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Easy Eggless Brownies using Silken Tofu
September 22nd, 2008 Madhuram Posted in Brownies | 
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I chose Silken Tofu as this month’s egg substitute for the Egg Replacement Event, because I got a stunning result with this cake. So I thought that replacing tofu for eggs is going to be a breeze. Boy, I was so wrong! There are so many things to be taken into consideration while baking using egg substitutes and especially with silken tofu. I tried three recipes and only one turned out good. I don’t know what went wrong in the other 2 recipes. Is it the recipe or my baking method or the tofu?
I want to share my experience with tofu with all of you. Hope I will be able to convey it all in a clear and concise manner. Feel free to skip my ramblings in the box below, if you simply want a recipe to bake eggless brownies.
I bought Nasoya’s Silken Tofu as I did for the eggless chocolate cake. My son has started preschool and next month he is responsible for providing snacks for his classmates for 2 days. So I thought I will try something now and if it comes out well, I can bake them again next month. Since I wanted to send something healthy, I decided to try oatmeal raisin cookies from here. The 5 tablespoons of margarine impressed me especially to try this recipe. I decided to follow the recipe as it is, but for using 1/4 cup pureed tofu instead of the 1 egg mentioned in the recipe. To start with, I was not able to beat the 5 tablespoons of margarine to a creamy consistency. The margarine was nice and soft, but most of it was just sticking around the bowl. Even after adding sugar and beating it with a hand held electric mixer, I did not see anything creamy. Then I did another blunder of adding the pureed tofu and beating it again, just to see the tofu curdle. Small tofu lumps were swimming in a white color water. Inspite of this, I continued to proceed with the recipe. I poured the entire mixture of creamed margarine, sugar and tofu in a blender and blended it until nice and smooth and to my surprise it did look good. Nothing to complain at all.
Another substitution I made was adding 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour instead of entire 1 cup all purpose flour. Mixed the flour, oats and raisins with the wet mixture and got a big ball of cookie dough. It was not moist like the other cookie doughs I have handled so far. I was able to roll them into balls easily and placed them on the baking sheet. I thought that while baking the dough would flatten, but it stayed just like that. So it did not cook properly and I had to keep increasing the time. For the second batch, I flattened the dough while placing it on the baking sheet and inspite of that it did not bake enough in the centre and I had to bake it for a couple minutes more for this batch too. It did not taste anything like the oatmeal raisin cookies I have eaten before. They were not baked enough, did not have the right texture and definitely not sweet enough. I think the result would be good, if the original recipe is followed. With so many substitutions by me, it was such a mess.
Then after going through a couple of books and other internet resources, I found that tofu works best in cakes and brownies. Ground flaxseed gives the desired results in cookies, especially oatmeal cookies. So decided to try a cake recipe using tofu. Since I have already baked a chocolate cake using tofu, I wanted to try a white cake this time. Found this recipe interesting because of it’s simplicity, fat content and good reviews. For this one I added 1/2 cup pureed tofu and sugar in a blender and blended it until creamy and followed the recipe exactly, but used muffin tins instead of a round cake pan.
Somebody in the review had mentioned that the muffins came out well and I wanted to try it out too. Even though it looked decent, it did not have a soft, spongy texture at all. So I was pretty sure that it’s not going to taste well and I was absolutely right. It had the texture of rubber and was way too sweet.
I was really disappointed about how these recipes had turned out. Since I started this blog in March, this is the first time my baking experiments have failed, especially two times in a row. I had only little tofu remaining and I decided to try another recipe immediately because the tofu has to be used within 3 days after opening the box.
This time I considered 2 points before chooshing a recipe, (a) there should not be any creaming involved (I think that beating the tofu was the mistake in the above two recipes) and (b) since my eggless chocolate cake came out so well, I wanted to try another recipe with cocoa. I don’t know if it’s just a sentiment or there is really some science behind it, just like coffee and cocoa, the tofu and cocoa combination also works like a charm. I tried this brownie recipe with tofu instead of eggs and got a wonderful result. We did not taste the tofu at all and I bet nobody could ever tell that they are eggless brownies. I also wanted to try a brownie recipe because the one which I have posted earlier was baked using a store bought mix, which I think is available only in US and Canada, maybe UK too.
The original recipe itself is very simple to follow, but I made it even easier by using just one mixing bowl. So it’s not only an eggless brownie but also a one dish brownie. Also these brownies are dense, moist and chewy.
2. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to a medium sized microwave safe bowl.
3. Melt the butter in the microwave. Mine took 1 minute to melt. First I timed it for 30 seconds, stirred it and kept it for another 30 seconds.
4. Remove the bowl from the microwave and let it stand for a minute.
5. Now add the cocoa powder to the melted butter and combine it well until the cocoa powder dissolves. I used a wire whisk.
6. Slowly add the sugar too and mix it well using a whisk.
7. The mixture will look very stiff, making you wonder if you are doing the right thing. So don’t panic.
8. Now add 1/4 cup pureed tofu and combine it well and then add the remaining 1/4 cup of tofu also and mix it well again.
9. Next add the vanilla and salt too.
10. Add the flour next and mix it until you no longer see any flour and also add the nuts or any other optional ingredients mentioned. Even now the dough is in a semi solid/spreadable butter consistency only. It’s not as watery as a cake batter that you can pour in a pan.
11. Grease a 8×8 inch pan with the butter wrapper and spread the batter evenly and bake it for 25 minutes. (See My Notes)
12. Cool completely before cutthing into squares.
2. Cooling completely is a very IMPORTANT point too. So leave it undisturbed until the bottom of the pan is completely cool or for 2-3 hours and then slice it. At first I tried to slice it while the pan was still mildly hot, but was not able to cut properly. So I left it cool overnight and sliced it in the morning and got nice, clean pieces.
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May 5th, 2009 at 1:27 am
has anyone actually tried this recipe, instead of just saying it looks good??? I want too, but was wondering if its good… also what kind of brownie is it… cakey? fudgy, or a combination?
April 30th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Hi Madhu,
Thanks to your recipe I had a perfect chocolate cake the first time I tried it yesterday ! I didn’t have Silken tofu but the Soft one instead. I used half of the quantity you suggested and half yogurt since I’d seen it as a substitute elsewhere and it came out fine.
I tried this nankhatai recipe the other day and it came out wonderful too: http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2008/09/30/nan-khatai/. And it is an eggless biscuit/cookie, though not your preferred lowfat kind
Thanks for trying the chocolate cake recipe Manju. I’ll check out the cookie recipe.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Hey there. Good recipe you got there.
I tink I’m going to cook it for my coursework practical. But I have some doubts and I hope you can clear it for me.
- How do you make pureed silken tofu?
- What type of tofu did you use?
- Must I really let it cool for that long?
I only had 2 hours for my practical. If I only let it cool for about 1 hour will it be very crumbly and not in shape?
Fazirah, thanks for your interest in this recipe. Now to answer your questions:
1. Measure the silken tofu first and the blend it in a blender/processor.
2. I used silken tofu. Don’t remember the exact brand, but I have used both Mori-Nu and Nasoya and both are good.
3. I have a suggestion for cutting the brownies but I’m not sure if it would speed up the process. Line the pan with aluminum foil so that you have foil hanging on all sides and lightly grease it. Then pour the batter and bake as usual. After sometime lift the foil carefully and then you should be able to cut them into squares.
February 21st, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Hi I tried baking the eggless brownies and they turned out fantastic
thanks alot
Just curious what does egg actually do while baking and how does toufu replace eggs?
Also wanted to ask why my brownies were more well done on the inside than on the top ?
thanks alot
Hi Henny, thank you for trying the recipe and for the feedback. I’ve explained about the role of eggs in baking here, please check it. In this recipe I think tofu acts as a binder to hold the batter together. Reg, the doneness, could you clarify whether the top was dry or did not cook.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Hi madhu
i have never come across such informative easily readable blogspace like urs. i really appreciate it. i have a question regarding sugar. i dont use white/brown sugar since they are refined using animal charcoal. so we use turbinado raw sugar for everything including baking cakes. but with that if i add less sugar the cake is good but not sweet. if i add more sugar it comes out charred and lose kind of. any suggestions? thanks once again.
Thank you very much Sai for your kind words. I have used turbinado sugar only once and that too to top the apple raisin muffins. So I’m not sure about using it. Anyway I’ll try to google. Or else what you can do is join veggieboards.com which is a forum for vegans and vegetarians. You can post your question there and I’m sure somebody will definitely answer. It’s a very active forum. I joined it but am not active. If I remember the password and stuff I’ll also ask it for you.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Hi, I asked the question , How to make Silken Tofu before but got a late reply . Here is the link to one of those videos showing you how to make Silken Tofu. Here is the link == http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6mhiBuGV3w. There are many others but this was the first video I checked out and like.
Thanks Koren, I’ll check it out.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:19 am
No, not at all, I think it’s pretty indiscernible. Coconut oil becomes solid in temperatures below 24 degrees celsius, so I had to melt it in the microwave first, just like butter. I used the same measurement as you suggested for butter, too.
Thanks J.U. Back in India we use considerable amount of coconut oil for cooking and hair care, but I never thought of using it in baking.
November 11th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I baked these last night using coconut oil instead of butter (so they would be vegan), whole wheat flour and brown sugar. They came out great! Everybody loved them and I had to promise to bake another batch soon. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!!
Thank JU for the feedback. I didn’t know that we could bake with coconut oil? Does the brownies have a “coconutty” taste?
October 18th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Madhu, since I am a total blur at baking, wanted to ask:
a)what kind of sugar do u suggest, powdered or granulated/ white/brown ?
b) what size baking tin can be used to get the same height as your brownies ?
c) Is the recipe adaptable to Microwav cooking ?
Thanks a lot
Rashmi, as I have mentioned in my initial posts, if I can bake anybody can. It’s true that at first it seems like a “rocket science” thing. But in reality it’s as simple as cooking. The more and more you bake the more and more easy it will become and in no time you will get addicted. But I have to mention another point to, since baking is a science, following measurements, knowing the purpose of baking soda, baking powder are essential. Unlike cooking, the chances of messing up are on the higher side, atleast initially or when we try to create our own recipes. So at first following recipes as it is the key to have successful result, which will in turn make you confident to bake further.
1. Reg. sugar, again follow the recipe. Both sugars have different properties. Sometimes I use a combination of brown sugar and white sugar in the same recipe.
2. I used a 8×8 inch pan.
3. I’m not comfortable using a microwave oven for baking. I did try once, but the result was not favorable. Using a microwave oven with bake mode will definitely yield expected outcome, but I used the regular m/w oven. One of the visitor tried brownies in a m/w oven, check it out in the list here:
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2008/10/17/egg-replacement-event-silken-tofu-round-up/
September 30th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Hi,
The brownies look absolutely divine.I live In Mumbai and dont know if silken tofu is available here.Is it alright to use Paneer instead of Tofu? sonds absurd since one is a soy product and the other is dairy. But, was just wondering. Please advise. Thanks.
Welcome Shubha and thanks. I think it is available and the brand name is MoriNu. Recently I saw a food blogger from Mumbai using it in her dish. If I’m right paneer cannot be used in place of tofu because it does not have the properties of silken tofu, especially the texture. I think heavy cream would be alright, but anyway it’s a guess too.