Mmm! Coconut Fudge Brownies!

Wow!  I'm baking!  And making up my own recipes! I never would'a thunk it! I am very happy with how these brownies turned out.

Loving the vegan ice cream made from coconut milk, I assumed I would love the coconut milk itself, so I bought some. In the glass, it did not appeal to me at all, tasting like melted lard because of the high fat content. So I had to find something to do with the rest of the carton of coconut milk. That's how this idea started. I checked a few brownie recipes to get an idea of liquid-to-dry ingredient ratios and cooking times, but then I changed everything. I didn't include oil since the coconut milk is fatty -- and I didn't miss it. The brownies are deliciously moist. I didn't use sugar -- I used date sugar instead, which is really only finely crushed dates. These brownies turned out to be subtly sweet which lets the sweetness of the ghirardelli chocolate shine! Here's the recipe:

Coconut Fudge Brownies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. date sugar
1 3/4 c. unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 c. applesauce
1/2 c. unsweetened coconut flakes (I used large flakes but you could use small instead)
3/4 c. ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8" square glass pan with earth balance. Combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips and coconut flakes and stir well. Combine coconut milk and applesauce separately and stir well, then add the mixture to the dry ingredients, incorporating completely. Stir in the chocolate and coconut. Spread the mixture in the pan and bake for 30 minutes, then raise heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 5 minutes to crisp the top. While the brownies are baking, have fun licking the mixing bowl. It's vegan! No salmonella risk from eggs! Cool completely on a wire rack.


In this blog I want to periodically feature little snippets of my midlife vegan life around here if it seems you readers might get a kick out of them. As vegans, we are animal lovers. Here are my lovely animals!

This is a pretty funky photo of Emma (right) and Ellie (left) which would benefit from an explanation. My daughter alerted me to check out the dogs, who were lounging in an amazing pattern, head to tail, with rounded backs, looking very much like a yin yang symbol. As I snuck up on them with my camera and focused, in one spastic move, Ellie, ready for her close up, apparently, leaped over Emma and landed dramatically thus, in a frozen position. She is voguing here, Miss drama. Emma never budged. This is a perfect example of their personalities.

Enjoy the brownies!