Carbohydrates per 1 brownie: 2g.

These low carb vegan brownies are honestly the best brownies! They are so incredibly chocolatey and fudgey, you would never guess they don’t contain animal products or sugar. They’re also gluten-free and nut-free! 

This brownie recipe uses sunflower seed flour. Yep that’s a thing. It’s great because sunflower seeds are really low in carbohydrates, they’re fine for our friends with nut or gluten allergies to eat and they have some pretty good health benefits. They have lots of healthy, good fats, are high in Vitamin E which is good for skin and nails, and selenium which is a powerful antioxidant. Plus you can make sunflower seed flour yourself by grinding up hulled sunflower seed kernels, which literally takes 2 minutes.

I’m not gonna lie, when I came up with this recipe and started making it I actually didn’t think it was going to work. To be honest, it’s very rare my first tries at a new baking recipe are successful. It’s actually really difficult baking with sweetener instead of sugar as they have a completely different molecular makeup from each other and all sweeteners are different. I also quite often, as in the case of these low carb vegan brownies, end up baking gluten-free because it can be lower in carbs. Gluten-free baking is something I have very little experience with, and gluten is kind of an essential part of baking, traditionally anyway. So when I mix sugar-free and gluten-free together it can be a disaster. 

I was also worried the brownies would have quite a strong sunflower taste or just be completely the wrong texture. I’ve used a mix of rice and oat flour in the past to make gluten-free brownies, and they tasted kind of grainy, I’m guessing from the rice flour. Plus being rice and oats they weren’t low carb. 

I think some of my apprehension was also due to the brownie box mix I reviewed recently – No Shu’s 99% sugar free brownies. While I definitely liked the ease of this mix, I kind of made a song and dance about how they were too flat and sticky. It made me think mine might come out the same way. And if they do I can’t release that recipe, I’d be the biggest hypocrite! 

But they actually worked first try! I was very excited!

So, what makes these low carb vegan brownies so good?

Firstly, these brownies include mainly sunflower seed flour but also a small amount of coconut flour. Coconut flour is also low in carbs, but when it cooks it sort of expands. It can be a bit frustrating sometimes depending on what you’re making, but just a couple of tablespoons in this recipe, as well as some baking powder, helps the brownies to puff up just the right amount. They aren’t flat but they aren’t cakey. I think if you were to use just sunflower seed flour the texture wouldn’t be quite right.

I really think the cocoa powder you use makes a big difference to how rich the chocolate flavour is. I actually prefer to use raw cacao powder. It’s not heated so has retained a lot more nutritional benefits than cocoa powder, and it also has a richer flavour. I also added chocolate chips to enhance the chocolate flavour and provide some extra texture and nice little melty chocolate bits. In keeping with vegan and low carb, as usual, I used Healtheries 99% Sugar Free Dark Chocolate Baking Bits.

Don’t go too crazy on the sweetener. This is something I’ve been guilty of in the past and can be one of the reasons my recipes aren’t successful first try. I used ½ c Natvia sweetener in this recipe. Another brand or type of sweetener may work but I haven’t tried anything else so I can’t guarantee. But I like Natvia because it’s really easy to find just at my local supermarket, it’s natural and it’s not badly priced (for sweetener anyway).

You need something to bind the brownie mix. Normally that would be egg. However as these are vegan, my Flaxseed Egg Replacer works really well as. You can grind up your own flaxseed or linseed to make this or buy pre-ground. 

Lastly, you need to be patient and wait for the brownie to be cool before you take it out of the tin. It’s a bit more fragile than a cake or a muffin as it’s softer on the inside (awww), so if you take it out when it’s still warm it’s most likely going to fall apart. 

How do I make these brownies?

Step One – Make the Flaxseed Egg replacer. Do this first so it has time to thicken before you need it. All you need to do is mix 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed with 6 tablespoons of water.

Step Two – Wish together the melted margarine or butter, vanilla and sweetener in a large bowl until well combined.

Step Three – Make the sunflower seed flour by grinding sunflower seeds up in a food processor or a NutriBullet (some other blenders may work too, depending on how powerful they are) until you have a fine powdery consistency.

Step Four – In a separate bowl, mix together the sunflower seed flour, coconut flour, cacao powder and baking powder.

Step Five – Pour the dry mixture into the bowl with the melted margarine, vanilla and sweetener. Add the flaxseed egg then mix it all together.

Step Six – Add the chocolate chips and mix.

Step Seven – Line a 20cm x 20cm brownie tin with baking paper, then pour or spoon the brownie batter into the tin.

Step Eight – Bake the brownie at 180℃ (or 350℉) for 30 minutes then leave to cool in the tin before cutting into squares. 

How should I store my brownies?

After you have cut them, store in an airtight container for up to one week. You can also store them in the refrigerator. They are best eaten sooner than later, ideally in 2 days as they start to go a bit dry, but they will be fine for up to one week.