This is our family brownie recipe. It’s not only plant-based but also gluten-free. Yum-Yum! The recipe is below.

My daughter @carleebusby is a functional nutritionist, and a frequent poster on our blog by the way, and she is the one who first tested this recipe and shared it with us. It’s certainly the best recipe to look up when your garden has given you loads of zucchini! Here is a quick story from my daughter @riannam about the last time we made this delicious recipe. She added this message in the Cooking Corner section of her company-wide email. I thought it was super cute, so I added it here. 

“I’m so thrilled I have such lovely updates for you this week! The most important one is The Brownies. My mother’s birthday was last week, so myself, my sister, and my mother got all the ingredients for our family’s gluten free, vegan brownies and baked the same recipe at the same time in three different states. It was a lovely celebration topped off with a margarita made with tequila I infused with pineapple rinds a couple weeks ago. If you’re interested, hit me up and I’ll send you our recipe!”

Ok, so the girls and I did do a video chat birthday cooking event, and other than making sure my phone was connected to power, it went super well. We followed the recipe together, but of course, each of us had a few ingredients that were slightly different. For example, the original recipe called for an egg. In my kitchen, I ended up using some applesauce in place of an egg, but one gal used an actual egg, and the other gal used egg replacement meal. The egg replacement and the kind of oven can affect how long the recipe cooks and how the consistency turns out. I believe the true egg brownie had a lighter crumb and my applesauce brownie was gooey.Why should you bake these?

• All plant powered
• Rich and satisfying
• Gluten-free
• Super chocolatey

So without delay, here’s the recipe.The Brownies
Ingredients:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Spray oil for greasing the pan⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1 cup of peanut butter⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1/2 cup pure maple syrup⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1/2 cup raw cacao powder⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1/2 teaspoon salt⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1 tsp baking soda⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1/4 applesauce (as an egg replacement)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2-3 small)⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1 cup dark chocolate chips⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Prep:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8×8 or 9×9 pan.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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In a large bowl combine peanut butter, maple syrup, cacao powder, salt, vanilla, apple sauce, and baking soda until smooth.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Stir in zucchini and chocolate chips.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Pour into greased pan and bake until just set and a toothpick comes out clean or with dry crumbs. Do not over bake. A 9×9 pan will take 35-45 minutes. An 8×8 pan will take 40-50 minutes. Depending on how fudgy you want these, you can cook more or less. Cool before slicing. Top with a light dusting of vegan powdered sugar.I had no idea that regular powdered sugar was processed by using bone char. If you’re not sure what bone char is or don’t dig bone char in your sugar, here’s a recipe to make your own. https://www.vegankitchenmagick.com/how-to-make-vegan-powdered-sugar/xoxo