Easy Vegan Brownies with Cashew Butter Icing for the 100th Post!

Since this marks the 100th post (Jennilicious 3, Veganne 97), I'm going all out with brownies. Well, they are actually for work, but I've been waiting for something good to blog about to celebrate the occasion.

I can't believe I've never blogged about these "Scrum-Diddly-Umptious Vegan Brownies" on Recipe Zaar because they is great. It is a good chocolate fix and no worries if you eat half of the pan in one sitting- it's only got 950 calories total so less than 500 calories for half (sans icing). Sometimes it comes out a little cakey, probably when I don't add the chocolate chips. But following the recipe as-is below makes the greatest brownies ever.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly spray or oil an 8 x 8 baking pan. Mix applesauce, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (and cinnamon if using) together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the applesauce mixture. Mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips (and walnuts if using). Spread in prepared pan and bake 25-30 min, until center is firm and not sticky. Cool completely before slicing.

I iced half of the pan with a concoction I made by heating together 3TB cashew butter and .25c soy milk. It wasn't very smooth and not what I wanted- good thing I only iced half. The taste was ok, but the consistency was off. Maybe I should have heated the cashew butter without the milk.

And the camera is dead. Gone to camera heaven. It took 10 pictures on 4 brand new batteries and acted strange. Anyone want to buy me a digital camera?