Chocolatey and moist vegan brownie cups filled with strawberry purée, and topped with vegan strawberry cream cheese frosting and a strawberry halve. Celebrate Valentines Day (or GALentines) with a batch of these dairy and egg free brownies! Your s/o will love them, I promise.
If you’re looking for more vegan Valentine’s Day desserts, check out my No-Bake Raspberry Cheesecakes (popular on my blog!) and my Chocolate Strawberry Scones (personal favourite)! I just love creating desserts with raspberries and strawberries. 💗
Ingredients
The brownies are made with the following ingredients:
Dry: all purpose flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, flax meal, baking powder, salt, vegan chocolate chips (any kind you want!)
Wet: melted vegan butter (not margarine), water, non-dairy milk (I recommend unsweetened), and unsweetened applesauce
The strawberry purée filling is made with fresh strawberries and granulated sugar blended together. Some of the purée will be added to the strawberry cream cheese frosting, which also includes vegan cream cheese and icing sugar.
Steps
Our main egg replacer for the brownies is a flax meal mixture made by whisking together flaxseed meal and cold water.
Sift the dry ingredients (minus the chocolate chips) into a large bowl. Don’t worry if some granules of sugar don’t make it through the sieve, simply dump it into the bowl. Use a spatula to mix the dry ingredients together.
Make a well in the middle of the dry mix and add the wet ingredients. Mix the batter with the same spatula until there are no clumps of flour.
Fold in the chocolate chips. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Divide the batter between 6 greased muffin cups. Clean up the edges if needed and bake the brownies until a toothpick inserted comes out with minimal dry crumbs.
Allow the brownies to cool in the pan for at least 10mins before carefully transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely before assembling. The brownies will be quite soft when they’re just out of the oven.
To make the strawberry cream cheese frosting, beat together the softened cream cheese, icing sugar, and strawberry purée until smooth and fluffy. Use the paddle attachment for your hand-held or electric mixer. Transfer the frosting into a piping bag with a tip of your choice and refrigerate until ready to use.
To assemble the brownies, start by hollowing out each brownie cup with a small spoon. Make sure the hole isn’t too big. Then, fill each brownie with the remaining strawberry purée. Lastly, pipe a swirl of frosting on the brownie and top with a half of strawberry.
Et voila! Don’t forget to let your partner know that these brownies contain an oozy filling before they take a bite. 🙂
FAQs
I personally like to use unsweetened ingredients since the sugar already makes it quite sweet, and there’s no way to reduce the sugar because it also provides structure and texture to the brownies.
I used Daiya’s cream cheese spread for this recipe (not sponsored). As long as it’s plain without added flavours, it should work.
You could possibly blend the frozen strawberries and simmer it with the sugar until smooth.
Have a questions about this recipe? Leave a comment on this post or shoot me a DM on Instagram! I’d love to help you out. 🙂
Check out more vegan strawberry dessert recipes!!
Vegan Strawberry Cream Cheese Brownies
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp flax meal
- 2 tbsp water
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 6 tbsp vegan butter, melted
- 3 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup vegan chocolate chips, your choice of dark, milk, or white chocolate chips!
Strawberry Purée (for the filling and the frosting)
- ¼ cup strawberries, diced, about 6 large strawberries
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup vegan cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup icing sugar
Other
- vegetable oil, for greasing the pan
- 3 strawberries, halved, for topping
Instructions
Make the strawberry purée
- Blend the strawberries in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan and mix in the sugar. Simmer on med-low until the sugar has dissolved, about 3-4 mins. Allow the mixture to cool completely. Refrigerate until ready to use.¼ cup strawberries, diced, 2 tbsp granulated sugar
Make the brownies
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and set oven racks to the middle. Grease a 2×3 muffin pan with vegetable oil.vegetable oil
- Make the flax egg by vigorously whisking together flax meal and water for 30s. Set aside to thicken.2 tbsp flax meal, 2 tbsp water
- Sift flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl.½ cup all purpose flour, ¼ cup cocoa powder, ¾ cup granulated sugar, ½ tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp salt
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in non-dairy milk, flax egg, applesauce, and melted butter. Use a spatula to mix everything together until smooth.¼ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk, 3 tbsp unsweetened applesauce, 6 tbsp vegan butter, melted
- Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed in the batter.¼ cup vegan chocolate chips
- Divide the brownie batter between the greased muffin cups and bake for 30-35 mins, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean with minimal dry crumbs (no wet batter).
- Allow the brownies to cool in the muffin tray for at least 10 mins before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely before filling and frosting.
- While the brownies are cooling, carefully carve out a hole in each brownie cup using a small spoon. Leave some space from the bottom and the edges to maintain the integrity of the brownie.
Make the strawberry cream cheese frosting
- Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add 3 tbsp of the cooled strawberry purée and continue beating until the frosting is smooth and fluffy. Refrigerate until ready to use.½ cup vegan cream cheese, softened, ¼ cup icing sugar
Assemble the brownie cups
- Fill each brownie cup with the remaining strawberry purée.
- Transfer the frosting to a piping bag with a tip of your choice, and pipe a swirl of frosting on each filled brownie cup. Top each brownie with a half of strawberry. Top each brownie with a half of strawberry.3 strawberries, halved
Wow, it’s amazing 😍😍😍😍😍
These brownies are perfect for what ever uni student craves: a mid study sesh snack! Everything is the perfect consistency and the strawberry purée really compliments the chocolate brownie flavour. Definitely making this the next chance I get!
Thank you so much for this comment Dihyah, I’m so happy that you enjoyed the brownies!! <3 <3