One of the hardest parts of being a new vegan (or even an old seasoned vegan) is trying to keep up with all the new products out there. I must have spent over $50 looking for the "right" vegan cheese my first year being a vegan and I have over 50 vegan/vegetarian cookbooks in my arsenal but not all the recipes are the greatest. I’m the first born so I’m used to being a Guinea Pig and now I’m your Vegan Guinea Pig. So here are my recommendations and critiques. Let me know what you think!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Brownies Are For Lovers...

Ghirardelli brand chocolates is not only a chocolate lover's dream but a vegan's dream as well. For all those people who think being vegan is inaccesible, hard and you have to go to a bunch of special stores to get good vegan vittles I say nay to you! I picked up a box of Ghirardelli chocolate double chocoalte brownie mix (with chocoalte chips in the mix) for $1.50 at Target. Ghirardelli's brownies were almost good enough to make me stop making brownie's from scratch all together...almost.

The add in ingredients to the mix are 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup vegetable oil and 1 egg. You can easily substitute out 1/4 cup pureed soft silken tofu or 1 egg equivalent Ener-G egg replacer for the egg in the mix. Both ways come out great. You will need to increase the cooking time by about 2-3 minutes (you can tell it's done when a toothpick passes through clean).

Aside from the phenomenal taste, texture and ease of veganizing this brownie mix has the best directions of any mix I've seen. It not only has directions for metal pan baking but glass pan baking as well. I only have glass so for me this is a huge help as I'm always left with the task of trial and error trying to translate baking times to fit the pan I'm using.

There's also a great recipe for Seven Layer Brownie Bars on the back of the box, which can also easily be veganized by trading out Earth Balance margarine for the butter and oat milk for the sweetened condensed milk to make yummy Seven Layer Brownie Bars.

5 comments:

  1. I am SO glad that you posted this!! Ghirardelli brownies ROCK! Off to add them to the shopping list....

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  2. This post made my day!! I've been trying to figure out a way to make acceptable vegan brownies since I've been vegan. (about 3 years) I grew up on brownies. Heck, my sister didn't have a wedding cake when she got married, she had brownies!

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  3. Ghirarelli brownies make making your own brownies from scratch seem foolish lol. I lurve their brownies!
    ~SweetKaroline
    http://sweetkaroline.wordpress.com/

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  4. Wow, it never occurs to me to check things like this to see if they are vegan. I am so grateful for your blog! I am going to look for these the next time I am at the store.

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  5. I wonder if they have this in Sydney, Australia. Mum would love these, she's a chocoholic!

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