When in doubt, bake

Today's exam went pretty well. By 1.30pm, one exam, an intense HIIT session and an office hour for international monetary economics done, I got home and didn't know what to do with myself! The plan was to revise for my next exam, but to be fair, I felt like my brain had done enough hard work for the day and needed a little break!

Once I managed to do a little preparation for one of my interviews for an Accounting graduate scheme coming up soon, I headed out to town to get inspired for my next experimental baking session. 

I ended up in Chinatown and once I stepped into my favourite Asian supermarket I knew that it had to be tofu related! I quickly turned to my phone for some tofu baking inspiration and realised that in the vegan world, baking with tofu wasn't such an unusual thing. After browsing several recipes and gathering inspiration from a few brownie recipes, I decided to make vegan tofu brownies, adjusted according to the ingredients I had at home. I have to admit that I wasn't too sure about final results but now that these little squares of Fudgy gooeyness have cooled and set, I can definitely say that these are worth a go if you are looking for a healthy alternative to chocolate cake/ brownies. 

Possible alterations: I used baby food/apple and pear purée( you can make your own, cooked down chopped up apple or pear or both with cinnamon until soft enough to mash) here as a substitute for oil/ sweetener, however if you don't wish too, I would add 20g more tofu, a tiny bit more oil and honey. I only use 50 g of honey here as I rather like a slightly bitter taste to my chocolate baked goods, definitely add more if you have a sweet too. Also, next time I will definitely fold in dark chocolate chips and walnuts before baking, yum! Also, do make sure that you use silken tofu( super soft type) and not the firm type!
Note that these are only vegan if you use dairy free chocolate. Ok I will stop rambling on now, recipe is as follows:

SILKEN TOFU BROWNIES

• 170 g silken tofu
• 50 g honey (or more)
• 20 g olive oil (or coconut oil)
• 65 g dark chocolate, melted
• 50 g fruit based baby food/ apple sauce/ apple purée
• 20-25 g cocoa (more for bitter choc taste)
• 80 g whole wheat flour
• 0.5 tsp baking soda
• 0.25 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tsp vanilla: optional but recommended
• Dark chocolate chips/ broken walnuts: optional

1. With a hand blender, blend the tofu until completely smooth. You could probably do this with a fork too as the tofu is so soft.

2. Add in the oil, honey, vanilla, apple purée and dark chocolate and mix thoroughly until well combined.

3. Fold in the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa and stir until you obtain a uniform batter (check picture below for consistency-thicker than normal cake batter). If using chocolate chips or walnuts, fold in now.

4. Spoon batter into a well greased oven dish and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 12 minutes, you really don't want to over bake these. You should be able to lightly press on the brownie without breaking the crust and it should feel soft and spongy to the touch. 

5.Remove and cool completely before cutting. These are best when well rested.

Also, with the other half of the tofu, I made a quick slap up dinner, stir fried some mushrooms, added in the tofu with a handful of spinach and a few teaspoons of oyster sauce, cooked for 2 minutes et voila! Topped with flaked almonds, I have them on everything nowadays, new found obsession adding the perfect crunch to any meal! It's hard to make tofu look pretty, but here you have it, tofu a la Katie.

NOTE: These do not taste of tofu! As I know a lot of people do not actually enjoy the taste of tofu, rest assured that the tofu here is used to add 'fudginess' to the brownies and does not add any taste.

Enjoy!!

Xx

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