Go to the Recipe: Impossibly Good: The Ultimate Plant-Based Brownie
I just made these for the first time and I had to make a few substitutions. I had to use brown sugar, plain vegetable oil, and Droste cocoa powder. Flavor and texture were great, but they were surprisingly muted and not very sweet.
I suspect my alterations had less acid so the baking soda ate up all the acidity. So, I made a quick syrup of lemon juice, cointreau, and sugar and drizzled it over. After a few minutes it soaked in and it was much brighter!
I will absolutely make these again, but with my ingredients I plan to experiment with part baking powder instead of all baking soda.
If we don't list the convection or super convection then it is fan off.
I wish you guys would put fan on or off for using smart oven
Hello Andrew. Recipe remains unchanged with white, golden or Japanese sweet potatoes. The orange variety has more water content than all the other varieties.
Made this with a purple sweet potato and it came out amazing! Thank you. But now I can only find the white Japanese sweet potatoes. Please confirm to follow the recipe as is and not 50 g less water as mentioned in the recipe for regular sweet potatoes.
Didn’t have all the ingredients, so subbed in wheat flour, butter & regular orange sweet potato, and 25% of the sugar for erythritol, but it still came out incredibly rich and delicious. I’m a very happy omnivore but the plant based recipes have been such a great learning experience to explore in Chefsteps, thanks heaps!
I m really digging the plethora of plant based recipes coming from Chefsteps, thanks guys. Any plans on developing an impossible burger/beyond meat type of meat replacement? I would really like to see your take on that!
These are interchangeable.
Any thoughts about using chia seeds as egg replacement instead of the flax seed "egg"? We have this on hand more consistently.
There is balance in sweetness here. I wouldn't reduce any more than 25%. Please let us all know what the results are.
Is this brownie on the sweet side, considering 425 g of sugar? How much can I reduce the sugar without affecting the brownie texture significantly?
Typically you can swap cassava flour 1:1 for wheat flour. If using whole wheat I would do a slightly lesser amount at 90% since it will absorb more moisture.
These tend to have more structure the longer they rest. Bake one day and enjoy the next. They are very tender if you try to enjoy them right after baking.
any thoughts on flour substitution if we are ok w/ using whole wheat or AP flour ?
I made these and the flavor was really good but they just fell apart (only subs I made were using Earth Balance vegan butter in place of palm oil and a white Japanese sweet potato instead of purple). Is that just down to using the cassava flour vs. AP flour, or is there something else I could do in the future to mitigate that?
I totally agree - Chefsteps seems like the ideal team to find alternatives to animal products from the "modernist" toolkit
For the record, 2 eggs made the brownies too cakey IMO.
Thank you.
How many eggs to replace the flax? Is it a direct 1:1? Thanks
Nope, proceed as normal recipe.
Tips in recipe suggest with orange variety, reduce water by 50g. If using white variety is there a water alteration as well?
There will still be a reaction with the baking soda base and the melted chocolate in the batter. The baking powder doesn't rely on an acid to react since it is included in the powder. The level of reaction is what will change from cocoa to cocoa. Baking powder will add some extra fluff and make it more cake like. Density is what we are going for here to keep it fudge like.
Howdy chefdave, You for sure can. The color will be lighter and flavor will be as good as the cocoa you use. The reaction with the baking soda will be a touch loftier in the brownie.
Since Dutch process cocoa isn't acidic, it doesn't react with alkaline leaveners like baking soda to produce carbon dioxide. That's why recipes that use Dutch process cocoa are usually leavened by baking powder, which has a neutral pH.
But you are using dutch cocoa and baking soda . What am I missing ?
Can I substitute Hersey's 100% cacao natural , unsweetened or Fry's premium cocoa for the dutch chocolate
See the tip under Step 1. I recommend using a white flesh variety before going with the orange flesh types.
Earth Balance for "butter" blend. Nutiva for a non-hydrogenated shortening. Red palm oil for flavor. Coconut oil works very well too.
you mentioned red palm oil be substituted w/ vegan butter - any specific brands that work well since red palm oil is quite expensive ? also part of the learning experience (and paying for studio pass) is to understand why certain things work- so will be great to know why red palm oil was chosen.
thank you so much for adding more plant based recipes!!
see step 4
can you substitute any other sweet potato four the purple?
The flax seed egg is missing in step 6?
The frosting and brownies are on the list for trying out. Need to go get some purple sweet potatoes.
