Nutrition
Calories: 243kcal | Carbohydrates: 43.8g | Protein: 10.1g | Fat: 4.9g | Fiber: 5.2g
These brownies are so fudgy and gooey, you would never believe that they are protein brownies! This recipe relies on tofu and soy flour for the protein so you don't have that artificial sweetness and weird texture you can get when baking with protein powder!
Servings
Ingredients
- 1 block Extra Firm Silken Tofu (Mori-Nu 12.3oz package)
- 3 tbsp vegan butter melted
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp soy milk
- 1 cup soy flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F
- In a medium-large bowl, mush tofu with a spatula until smooth (you can also use a blender to get it extra smooth, but not necessary)
- Once tofu is smooth, add in melted butter, sugar, vanilla and soy milk. Whisk together until well mixed
- In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients – soy flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder
- Slowly add the dry ingredients into your wet tofu mixture. Mix until well combined. This is an arm workout. Feel free to use a hand mixer or stand mixer to make it easier.
- If baking dish is not non-stick, you may want to spray some oil onto the bottom and sides or line with parchment paper
- Pour brownie batter into baking dish
- Cook for 30 – 35 minutes. Toothpick shouldn't come out completely clean because these will need to rest for at least 2 hours before serving. If you don't like gooey, fudgy brownies, you could cook these a little longer.
Equipment
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9" x 9" baking dish (I use Pyrex)
Did you make this recipe?Mention @proteindeficient.vegan
Brownies that use tofu and soy flour might sound weird, and maybe they are weird, but they taste great and have way more protein than your average brownie. A lot of protein brownie recipes you might see use protein powder; they inevitably end up having that protein powder artificial sweetness and also a graininess in the texture. I may be in the minority, but I don’t really love the taste of protein powder, so I usually hate recipes that use it.
What I do to determine if a protein powder recipe is good, is ask myself if it tastes about 90% as good or better than the food would without protein powder (whether that’s a cookie, brownie, whatever), or if I would be better off eating the normal food and drinking a protein shake. My answer is almost always drink the protein shake and eat the normal cookie (etc.), which is why I rarely cook with protein powder.
The good thing about silken tofu and soy flour is that they are virtually flavorless. In this High Protein Brownie recipe, they don’t really change the taste or texture of what you would expect from a brownie, and I personally think this brownie is just as good as a normal fudgy, gooey chocolatey brownie. So if I have convinced you to try a tofu brownie, let me know what you think!
Ingredients
- Extra Firm Silken Tofu – as always, my go-to brand for Extra Firm Silken Tofu is Mori-Nu. You can buy it online from their website or an Amazon. It’s also usually available at most grocery stores in the International Food Aisle; this is a shelf stable product and doesn’t require refrigeration (until after opening). There are other types of silken tofu as well – a refrigerated option, as well as different firmness options. You should be able to use any of these other types, but note that it may change the texture slightly and could also alter the calories and macros a bit.
- Vegan Butter – I like using Miyoko’s butter but any vegan butter will work. We will be melting the butter in this recipe.
- Sugar – I used white sugar for this recipe. If you are trying to cut back on sugar, date sugar would also work fine.
- Soy Milk – out of all the non-dairy milks, Soy Milk is my go-to for its creaminess and high protein content. You could swap this for a different non-dairy milk, but the calories and macros may end up a little different.
- Soy Flour – I haven’t seen this in many grocery stores, but they do carry it on Amazon and other online retailers. I’ve been using it in a lot of recipes lately and it works about the same as normal flour, but obviously it has wayyyy more protein per calorie, so if you swap this for normal flour, your macros will not be as good.
- Cocoa Powder – Use your favorite cocoa powder here. Do NOT sift your cocoa powder unless you want a cake instead of a brownie. Ask me how I know 🙂
- Vanilla Extract – vanilla is the garlic of sweet foods. Measure with your heart!
- Salt, Baking Powder, Baking Soda – we’re baking, so we need these!
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F
- In a medium-large bowl, mash the silken tofu with a spatula until it’s very smooth. You could also use a blender here to get it extra smooth and to save time, but it’s not necessary (and also creates more dishes). You want to make sure you’ve smoothed out the larger chunks of tofu though. I like to kind of smoosh/press the tofu into the side of the bowl with a spatula to smooth it out.
- Once the tofu is smooth, melt your butter in a glass (or microwavable) bowl. This should only take about 30 – 45 seconds.
- Mix together your smooth tofu, melted butter, vanilla, sugar and soy milk. Whisk them together until they are mixed well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients – soy flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder. You could technically just dump all these on top of the wet ingredients without mixing them first if you’re trying to not dirty a bunch of dishes, but whisking the dry ingredients separately is a good way to make sure the salt, baking powder and baking soda are well mixed throughout the brownie batter.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients into your wet tofu mixture. Mix until well combined. I like to pour half of the dry ingredients, stir really well, and then add the rest and stir again. I just think this is easier and less messy. You could also use a hand or stand mixer, because it is definitely an arm workout. The texture should not be runny at all, but very fudgy.
- Choose your 9″ x 9″ baking dish. If it’s not a non-stick dish, you should spray a little bit of oil on the bottom and sides to make sure the brownies actually come out! You could also line your baking dish with parchment paper if you prefer that.
- Pour the brownie batter into the baking dish, and smooth/even out with your spatula.
- Cook for about 30 – 35 minutes. The toothpick shouldn’t be completely clean because this is supposed to be a fudgy brownie recipe. If you don’t like fudgy, gooey brownies, I guess you could cook yours longer?
- I like to let the brownies rest for about 2 hours before serving, so they set up. Ok, like is a strong word. I tolerate them resting for 2 hours (sometimes) for the greater good – they really do taste better once they’ve set, but it’s so hard to resist eating them immediately.
Silly Little Haiku
Tofu in Brownies
Sounds weird, but it tastes so good
Tofu is magic
Author
Protein Deficient Vegan
