Chocolate Brazil Brownies- vegan

You can just about make out the crust-like top and chewy insides.

Today's bake is experimental: one of those times when you write down what you want to put in and roughly how much and just rock with it and see how it turns out. I was wondering if these brownies would be sweet enough, or fudge-y enough, or rise too much- but actually these factors did come out just about right. So right, in fact, that I instantly regretted not making a double quantity! Yesterday was full moon- the Harvest Moon, in fact (and we were also celebrating the disappearance of one our saints, Srila Haridasa Thakura- an associate of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu- around five hundred years ago). Any excuse for cake...
 I have now finally accepted that Summer is over and I am embracing Autumn: instead of putting the fading leaves back on the trees with coloured clothes pegs and photographing them (yes I really did do that once!) I am picking them off the trees and using them to decorate plates of food- and I am happily wearing a jacket most days rather than freezing in a cardigan in the hope that it will get warmer again in a minute. 
... But now I'm rambling. If you like the look and sound of these brownies, here's the recipe:

(Makes about 9)
2 1/2 cups (1 cup=250ml) wholemeal flour
3/4 cup soft dark brown sugar
1/2 cup brazil nuts, chopped
3 rounded tabs cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsps seasalt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup chopped dried dates with 1/2 cup water
2 flax eggs (1 flax egg=1 tab ground flaxseed:3 tabs water, whisked together)
1 cup liquefied coconut oil
1 cup of your favourite plant milk (we used soya this time)

• First, whisk up the flax eggs and leave to stand.
• Then make the date paste by gently heating the chopped dates with the water until they are soft and the water has been absorbed. Use the back of a spoon to mash them until fairly smooth.
• Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, baking powder and bicarb together in a bowl.
• In another bowl, whisk up the oil and the flax eggs. Add this to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir in the date paste too.
• Gradually add the plant milk until the mixture is soft enough to spoon into a prepared square cake tin or silicone mould. Spread it about 1/2" deep as it only rises a little.
• Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 20-ish minutes (I forgot to time it as I was busy cooking other stuff), until a thin skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven when done, cut into squares or rectangles and leave to cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar if you like. (But if you do, use a brand like Silver Spoon which is made from beet sugar, as they filter cane sugar through bone charcoal to make it white- ugh!)

So do you dread the darker days and falling leaves, or do you embrace Autumn? What foods are your favourites at this time of year?

PS: We have a couple more brownie recipes:

  Chocolate and Hazelnut Brownies

 Rich Chocolate Brownies