
I’m not vegan – mostly due to my inability to live without butter, butter is my love language – but I’m a curious, adventurous even, eater/ baker and I’ll try anything once.
Although I eat and cook a lot of plant-based meals, when it comes to vegan baking I’ve always been a bit skeptical…maybe because when I first tried a vegan cinnamon roll years ago at my local bakery it was disappointedly dry and doughy – and not in a good way, and I seemed to have made an unconscious decision at that moment to steer clear of vegan desserts. It would be years until I tried a vegan baked good again.
It turns out I was a little bit wrong. I made a vegan chocolate cake the other day for the first time, substituting the eggs for applesauce and I was absolutely shocked to learn there was no telling it was a vegan cake. As much as I love the beautiful process of beating the eggs and the butter for minutes straight, until it becomes the loveliest, lightest and fluffiest cream, I have to admit… the vegan cake was just as moist and delicious.
So it was time for a new venture: vegan almond butter brownies. What could go wrong? Almond butter is just a better and improved version of peanut butter, so it was bound to be a success. I was excited.
I tried Liv B.’s recipe because when I saw it out of nowhere on my feed I one day I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And let me preface by saying the recipe is great, and she did warn me about the almond butter, but I think I still got the wrong kind. My brownies turned out a bit on the cake-y side. I like a good old fudgey brownie so that was slightly disappointing.. I do blame it on the almond butter though, so here’s my advice: make sure you really get the runniest kind possible! Having said that, the brownies came out delicious and I’ll be making it again. I like using chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips, so I also recommend doing that. Maybe also don’t skip the ice cream like I did (I was out). It’s an integral part!
Vegan Almond Butter Brownies

- 1 cup almond butter (very runny kind)
- 3/4 cup sugar of choice (brown sugar works best!)
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt (unless your almond butter is salted, then do 1/4 tsp)
- 1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chunks

- Line a 9×9 square baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a mixing bowl, combine almond butter and sugar and beat until combined. Add almond milk, applesauce and vanilla and combine until smooth.
- In a separate bowl add cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt and mix until combined. Mix dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Add chocolate chunks and fold in until combined.
- Spoon batter into parchment-lined pan. It is very thick, so spread with a spatula or use oiled fingers to press batter into an even layer.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the brownies (not into a melted chocolate chip) comes out with a few crumbs. It should be done at around 25 minutes but some ovens may need slightly more or less time.
- Allow to cool for a while before slicing.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temp or 5 days in the fridge.