Incidentally-Vegan Brownie Experiment

Tonight I got the sudden urge to bake. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I know exactly why--we have no milk or eggs in our house.

I also have no car temporarily which means no quick trips to the grocery store for me. Growing up a country girl, I have learned to adapt.

Someday I'll tell my grandkids about how when I was their age there was no such thing as a quick trip to the grocery store in my best old-redneck-lady voice.
   "Well you see here dearie! First we had to go find a tractor that wasn't plowing something up. Then we had to go on and hitch it up to a covered wagon using our best old mare. It was 200 miles to the nearest general store, so that'd take about a day. It was always snowing too back then."

I think I've gotten off track.

Anyway, so I went back the basics like any good country girl would do. I started Googling for no milk, no egg recipes.

That didn't work.

They all called for vinegar. I don't stock vinegar for some reason. Maybe I should start.

Then I searched for vegan recipes realizing that I was going to omit animal products. (I'm giving myself way too much credit here.)

I stumbled upon a Pinterest board full of vegan dessert recipes. Yay for Pinterest!

But they all called for vinegar too. :/

Except for one, a brownie recipe from this blog.

It calls for a lot of a few simple ingredients I keep on hand. Luckily I had plenty of all of it.

I did get a little concerned when I read 1 cup of vegetable oil. Say what?! That's a lot of oil!

Oh well, Paula Deen's still kickin', and I've got a skinny husband. So why not?

Then I caught myself wondering if I should spray the pan before I put the batter in it.

Then I thought, 'Does this really need more grease?'

Ummm, no.

Sadly, I have really bad handwriting in syrup.

Finally (because I'm so daring and darling of course ;) ) I decided to experiment further and wrote J's name in caramel syrup on the batter before I threw it in the oven. This may be a culinary mistake...I'll blame it on love.

So around 30 minutes in the oven they were done!!!

Here's how they look right out of the oven. Someday,
they'll invent a way to upload smells so you can
understand how strong I am for waiting. ;) 

When your inner child is a little too much like honey boo boo, waiting for brownies to cool seems ridiculous. So I would normally dig right in. But tonight I decided to practice restraint and wait for J to get home. So I'm going to leave you in suspense until tomorrow about how they taste.

Update!

They taste really good, but they are very crumbly. The syrup didn't add a lot to the flavor, but I think if I had added more of it would have made more difference and been very nice. Overall I'd say it's a win. :)