Chocolate Pudding Cake Brownies

 The Boyfriend dropped hints twice last week that he had a taste for brownies.

Being the great Girlfriend that I am, I hightailed it to the store, bought all kinds of ingredients, and made him a huge batch of decadent, rich, chocolate vegan brownies from scratch!

Just kidding. But I did stumble upon this girl's blog, and saw a recipe for brownies, and although she isn't vegan, I simply changed the cows milk to almond milk and ta-da! It already didn't call for any eggs or oil, and her millions of readers were shocked, but I haven't been using eggs, milk or oil in my baking for three years. If you are baking with a recipe that calls for eggs and you really don't think you can get away without using them, you can substitute for 1/2 cup of applesauce or 1/2 of a banana. Eggs are to hold things together, and applesauce and bananas are binders are well. I usually omit apples, bananas, and of course eggs and find that the baking is still just as good. As far as oil, I only sometimes use it, mostly not, and again, find it comes out fine.

Chocolate Pudding Brownies
1 package chocolate cake mix
1 package chocolate pudding mix
2 cups vanilla almond milk

These are the ingredients. Pretty easy so far, right?

 I know the brand is Jello-O, but there is no gelatin or dairy in this pudding.

 Why don't vegans eat Jell-O? Jell-O, as well as gummy bears, marshmallows, and jelly beans, contain gelatin, and gelatin comes from the ground up connective tissue, tendons and bones of animals. When you boil the tendons and bones and then grind them up, you have gelatin. It is an "animal by-product" and therefore not vegetarian or vegan. You can still eat it if you wish, just be informed and aware of what you are eating.

 Mix the 2 cups of milk with the pudding and whisk together. Add boxed cake mix. It will be a little thick, but whisk together for a minute or two and then pour into cake or brownie pan. I topped mine with vegan chocolate nibs.

Bake at 375 for anywhere from 28- 38 minutes, depending on your oven. I may have put them back in after this for a little longer. I'm starting to think my oven isn't as good as some others because my timing is usually longer than the timing on the instructions say.

 When this came out of the oven, I couldn't wait to try it. I should have waited for it to cool. I shouldn't have had as much as I did. Woulda coulda shoulda ;)  But I cut right into it.

 The texture was out of this world. It was like a spongey cake with a pudding inside. It reminded me of a cake but tasted like brownies and pudding as well. I immediately got back onto the website where I found it and read the other reviews. There wasn't a single bad one, and other people were saying they used the recipe on their blog as well. And now I'm doing the same, because it's just that good.





If you like chewy brownies, this one is for you. I had a few small pieces like the one above, and when I came home from work, the pan was gone, and I had a feeling it wasn't the cat, who was looking awfully innocent...

Enjoy, and let me know if you try it!