Easy Vegan Squirrel Brownies Recipe (without flax)

These healthy vegan brownies are lower in fat than your average brownie recipe, but have a rich chocolate flavor. If you cut them into squirrel shapes, they’ll be cuter than average brownies too!

This recipe makes 12 adorable squirrel brownies (or 24 boring square brownies).

Table of Contents

(click the links below to skip to the section you’re looking for)

• Recipe
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Contact Me with Questions
• Similar Recipes

This brownie recipe is so quick and easy to make that you can decide the night before that you want to bring a special treat to work the next day, and make it happen without sacrificing sleep.

Some vegan brownie recipes call for vegan egg replacers like flax egg (made with ground flaxseed) or chia eggs (made with chia seeds). You don’t need any special ingredients like egg replacements or vegan butter for this recipe. Read the list of simple ingredients and you’ll agree they’re as easy to make as traditional brownies.

This recipe also works perfectly if you bake it in a brownie edges pan (the only adjustments to the recipe would be to grease the pan before pouring the batter into it). The pro is that you get all edge brownies. The con is that you don’t get squirrel-shaped brownies. This sounds like a conundrum that I’m glad is yours and not mine.

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Ingredients for Chocolate Brownies Recipe

(jump to the substitutions section to see ingredient details and suggestions for substitutions)

• ⅓ cup (80g / 75ml) sunflower oil
• 1 ¾ cup (400g) organic, vegan, or raw sugar
• 1 cup (230g / 240ml) vanilla nondairy milk
• ½ tablespoon (5g / 7ml) apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon (4g / 5ml) vanilla extract
• 2 cups (265g) unbleached flour
• ½ cup (50g) cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
• 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon (1g) salt (optional)

How to Make Easy Brownies

prep time: 15 minutes; bake time: 30 minutes; cool time: 2 hours or overnight

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Mix the wet ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer until the sugar dissolves: ⅓ cup of vegetable oil, 1 ¾ cup (400g) of sugar, 1 cup of nondairy milk (I used organic soymilk from Whole Foods because their 365 brand is cheap af), ½ tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, and the teaspoon of vanilla extract. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can mix by hand or use a handheld electric mixer.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl: 2 cups unbleached flour (if you want to make them healthier, you can use half whole wheat pastry flour), ½ cup cocoa powder (try to find fair-trade cocoa if you can), 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda, 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder (I use aluminum-free), and ¼ teaspoon pink sea salt (any salt is fine, but this kind has trace minerals in it).

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together just until incorporated (until you no longer see any dry spots).

Transfer the brownie batter into a prepared baking pan. I lined my 9"x13” lasagna pan with parchment paper both to keep the brownies from sticking to the pan, as well as to make them easy to lift out later.

Bake for 30 minutes (or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean).

Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.

Remove brownies from the pan by grabbing the edges of the parchment paper and lifting them onto a cutting board, and leave there until the brownies have cooled completely. You’ll know they’ve reached room temperature by touching the bottom center.

Cut out as many shapes out of the pan of brownies as you can using your cookie cutter of choice. I set a squirrel cookie cutter on top and used a knife to cut around the perimeter of it. This makes for a more clean cut than cutting all the way thorugh with the cookie cutter.

Trim any excess that the cutter didn’t manage to get off (if you have a higher quality cookie cutter, you likely won’t need to do this, but I got mine for 10¢ at a yard sale).

Stamp your shape onto the thicker parts of the brownie and then trace around the lines with a skinny knife. You only need to do this if your cookie cutter isn’t tall enough. The metal cookie cutters are usually a lot better at this task.

Save the brownie scraps to make brownie parfaits, crust for an ice cream cake, cake pops, or truffles. Or you can just snack on them if you’re a chocoholic like me.

Serve the squirrels to your friends.

If you like these squirrel brownies, you might also like some of my other spring-themed recipes, such as my ladybug bruschetta and my bunny biscuits.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I convert this recipe into a chocolate chip brownie recipe?

Easy! If you want to make these into chocolate chip brownies, just add half a cup of vegan chocolate chips to the batter right before you pour the batter into the pan. Then once the batter is in the pan, sprinkle another ¼ cup of vegan chocolate chips on top before it goes into the oven. Cut them into 15-24 squares once they cool.

Can I make these brownies more festive for a birthday?

If you want to make birthday brownies, instead of squirrel brownies, just sprinkle vegan sprinkles all over the top of the batter right before you bake them.

I can’t trust myself to have this many brownies in the house. Can I divide this recipe in half and bake it in a 9” square pan?

For sure! I’ve made this recipe in a square brownie pan. The only difference is that I had to bake them 5 additional minutes.

I only have dutch processed cocoa powder. Can I use that instead?

If you want to make vegan brownies using dutch cocoa powder, check out my cheesecake brownies recipe and just use the brownie part of the recipe.

Ingredient Substitutions

• Sunflower Oil: I recommend using safflower oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil for baking because those oils are made for high heat, which helps you avoid transfats. However, you can use any other oil such as vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, etc. People even make cakes with olive oil, but I don’t recommend it.
• Sugar: For the sugar in this recipe, you can use any number of sugars, as long as they’re vegan: sucanat, coconut sugar, raw sugar, organic sugar, or demurara. If you’re not sure if your sugar is vegan, you can contact the company and ask, but basically, just avoid conventional white sugar or granulated sugar, and you should be ok.
• Non-dairy Milk: I don’t specify what kind of dairy-free milk to use, because it really doesn’t matter. You can’t taste it, so just buy the cheapest plant-based milk you can find. I like to buy the 365 brand organic soy milk at Whole Foods because it’s only $2.50 for a half gallon. But if you live near a Grocery Outlet, they often have almond milk for only $2 for a half gallon.
• Apple Cider Vinegar: In leiu of this, you can use an equal amount of distilled white vinegar, lemon juice. or lime juice.
• Vanilla Extract: If you don’t have this, use an equal amount of vanilla powder or paste. You can also use vanilla flavor, or just omit it entirely.
• Flour: I’ve never tried making vegan gluten-free brownies, but if you try it, let me know how it goes. Just replace the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour blend.
• Cocoa Powder: I always buy organic fair trade cacoa powder, but you can use any unsweetened cocoa powder.

Comments or Questions?

If you make this easy vegan brownies recipe, I would love it if you’d snap a pic, post to instagram, and tag me @vegandollhouse. It seriously makes my day/week/month!

Please message me (instagram or email) if you have any questions or feedback about the recipe.

Similar Recipes

If you like these homemade brownies, you might LOVE my vegan cheesecake brownies. I’ve been told they’re the best vegan brownies friends have ever had.

Or if you like these because of the squirrels, check out this list of cute recipes for kids. It includes many other animal-themed cute foods.

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