle with the crackly tops, they are easy to make and use simple ingredients!
Love vegan desserts? Try vegan chocolate chip cookies, vegan blondies, and vegan cookie dough.
These brownies are proof that vegan desserts can taste like the real thing.
After months of recipe testing, I’ve developed what has been awarded as the best vegan brownies you’ll ever eat. They have crackly tops, gooey centers, crisp and ever-so-slightly cakey edges, and pools of melty chocolate throughout.
Trust me, this vegan brownie recipe is such a keeper, even non-vegans are OBSESSED.
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- Perfect texture. Gooey, chewy, and loaded with tons of chocolate chips.
- One bowl. Everything is made in one bowl, so clean-up is a freeze.
- No strange ingredients. No milk or milk substitutes are needed, including soy or almond milk. Also, no black beans, chickpeas, or sneaky ingredients that should NOT belong in desserts.
Ingredients needed
Unlike other vegan dessert recipes, these ones use simple pantry staple ingredients and nothing hard to find. Here is what you’ll need:
- Flax Eggs– The best egg substitute to use for these brownies.
- Black Coffee- My secret ingredient! Coffee brings out the chocolate flavor, with no taste of coffee at all.
- Chocolate Chips- Skip the expensive store-bought kind and make your own vegan chocolate chips.
- Coconut Sugar- To sweeten the brownies and give them gorgeous crackly tops! White or brown sugar also works.
- Vegan Butter– Be sure to use good quality vegan butter, preferably from a stick. Vegan butter from a stick contains less added water, which yields a better brownie texture. I adore Miyokos butter which seriously could have me fooled for the real thing. You can also use vegan margarine.
- Vanilla Extract- A must for any good brownie recipe!
- All-Purpose Flour- Also known as plain flour, I used gluten-free all-purpose flour, to keep these brownies gluten-free, too.
- Cocoa Powder- Unsweetened and natural cocoa powder. Dutch processed cocoa will also work but sometimes can affect if the tops become crackly.
- Baking Powder- Leavening agent to help the brownies rise.
- Salt- Just a pinch to bring out the natural sweetness.
How to make vegan brownies
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Prep the flax egg. Start by preparing the flax egg by combining the ground flaxseed with the brewed coffee. Let it sit for 10 minutes for a gel to form.
Step 2- Make the batter. Next, melt the chocolate, either in the microwave or using a small saucepan over the stove. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, melted chocolate, and prepared flax eggs and whisk well, until combined and glossy. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until just combined. If you like, fold through more chocolate chips.
Step 3- Bake. Now, transfer the batter into a greased square pan. Bake the brownies for 27-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out mostly clean. Remove the brownies from the oven and let them cool completely, before slicing and serving.
Tips to make the best recipe
- Do not over-mix the batter. There’s often the fear that brownies may turn out crumbly, and the number one reason for that is mixing the batter a little too thoroughly. You want the ingredients to be ‘just’ combined- Enough that no extra flour or sugar remains.
- Avoid over-baking the brownies as they continue to cook as they are cooling in the pan.
- For ultra gooey brownies, remove them around the 30-minute mark. If you’d prefer more chewy vegan brownies, keep them closer to 35 minutes.
- For easy removal, keep an inch of extra parchment paper/baking paper hanging over the sides. Once your brownies are ready to cut, simply remove themfrom the pan and slice.
Dietary swaps and substitutions
These brownies are super forgiving, and can easily be adapted for various diets or ingredient swaps.
- Make it gluten-free. Swap out the flour for gluten-free all-purpose flour that has added xanthan gum.
- Cut the sugar. Use a sugar substitute, like a brown sugar substitute. You can use swap out the chocolate chips for sugar free chocolate chips.
- Add frosting. A simple dairy free frosting or, for a healthy twist, a healthy frosting.
- Use different egg substitutes. Flax eggs work best, but you can also try one of these egg substitutes for baking.
- Add mix-ins. Fold through some chopped walnuts, vegan white chocolate, or even candy bits.
Storage instructions
To Store: Store leftovers in the refrigerator, to ensure they remain fresh. They are super gooey and fudgy, so the chilled temperature will ensure they don’t spoil.
To Freeze: Wrap them in parchment paper individually, and place them in a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer. They will keep well frozen for up to 6 months.
More vegan desserts to try
Fudgy Vegan Brownies
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 6 tablespoon brewed coffee can use for water
- 2 cup vegan chocolate chips divided
- 1 cup coconut sugar * See notes
- 6 tablespoon vegan butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour can use gluten-free all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line a square pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Prepare your flax egg by combining your ground flaxseed with your brewed (chilled) coffee. Let it sit for 10 minutes, to form a gel.
- In a microwave-safe bowl or stovetop, melt one cup of chocolate chips of choice. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add your vegan butter and coconut sugar, and whisk well. Add in your prepared flax eggs, melted chocolate, vanilla, and almond extract, and mix well, until glossy.
- Sift through your flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold through the remaining chocolate chips.
- Transfer your brownie batter into the lined pan. Bake your brownies for 27-30 minutes.
- Remove brownies from the oven and let cool completely, before slicing into 12 pieces.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published February 2020, updated March 2024
Hi, Arman.
I’ve baked this before exactly as the recipe stated and it was a huge success. This time around, I only have cake flour (I also have rice flour and corn starch if it helps at all) in my cupboards, and was wondering if I could use just cake flour for this brownie recipe? Or do you reckon this wouldn’t be a good swap at all? Thank you in advance!
I haven’t tried although previous experiments with cake flour often yields much softer recipes, so I’d assume it would do the same thing
Should the vegan butter be melted?
Softened is fine.
Do i melt the butter or solid?
Softened to room temperature.
I made these because I have a dairy intolerance and now finding out I might have an egg intolerance. They were really good! Thanks for the recipe. I eyeballed the salt and ended up putting too much in, we pretended they were salted chocolate brownies. 😀
Does anyone used oil instead of vegan butter?
They are very yummy and chewy! Love them 😍
can you use apple sauce or Bananas instead of the vegan eggs ?
Try one of these egg substitutes.
I have 2 questions. The first one is that in the ingredients it only mentions vanilla extract, but in the recipe it Also mentions almond extract. Did I miss it somewhere? Also I made these exactly as written taking the tips into account. I uses the pillsbury GF 1:1 flour, I only mixed/folded until dey and wet ingredients were incorporated. I took the brownies out at 30 min mark and let them cool. Tried them when ready and they were slightly crumbly, dry, and really salty. I was disappointed BC I spent $7 on this one batch. Could you please help me figure out where I went wrong.
Does the butter need to be melted or softened?
Softened is fine 🙂
Really great recipe. I tried it out last night swapping white sugar for the coconut sugar, but did everything else the same. My batter came out sooo thick (literally as thick as a bread dough). I couldn’t figure out why, but i just added in some oat milk to loosen it. Seemed to do the trick because the brownies were crackly on top, chewy inside and absolutely delicious. I’ve tried numerous vegan brownie recipe’s and this is the first one to actually taste like brownies and not just chocolate cake. Thanks!!!
do you have to melt the butter or have it just softened?
Softened 🙂
Hey, I used Oats flour instead of all purpose flour and oil instead of butter.
The taste is perfect but my brownies are too oil, it’s like oozing oil. What must have happened, I am still tring to figure out.
Probably has to do with the oat flour and the oil, as I didn’t try this recipe out with either of those.
Any thoughts on using almond flour vs all purpose?
Not recommended for this!
hii! can i use vegan margarine instead of butter?
I don’t see why not!
Flax eggs wont overpower the taste of brownies?
Not at all 🙂