Vegan Brownies (with Pumpkin!)

The thought of vegan baked goods frightens me. But, when I saw a vegan chef win Cupcake Wars (I can't stand this show yet my DVR is set to record it) a few months ago I was inspired.

Tonight I tried to bake vegan brownies. I used a recipe from All Recipes, but it called for an ungodly amount of oil (1 cup-- yuck!) so I changed it up a bit. The end result was okay.... the brownies are more cake like and less fudgy that I like, but taste pretty good. The pumpkin is barely noticeable, so in the future I might replace it with smooshed banana or apple sauce (and then I could cut down on the sugar as well!) Also, I might cut down the oil to even 1/4 cup and up the water and/or fruit component.

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar (I used more like 1 3/4 cups)
• 3/4 cup dutch cocoa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup coffee
• 1/4 cup water
• handful of dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350, grease 9 x 13 pan. Combine dry ingredients and then whisk in wet ingredients. Spread half the batter in the pan, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and spread with other half. Bake for 30 minutes. Enjoy!