These delicious Vegan Triple Chocolate Shortbread Brownies are rich, buttery and filled with chocolate. A chocolate shortbread, fudgey chocolate brownie with chocolate chips is topped with a chocolate ganache and white chocolate ghosts for Halloween. Vegan, No-Dairy-, No-Egg and easy to make!
Triple Chocolate Shortbread Brownie
When it come’s to desserts, we’re normally forced to choose between two desires, but why not go all out and combine BOTH?!! A rich and buttery shortbread, paired with the most incredible chocolatey and decadent brownie, filled with tons of chocolate chips makes for the ultimate treat. They’re a real game changer!
The idea of combining shortbread and brownie is genius! The magic is in the texture. The base is rich, chocolaty and melts in your mouth, and the brownie on top is rich, decadent with a paper thin crinkly top. This brownie even has a thin layer of rich chocolate ganache and little white chocolate ghosts, which are the perfect decoration for spooky season. It’s in its own league! Make sure to check out my vanilla Vegan Shortbread Brownies here.
What makes these the BEST Vegan Triple Chocolate Shortbread Brownies?
- Triple chocolate means they’re super rich and chocolaty.
- The shortbread is soft and melts in your mouth.
- Three layers of chocolate from the shortbread, brownie and ganache.. drool!
- They are easy to make!
- Great for parties or special events, gatherings / parties.
- They are 100% vegan, no animal ingreedients used!
- The design is simple, fun and super effective.
- Using whipped aquafaba in the brownie makes it super fudgey and chewy.
- Great Halloween baking idea for kids to make and decorate.
Ingredients you’ll need:
This recipe uses simple ingredients, most of which you may already have in your kitchen cupboards / pantry. If not, i’ve listed them below for you to jot down on your shopping list. Make sure to grab them the next time you’re in the supermarket! Find the full written recipe and method in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Plain / all purpose flour – To keep the brownies super fudgey, use plain flour.. not self raising.
- Cocoa powder – To make the brownies even richer, use a dark cocoa or high quality. It makes all the difference in flavour!
- Caster sugar – You want to use a fine, white sugar.
- Dairy-free butter – A vegan bock butter works best!
- Dairy-free dark chocolate
- Aquafaba (chickpea brine) – Use the liqud from a can of chickpeas! This is the best egg replacer in vegan brownies!
- Dairy-free white chocolate chips
- Dairy-free dark chocolate chips
- Dairy-free cream – You can use any cream, single or double. You can also use thick white coconut cream.
How to make Vegan Triple Chocolate Shortbread Brownies
These brownies have 3 layers – a chocolate shortbread base, brownie middle with mixed chocolate chips and a chocolate ganache topping with white chocolate ghost decorations. They’re too tasty and FUN not to make, here’s how to make them:
- Chocolate shortbread
Pour dry ingredients into a bowl. Add in the cold butter, rub everything together with your fingertips until a dough forms.
Press dough into the lined pan, bake then set aside. - Chocolate brownie
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Melt chocolate and butter together until smooth.
Add aquafaba and sugar into a mixing bowl and whizz up until smooth and glossy. Use an electric mixer with balloon whisk attachment for best results.
Pour chocolate mixture over the aquafaba and fold together to combine, making sure not to over mix / don’t deflate the aquafaba mixture. Sift in the dry ingredients and fold to combine.
Add in chocolate chunks. Pour over the shortbread, return back to the oven and bake until ready. Allow to cool fully before adding on the ganache. - Chocolate ganache and ghost decoration
Melt cream and chocolate then pour over the brownie. Melt the white chocolate and transfer into a piping bag, snip off the tip. Pipe ghost shapes over the ganache, add on some face details. Allow to set.
Slice the bars and enjoy.
Tips for cutting the vegan chocolate brownies:
- Use grease proof / parchment paper to line the baking tin. This allows you to lift the brownie out of the tin to cut them neatly.
- Chilled brownies will slice with cleaner cuts. Don’t try to cut them warm, they will be super gooey.
- I like to clean up the edges before cutting the brownies into squares. I use a sharp knife (not serrated) and trim just the very edge off of each side. This also gives you a chance to nibble on the off cuts! Then use a sharp knife to cut the bars into your desired sizes. Be sure to press straight down with the knife and don’t saw back and forth.
- Clean the knife in between each cut to keep the brownies clean, neat and tidy.
- To cut through the chocolate decorations, you can heat up the knife in some boiling water or use a blow torch to lightly heat it up before cutting. This will melt through the chocolate making for neat slices.
If you make, and love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you & happy baking! Make sure to tag me in your photos on Instagram , TikTok and Facebook! And if you want to pin this recipe for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, above or below this post, or on any of the photos. Happy baking all!
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Vegan Triple Chocolate Shortbread Brownies
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 10–12 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Vegan Triple Chocolate Shortbread Brownies, with a buttery chocolate shortbread crust, a rich fudgey brownie center, and spooky ganache on top. Perfect for Halloween!
Ingredients
Ingredients for the chocolate shortbread
- 240g of plain / all purpose flour
- 40g of cocoa powder
- 140g of caster sugar
- 230g of dairy-free butter (cold)
Ingredients for the brownie
- 60g of cocoa powder
- 180g of plain / all purpose flour
- 170g of dairy-free dark chocolate
- 110g of dairy-free butter
- 120ml of aquafaba (chickpea brine)
- 280g of caster sugar
- 20g of dairy-free white chocolate chips
- 30g of dairy-free dark chocolate chips
Ingredients for the ganache
- 130g of dairy-free dark chocolate
- 100g of dairy-free cream (see notes*)
- 50g of dairy-free white chocolate
Instructions
Method (chocolate shortbread)
- Preheat the oven to 180℃ fan, and line a 8 x 8 inch square / loose base tin with grease proof paper. Allow the paper to hang over the edges of the tin, this makes it easier for removing the bars when ready.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder and sugar into a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
- Add in the cold butter. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture crumbly dough forms.
- Crumble the dough into the base of the tin and press down with your hands or a off set spatula. Tip: Dust your fingers with flour / cocoa, it prevents the dough from sticking.
- Place into the middle of the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until light and puffed up. Remove from the oven.
Method (brownie)
- Sift the cocoa powder and flour together in a medium bowl.
- Fill a small saucepan 1/4 full with water and place on the hob over medium heat. Add the dairy-free chocolate and butter into a heat proof bowl. Place the bowl over the pan, creating a bain-marie. Allow the chocolate and butter to melt together, stirring with a heat proof spatula. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes while you make prepare the aquafaba.
- Add the aquafaba and sugar into a medium sized mixing bowl and whip up on high speed for around 5 minutes until thick and glossy. I use a stand mixer with balloon whisk attachment. A electric hand whisk will work great too. The aquafaba mixture should be thick enough that when it drips into the bowl, the mixture should ribbon off the mixer.
- Pour the melted butter / chocolate over the aquafaba, and carefully fold together with a spatula. Make sure to be very gentle with this step as you want to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.
- Once combined, sift in the flour and cocoa powder. Again, fold this in with a spatula until a rich and thick brownie batter forms.
- Pour the brownie batter on top of the shortbread base and level off with an off set spatula
- Sprinkle the white and dark chocolate chips over the top, slightly pressing them down into the brownie.
- Place the tin into the middle of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Once baked, remove the tin from the oven and allow to cool fully on a wire rack. TIP: Keep the brownie in the tin while it’s cooling. This will help it keeps it’s shape and will also lock in some of the moisture, which will help with the chewy texture.
Method (ganache)
- Place the dark chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Fill a small saucepan 1/4 with water and place over the hob on a low / medium heat. Place the bowl on-top to create a bain-marie. Melt the chocolate. Pour in the dairy-free cream and whip until smooth.
- Pour the ganache over the top of the brownie, use a spoon or off set spatula to spread it out. Add a little bit of ganache into a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- Place the white chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Fill a small saucepan 1/4 with water and place over the hob on a low / medium heat. Place the bowl on-top to create a bain-marie. Melt the chocolate. Once melted, transfer into a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- Use a heavy squeeze towards the top of the ghost, then taper off and pull the white chocolate downward to create the “ghost” shape. Use a skewer to help drag the ‘tail’ end of the ghost into shape.
- Pipe on the ghost eyes and mouth using the ganache in the piping bag.
- Allow the ganache to set in the fridge for 1-2 hours or until it’s set.
- Lift the brownies out of the tin using the overhangs of grease proof paper, and place on a board.
- Heat a sharp knife in some warm water then slice into bars.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
To store: Store in a sealed container in the fridge. Allow to come to room temperature before serving. Best enjoyed within 3/4 days of making
What dairy-free cream to use? For ganache, coconut cream or any vegan single / double cream will work perfectly!
What dairy-free butter to use? My favourite vegan friendly butters are Naturli Vegan Block and Flora Plant Based Alternative. Both can be found in most large uk supermarkets. If outside the uk, simply use your favourite vegan butter brand!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Brownies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Really excited to make these this weekend with the kiddos =)
Author
aw thank you! I cant wait to hear what you think, Happy Baking x
can you
use regular sugar instead of caster?
Author
Caster sugar is basically fine white sugar. What ‘regular’ sugar do you mean? Like granulated? xxx