One-bowl vegan hazelnut brownies aka "Ferrero brownies"

This was an experiment that turned out awesome. There were some vegan humans a nugget was intending to feed. However, being quite carnivorous and distinctly non-vegan, we nuggets didn't want any recipes with vegan butter, flaxseed egg replacements, and so on. Also, refined coconut oil offends a nugget's lineage. 

So we threw this experiment together, and somehow, after a 24 hour rest, these are the best brownies nuggets have ever made. They may even be the best brownies nuggets have ever eaten. D:

And they're one-bowl. And lazy. WHEEEEEEEEEEE

Ingredients

Dry

  • 150 hazelnut meal (or almond meal if you want a more neutral taste)
  • 150g all-purpose flour (or bread flour if that's all you got, we won't be stirring it enough for too much gluten to be an issue)
  • 175g white sugar
  • 40g cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-processed)
  • 20g tapioca starch (don't leave this out, this boosts fudginess. can also use glutinous rice flour instead)
  • 1/2tsp baking powder
  • 1/4tsp salt
  • chocolate chips (optional)
  • cocoa nibs (optional)

Wet

  • 190 soy milk (I prefer soy milk with no added oil, but an icky one with oil should be fine too)
  • 30ml vegetable oil (something neutral tasting like canola)
  • vanilla essence (to taste)
Craft it!
  1. Preheat oven to 180C fan-forced.
  2. Dump all dry ingredient in a bowl, whisk/stir with fork until homogenous-ish (the choc chips will hardly homogenise...)
  3. Make a well in dry ingredients, dump wet ingredients in the well (no need to mix em first).
  4. Stir until just combined. Batter will be very thick, kinda like cookie dough, but a bit squishier.
  5. Line 9inch square brownie pan with baking paper.
  6. Pop batter in pan, and pat it down until it's sorta flattish and even. It'll melt the rest of the way as it bakes.
  7. Bake for about 25 minutes. Once it's more or less flattened out and puffing up a little bit, it's done. Toothpick test won't come out clean. Better to underbake than overbake (same as any other brownie).
  8. Pull outta oven, leave it to cool and DO NOT TOUCH IT for at least 24 hours.
Eaten a couple of hours (5 or so) out of the oven, it's nice, but not amazing. Good flavour, but slightly crumbly, and a bit lacking in richness. When I tried it at this point, I started thinking of tweaks...

After at least 24 hours, the darn thing evolves. Somehow it becomes incredibly rich and fudgey, and the flavour has a lot more depth. I don't know why this happens but... it does. I ate some after 24 hours and... no tweaks needed. The thing is glorious. And I don't even like chocolate much, let alone brownies. XD