But now it's Lent and I'm doing my usual 'let's go vegan for 40 days' spiel. I admire everyone who can stick to it but I normally don't have the willpower to keep going. 40 days is about as long as I can keep going until I feel like I'm going to die on the spot if I can't have some cheesecake or even something as simple as salt and vinegar crisps (why do they have to add milk powder to everything on this planet?)
But enough feeling sorry for myself. I made some vegan brownies when I came across two bars of Lindt chocolate in my cupboard. The recipe is based on Nigella Lawson's brownies (the best brownies EVER), feel free to replace the egg replacement with your choice of mashed up banana or oil or whatever you tend to use but I keep thinking that there is a reason the people who designed egg-replacement are being paid for it - it just works really well. Then again, that's just a personal preference.
200g margarine
200g nice dark chocolate
egg replacement for 4 eggs
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
250g caster sugar
125g plain flour
a pinch of salt
150 or so g chopped walnuts (I sometimes use some ground almonds to replace some of the walnuts....don't replace all the chopped nuts with ground ones though....been there done that....not a good idea....)
I used a 26cm springform tin because my brownie tin has gone missing.....if you read this and have my brownie tin can you let me know? :)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, line and slightly oil your tin and then melt the marg an the chocolate together, add the vanilla extract, the sugar and the salt. Mix the dry ingredients and then mix everything together. If you're using egg replacement make sure you don't forget the water it tells you to add. Once it's all mixed together, add the nuts and potentially some oil if it looks a bit too dry.
Pour everything into the tin and put it into the oven for about 18-20 minutes (adjust it so the brownies are as goooey as you want them (don't forget they keep cooking even after you've removed them from the oven...and there's no eggs you need to be worried about....)
Hmmm.....I think I'm going to eat some more brownies now.
