Vegan Brownie Cupcakes

Vegan Brownie Cupcakes Recipe

Prep time: 15 Mins

Cook time: 23 Mins + Cooling Mins

Yields: 12 Cupcakes

A very simple recipe to bake healthy vegan brownies. But let me assure that it tastes like the regular brownies which are loaded with fat.

Ingredients

1 And 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar Or Sweetener (I Used Regular Sugar)
3/4 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce (I Used Nature's Promise Organic Applesauce)
2 Tablespoons Water
2 Teaspoons Flax Seed Powder
1/2 Cup Water
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract (I Used Trader Joes Pure Vanilla Flavor Alcohol Free)
1 And 1/3 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Cocoa (I Used Hershey's)
1 Cup Vegan Chocolate Chips (But I Used The Regular Nestle Ones)
1 Cup Optional Chopped Walnuts (I Omitted)
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes.
Coat an 8x8 inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. If you choose to bake brownie cupcakes, line a 12 muffin tin with muffin liners or coat with nonstick cooking spray itself.
In a medium size bowl, stir together sugar, applesauce and 2 tablespoons water.
Either mix flax seed meal with 1/2 cup water in a small cup or blend it in a blender.
Add the flax seed mixture and vanilla to the applesauce mixture and combine well.
In another small bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, chocolate chips and walnuts (if using).
Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture.
Stir just to combine, do not overmix.
Pour into prepare pan. If using a muffin tin, fill each mould 3/4ths full. The given measurement is perfect for 12 muffins, so divide the batter accordingly, which is around 3-4 tablespoons of batter in each cup.
The time given in the original recipe for baking in a brownie pan is 40 minutes for chewy brownies and 45-47 minutes for cake like brownies. But since I used a muffin tin to bake brownies, mine was done exactly at 23 minutes.
Once the cupcakes are out of the oven, leave it in the tin for 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack for the brownie cupcakes to cool completely.

Taste:

As for the taste, it was AWESOME. You can never guess that these are healthy brownies. They were so moist. I was not able to get the feedback from the children, but one of the teachers told me that it tasted very good and the children really enjoyed it.

My Notes:

While buying applesauce, check thoroughly the ingredients list. Some brands have very large amount of high fructose corn syrup, which increases the sugar content to 25gms per serving. I think unsweetened applesauce is available only in organic brands. The Nature's Promise brand is made only with organic apples and water. It does not have any additional sweeteners, so 1/2 cup serving has only 9gms sugar which is actually from the apples.
I used muffin liners to line the tin, which made the clean up also very easy. Another advantage of using muffin tins is, they cool in no time.
These brownie cupcakes taste better the next day of baking.