Coconut Heaven Brownies

This recipe is so easy, but has such a wow-factor. You'll be basking in baker heaven in almost no time...

I made these last night, trying to do something nice for my husband since he loves brownies. Welllllll, ok, I also had ulterior motives: I had some ingredients I wanted to use that I thought would make brownies better, and I'm having some friends over tonight. But I DID think about giving my husband some brownies too ;-)

One of the ingredients I wanted to use was marzipan. For no other reason than I thought it looked like fun to play with, I bought some marzipan candy dough at the store last weekend. (Marzipan is basically just almond and sugar, and is kind of like a fondant in terms of consistency). I thought topping some mini brownies with marzipan would work out well, and the almond flavor of the marzipan made me think about coconut. So then I started wondering how things would turn out if I used some coconut oil instead of regular veg oil in the recipe...

Since I'm a fan of variety, and testing out new recipes, I split my brownie recipe in two, for a coconutty version, and a plain 'ole regular version. (Both vegan though).  Unfortunately for my husband, who does not like coconut, the regular one was a total fail (they didn't rise and came out goopy messes- I don't know if this is because of the egg replacer I used didn't work with canola oil, or if things just didn't split out exactly equally since I mixed the full brownie mix with full recipe water and eggs first, and then divided to add the oils- probably not the best splitting method in retrospect...)
In any case, the coconut version turned out to be a total winner.

Note that because I was splitting the recipe, I can't vouch for whether using 2 egg replacers will work when doubling to use the full box of brownie mix (vegan eggs don't always act as planned when using more of them). But let me know if you try it out!

Ingredients:
makes ~16 brownie bites (mini brownies)

• 1/2 box Duncan Hines Brownie mix
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 egg/ egg replacer (I used Bob's)
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 Tbsp applesauce
• 2 Tbsp shredded coconut
• Optional: for decorating (and a yummy almond topping): Marzipan

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Melt the coconut oil in the microwave, ~30 seconds or less, until liquid. Prepare vegan egg replacer of choice (if using), and then mix together the brownie mix, egg, oil, water, and applesauce until smooth. Add in the shredded coconut.
3. Grease a mini-cucpake pan with cooking spray. Spoon batter about 3/4 full into the holders.
4. Cook for about 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean, and allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. If decorating with marzipan: Once the brownies have cooled, roll out the marzipan in between 2 layers of wax or parchment paper (one on bottom and one on top) until you have a fairly thin sheet. Use mini cookie cutters to make shapes to press onto the top of your brownies, or cover the brownie with a layer and cut off the excess. If you want to get really fancy, make some roses! (It's not hard at all! You basically cut 3-4 mini circles of the dough, roll 1 up, then roll another around it, etc, and then fold down the layers so it looks like a flower. I cut off the bottom so it would more easily sit on the brownie. You can also use that "cut off" portion to fill out the outer sides of the flower for more petals). 
6. Prepare to wow!

Odense actually has some tips and recipes for using the dough, so check out their site for more on rose buds and other decorations. Earlier in the week I also used a little bit of the marzipan in homemade chocolates: I simply melted some dark chocolate, added in some raisins, coated a candy mold with a little of the chocolate/raisin mix, added a little ball of the marzipan to the center, and covered with more chocolate. Stored in freezer until set. I would have included a post for them, but only made a few... and, well, they were gone pretty quick ;-) But that's another easy idea for using marzipan in - it's a yummy candy filling in small doses.

I told you that would be easy! Enjoy!