Happy Brownie Day

I was up before the sun this morning, so excited that the day was here. It isn't Christmas or my birthday, but National Brownie day, and having found out about this special day of chocolatey-ness late last night, I wanted to be up early before work to try out a new vegan brownie recipe.

It has been a long while since I've baked, and moving into a new place, this would also be my first opportunity to test out the oven. And while I can't say I'm totally happy with the results, as I always used to say, "Experiments are essential!"

Surfing the web last night, I discovered that December 8th is National Brownie Day, and looking for an excuse to indulge in chocolate (as if I needed one), I began searching for a quick easy recipe. Though I found one on allrecipes.com, there were many notes on adapting it and being inspired, I decided to adapt it myself to create a Mexican Vegan Chocolate brownie.

To cut down on the oil, I decided to follow the comments from the allrecipes.com recipe, and use 1/4 cup oil and 1/2 cup applesauce. Not having any applesauce, but lots of apples, I made my own by vita-mixing apples with just a bit of water. I've done it before and it's worked, and it worked again. So far so good.

To add the Mexican flavor, I decided to add 1 wedge of Ibarrra chocolate, labeled "Genuine Mexican Chocolate," to the 1/2 cup of water. And to bring out the chocolate taste, I also added 2 teaspoons of instant coffee. I used hot water to dissolve everything and poured that into the mixing bowl which had the 1 cup of flour and sugar. The recipe called for 1 cup of sugar; some comments used 3/4 cup, but to cut down on the sweetness I initially decided to use 1/2 cup (which I would discover wasn't quite enough.)

One of the comments from allrecipes.com said that the recipe was too crumbly and that for a more moist and firm brownie, mix the water with the flour and sugar first. So I did. When I added the hot Mexican mocha to the dry mix, everything began to gum up and I wondered if that would be a problem.

I went on to add 1/4 cup of oil, 1/2 cup of my homemade applesauce, and 1/2 teaspoon each of baking powder, salt, vanilla, and cayenne pepper (my addition to add the Mexican kick.) Mixing it together, it was looking "not so gummy." I was hopeful, but tasting it, I thought, "Bleck!" It was not right. "Too bitter," I thought, meaning - not enough sugar. Thus, I added another 1/4 cup, blended it in, sampled it, and felt better about my new creation.

Into a greased pan; into the 350 degree oven; and with no eggs to worry about, I licked the bowl totally clean, all before the sun came out.

My chocolate licking, however, came to an abrupt end when all of a sudden the fire alarm started going off. This was the first time using the oven in months, and probably years as the staff resident before me said she never used it. I figured the smoke was not from burning brownies, which I had just put it, but from the dust that had accumulated and fact that I had not turned on the fan. The fan along with windows opened helped air out the place and I could enjoy the bowl licking on this national chocolate holiday.

As I opened the windows, I did hear the rain coming down. And being a rainy day, the sun never really came out, but when the timer went off after 20 minutes to let me know the brownies were nearly down, there was a bit of light outside.

Though I checked for doneness, it was hard to tell with this black metal pan I was using. With the recipe saying 25, or 30 for more doneness, I gave this new creation another 3 just in case. In retrospect, I should have taken them out.

Though the edges were looking a bit "done," overall they looked good. After cooling them, I couldn't wait to sample. Hmm... While the texture was a bit dense, the flavor was excellent - a nice balance of sweet and spicy, just how I like my Mexican drinking chocolate.

There was something however that just wasn't right. The brownie was dense, but gummy not gooey. It was similar in texture to the chocolate vegan cake my partner made, using baking powder instead of the the required soda. Yet in double checking before and after this baking escapade, the recipe did call for baking powder, not soda. May be the hot water did mess up the glutenizing. Or may be my homemade applesauce substitution contained too much or too little of something.

Though I enjoyed the taste, these brownies would not be for public consumption. I would take one to the office, however, and get the opinion of one of my co-workers who's sampled enough of my experiments over the years to try it.

She agreed that the taste was nice -- with a subtle heat upon first bite, but kicking in with a nice warming sense toward the end. Her comment, "Did you bake these this morning?" "Yes" was my reply. "It's the rain" was her conclusion.

"The rain?" She proceeded to explain how the rain can mess up the best of bakers and recipes, herself included. I felt better about my little baking experiment gone gummy.

In spite the texture because of the weather (or possibly some other baking boo-boo), there is something homey about a vegan brownie with a nice Mexican chocolate bite paired with a cold cup of almond milk (or a scoop of coconut ice cream) on a wet wintry day. Not a bad way to spend National Brownie Day, if you ask me, especially when there's a whole 8x8 inch pan of brownies now waiting in my kitchen.

HAPPY BROWNIE DAY!