Boxed brownies shouldn’t be the next hardest thing after macarons, but in the world of vegan baking, they are.

Why are boxed brownies so difficult for vegans?

Eggs are magical. They can be manipulated in countless ways to provide binding and structure, lift, moisture, and/or emulsification and oil absorption to baked goods.

Vegans can respectively tackle each of these tasks with:

starches (including more flour)
baking powder, baking soda, or seltzer
unsweetened applesauce or tofu
flax gel, chia gel, or aquafaba

That italicized “and/or” is what makes eggs so tricky to replace. Depending on the dry ingredients in a given mix, eggs may be required to perform only one or two of their possible duties –

and they can do that!

Double Trouble

In vegan brownies as in life, too much of a good thing is never a good thing. If a boxed mix doesn’t need binding and structure and I add starches, for instance, I’ll have dense but droopy brownies.

Too Much Binding and Structure

Starches can seem like promising egg replacers because commercial egg replacers are ≈80% starch. Yet starches do little more than offer binding and structure. A brownie mix that’s higher than most in dry ingredients will suffer with even more flour.

failed vegan boxed brownies, gummy from using starch as an egg replacer

Especially in a mix that already contains cornstarch (as most Betty Crocker mixes do), additional starch of any kind yields flat, perpetually gummy brownies that never seem to be done baking.

Too Much Lift

Logically, the solution for flat brownies is lift. But adding leaveners to a mix that contains plenty creates a balloon.

balloon-top vegan boxed brownies resulting from too much leavening

Particularly around edges and corners, too much baking powder, baking soda, or seltzer can effect a hollow dome between the crinkly top and fudgy bottom.

Too Much Moisture (and Sugar)

A common hack for substituting eggs is unsweetened applesauce. Boasting similar moisture contents, eggs and applesauce can be used almost interchangeably in quick bread mixes –

vegan boxed brownies with rock-hard edges from too much sugar thanks to applesauce being used as an egg replacer

but not in brownies!

Understandably higher in sugar, brownie mixes are easily overloaded. The sugar in unsweetened applesauce, however natural, pushes them over their threshold. They consequently over-caramelize in the oven becoming so hard once cooled that they’re impossible to bite.

more rock-hard vegan boxed brownies, over-sugared with the natural sugars in soy

A high-protein source of moisture like tofu might seem like a reasonable next choice. Except soy beans also contain natural sugar! The result is ergo the same: rock-hard brownies.

From Double Trouble to Half Assed

Oil in boxed brownie mixes can be problematic when substituting eggs because most substitutes don’t emulsify and absorb oil nearly as well.

Not Enough Emulsification and Oil Absorption

As good as flax or chia gels and aquafaba may be as egg replacers, they cannot be plugged into all brownie mixes because they don’t emulsify. (Aquafaba actually does emulsify remarkably well with whipping, but who wants to dirty much more than a bowl for boxed brownies?!)

failed vegan boxed brownies pocked with several small puddles of oil

Some mixes, like Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate, perform well with flax or chia gels and aquafaba; others become separated, weepy messes…

greasy vegan boxed brownies lacking emulsification of water and oil

…or greasy squares pocked with oily craters.

What’s a vegan to do?!

Make brownies of course! My solution is a combination of binding and structure, lift, moisture, and emulsification and oil absorption.

I enhance binding and structure by reducing the total amount of wet ingredients a boxed mix says to include. Lift is achieved with baking powder; moisture, with oil in place of water; and emulsification and oil absorption, with applesauce in place of some of the oil (and the remaining oil omitted).

NOTE: Some mixes are better than others.

While all mixes work well with my vegan boxed brownie formula, I developed preferences throughout my research. Shout out to Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate! This mix responded well to almost everything I did to it. Pillsbury and Betty Crocker mixes, however, were more particular. Most of my inedible experiments were rooted in these brands.

In order, I recommend:

Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge
Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge
Duncan Hines Milk Chocolate (surprisingly vegan!)
Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate
365 by Whole Foods Market Chocolate Fudge
bettergoods Double Chocolate (AKA “fancy Walmart”)
Specialty Selected Double Chocolate (AKA “fancy Aldi”, and basically the same product as “fancy Walmart”)
Trader Joe’s Brownie Truffle

Nevertheless, I repeat:

Any mix will do!