I looooovee these brownies… so tasty. Even better when you melt dark chocolate on top and sprinkle pecans on the melted chocolate and let it set… hard to cut but very delicious.
I own every Moosewood cookbook printed and I’ve been meaning to check out the restaurant. There frozen dinners are pretty tasty and low in salt and calories. If you like this recipe thought, you should try the six-minute chocolate cake recipe. It’s a non-soy vegan recipe.

What does the banana do? Moisturize? Make it taste like a banana?

i have an obsession with ganache – dark chocolate rosemary or orange zest (or sometimes both)that goes amazingly well with every brownie recipe i’ve ever tried. i’m sure this one would be no exception.
for rosemary:
heat cream with a stick of fresh rosemary floating in the pan. remove and pour cream through a civ before pouring over dark chocolate.
for rosemary:
simply grate fresh orange zest into the cream as it heats and pour the whole lot into the dark chocolate.
i like to cut my brownies into bitesize pieces for parties and then drizzle the ganache all over them. top with a grated curl of white chocolate and you’ve got yourself a delicious work of art!
thanks heidi! i’m off to search for apple butter…

I’m pretty sure that Moosewood was the very first cookbook that I ever bought. I never cooked anything out of it, but I did look through it quite often. It took me a while to notice that there were no meat recipes in it. Since then I’ve continued to collect her books, but I’ve still not cooked anything out of a single one of them. But I can say that about most of my cookbooks.

I must say I don’t have a Moosewood cookbook. But I think I need to run out and get it. The brownies look great. Very delicious. 🙂

I grew up on Moosewood classics, from the original, as well as The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, which I was dismayed to find was not carried at ALL on the shelves of the Ithaca, NY home restaurant, where it all started.
Do try the cheesey potatoes, the mushroom-leek fritata casserole (although we always made it without the leeks), the zuchinni-feta casserole (DELICIOUS, I always wanted there to be more of the baked stringy tomato slices! A baked tomato slice under cheddar on top of feta tastes like 1988 to me!). All are so great, filling, and flavourful. I am always wanting to sock anyone who says “/sniff I’m not a vegitarian so these cookbooks aren’t for me”. These people surely eat salads? Or meat-free lasagna? Cereal? Moosewood is no more “vegitarian” than those things people eat every day are. People seem to have this stigma about vegitarian food and frankly, it’s a little insulting. “Oh, I’m not one of THOSE people”. Perhaps if they took the time to try something new, they’d see that so-called vegitarian food is a treat, not a task to eat. Moosewood, at least the early cookbooks, really provide a diverse and interesting diet to even the most snobbish of epicurians, and it’s a shame I read so many comments to this entry scorning the diet I grew up loving. I call my prefered eating style “vegitarian-minded”, as my body simply doesn’t feel right if I’m not eating meats, I wouldn’t have survived a grocery stock job without my daily quarter pound of roast beef and eighth pound of cheese with a take-away tray of sushi for my dinner break! But growing up on Moosewood recipes gave me a true appreciation for the complexities of a vegitarian diet so few who actually ARE vegitarian actually let themselves enjoy. Channa Masala AGAIN? Not from Moosewood! Earthfoods Cafe could really learn a thing or two! (I worked there, I should know! For those not in the know, Earthfoods Cafe is the *oldest* student run business in the USA, which is on UMASS campus and is still run *only* by students, no admin advisor to tell them what to serve or how to run it, 20-30 students a semester run this business alone. It’s GREAT. Anyone who’s in Amherst, MA should stop by to see how it’s done!)

Hello from another Moosewood fan. Brings back great memories of cooking for my friends in college. Indonesian Rice Salad and the Mushroom soup were among my favorites.

Thanks for sharing these! I made a batch this morning and they turned out very well. They took 25 minutes with my oven. I opted against any add-ins this time, but I think I’ll try cinnamon next time. I found them to be very cakey, but that’s my preference in brownies. Now I need to get a copy of the Moosewood Cookbook.

Sounds delicious, but does adding the ground espresso make it gritty?

wanna join the circle of browniebabes?
http://onceuponatart.blogspot.com/2007/04/browniebabe-of-month.html
looks like you are very close to that apron…;-)
i got your ADORABLE cookbook last night. i was dreaming about the curd chocolate cake. you did such a great job! well done!
*M

if its from Moosewood & endorsed by you it’s gotta be good!

I like Moosewood a lot — especially the soup recipes — but I am not a fan of the brownies. Creaming the butter and adding all those eggs makes them much too cakey. And have you noticed that there’s no salt?
I also find some of Katzen’s basically good recipes pretty bland, and often find myself doubling or tripling the seasoning.

I have a Moosewood cookbook… The Dilly Bean dish is quite tasty and very different from what I normally do with beans. The veggie chili is good too.

Heidi, the Moosewood Cookbook was the first book I ever bought myself when I was in college. I’ve had it since 1980??? I used to cook from it very often but I never made the brownies. I made the hummus, the Cranberry cake, and many of the other recipes and never the brownies. Aside from the recipe from last week’s NY Times that I want to make, I’ll put these on my list.
Thanks for reminding me of them. They look delicious (as your pictures always do).

I just made banana brownies too, but I added cacao nibs to mine instead of nuts. I think the espresso would have added some great flavour, I was contemplating adding rum but didn’t in the end.

I bought my 1st Moosewood book in the late 70’s, the edition with the creative, not practical, index. When we ran a natural food store with deli from 1981, we served a number of her recipes, Orange Hummos being one of the notables. This book, with a few others, were groundbreaking, taking veg cooking out of the ‘good for you if nasty’ mold and really going for the pleasure of good taste, even if it meant fat and calories. Also useful to note that Katzen is not associated with the subsequent Moosewood works. Still using hers (as much as I use any cookbook).

Heidi, I love your choices. You’re just like a racketball. I never know where you’re going to come from next. And the plates are so pretty! I have to try this. Eggs, bittersweet and banana here I come.

A “Mollie” recipe that’s unique, easy and gets raves at potlucks is the “Kale Krunch” or “Krunchy Kale” (can’t remember). I don’t own the particular Moosewood cookbook that has the recipe so I have googled it from Mollie’s website. It is great! I work at a natural food market and have had a lot of discussions with folks about what to do with kale. This is one of the best ways. Last time I made Kale Krunch, we found it pairs well with devilled eggs.
I have’t made the brownies yet, but I consider the Moosewood cookbooks to be a great resource in my cookbook library – especially when I am trying to find a unique recipe for veggies.

When I first learned to cook I used Moosewood a lot and now many of my staples that I make without using recipes are just my interpretations of these classics. I didn’t even know this until I looked through the cookbook recently and kept thinking- “wait, that’s exactly how I do it!” There were several but two I recall in particular are the Hummus and the Gado Gado.
I always use bananas in my brownies, and in some of my cookies too, but I substitute 1/2 banana for one of the eggs in whatever recipe I’m using because I find they get too cakey otherwise.
Thanks for the continually awesome food blog.

Heidi, your brownies look fantastic – I’ve never heard of bananas in brownies and now I’m very curious!

I actually made these at christmas and i *hated* them!! I love Moosewood (the Carrot Ginger soup recipe is amazing) but these brownies were way too dense and way too cake-like for people who actually like the consistency of an actual brownie.

Just a quick note re: the chocolate. Yeah, I thought the phrasing in regards to the type of chocolate to use was a bit confusing – calling for unsweetened and then encouraging bittersweet over semi. I think this is a very old edition, and maybe this has been updated since. I’m going to go in and change the unsweetened to bittersweet (that is what she is emphasizing in the note…. -h

I’m another Moosewood fan–The Moosewood Cookbook and The ENchanted Broccoli Forest were the 1st cookbooks I bought to join the redoubtable Joy of Cooking (a wedding present).
I wondered about the nuts in the brownies–did you sprinkle them on the batter in the pan? When I use nuts, I’ve always stirred them in, and they’re invisible. But I like the way they look showing on top.

I’ve been looking for recipes that use a lot of eggs – my girls are back in the full swing of production now that spring is finally here. Definitely will give this one a try!

I’ve been a vegetarian for 30 years–so Mollie’s books are a part of my life. I always thought it would be fun to try to take a year or so and work my way through one of her books. But I must say I’ve never made the brownies. Now, I must! Thanks, Heidi, for the inspiration.

There are too many people in this world (we far outnumber the cookbooks) for you to be the lone Katzen-less cooker…I too have never cooked from one of her books, and there it sits in my cookbook collection. I know firsthand that her recipe for moussaka is delicious, but only enjoyed the dish made by others. Katzen is an interesting person who found she must eat meat to cope with her low energy level, especially while travelling. She and the Dali Lama have this in common.
I’ve recently discovered a perk of menopause – I can now eat chocolate…couldn’t before due to fibrous cysts which coffee, black tea and chocolate fed. Now, I can enjoy the full sumptous depth of chocolate – even in brownie form! Thanks for the great photo.

I love Mollie! When I started trying to lose weight, and looking for some different types of foods to make I picked up the Moosewood Cookbook, and then The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest. I think they’re really great books for learning how to cook (TEBF has a great list in the back for cook to cook lots of different kinds of beans and grains–maybe that’d be a good guide for the reluctant cook that Heidi posted about recently?). I’ve found that I end up tweaking most of the recipes, but I think they’re great staples, and some interesting ideas I hadn’t thought of. I tend to think of these cookbooks as my fundamentals, and ones I use as standards that I can build on. My favorite recipe (I think it’s in the New Moosewood Cookbook) of hers, I think, is the Mediterranean Lemon Soup. Really easy, and really fantastic!

Interesting that you used 71% cocoa chocolate in place of the unsweetened chocolate. American unsweetened chocolate has no sugar at all in it, and it usually can’t be bought in Europe. Did the recipe come out very sweet? Would you recommend reducing the amount of sugar when you use bittersweet chocolate?

Moosewood has been one of my favorite cookbooks ever, and I’ve got quite a few of the other books. Moosewood Lowfat Favorites is one that I use more than any others. These brownies look scrumptious. Thanks!

I think the Moosewood cookbooks were the first books I really learned how to cook out of–they’re of the few I really trust as the recipe always just work exactly as promised. My only caveat with them is that any “ethnic” recipes usually need about double the spices they call for.
Moosewood cookbooks also taught me to make a perfect pie crust, so I am forever indebted to them!
These brownies look lovely, and I will definitely be adding some espresso to my own brownies in the future. What a great idea.

5 eggs!! you can say i have extra-eggophobia …. dunno why! i steadfastly avoid recipes that have 6 egg whites or 7 eggs ….. coz every single time i tried out one of these recipes … they bombed :(. And I have had similar bad luck with brownies over the years …. but I love em’ .. GOSh I love em’, and this yum picture might just make me take the plunge again! Thnx!

Wow. I’d forgotten about these brownies. They used to be my go-to brownie recipe, but I shifted to the super-fast One-Pot Brownies in “Cook Something.” I think it’s time to rediscover the Moosewood Brownies; I loved the slightly cakey texture. And I love the idea of adding bananas and espresso powder.

thanks, heidi! lookin’ good!
some brownie recipes call for creaming the butter with sugar, and some just tell you to melt the chocolate with the butter and add everything else.
i am lazy. i’d go for the simpler version. what’s the difference anyway?

The Moosewood Cookbook remains one of the mainstays of my kitchen library. I’ve moved from the original to the revised original, but still appreciate the classic recipes and Molly Katzen’s approach. The Enchanted Broccoli Forest is another must-have, and her books for children are delightful. Glad you took the plunge!

Yeah, I’m with you. I never made any of Katzen’s recipes. Having her cookbooks on my shelf does not make me vegetarian, so I finally got rid of them.

Perfect timing Heidi! I had some overripe bananas sitting in the fridge and I am tired of baking banana bread all the time. I am invited to a dinner party tomorrow and now I know what I will be baking for them! Thanks!
(By the way, I ordered your book from Amazon and I am waiting impatiently for it to arrive – unfortunately it takes a long time to get to Turkey…)

Mollie was our introduction to vegetarianism. I still rely on dishes I cooked or adapted from the Enchanted Broccoli Forest and Sundays at Moosewood as well as the original well thumbed, sutiably stained tome.
Lentil chili is a family favorite along with Yellowman’s Banana Bread.
But I find myself thinking “Heidi” more than “Mollie” these days!

Yummy~
The taste fo Brownies is always in my mind~
i want to catch a piece of it and run away^^

I grew up with the moosewood cookbook. A bible for many. I also have “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest”, which is also good. Her books seemed to wane as time went on. I never found much out of her later books. I have had several of her recipes, but somehow I have only made a few recipes from Moosewood. She is big on dairy, as back when she wrote it, vegetarian alternatives were few, and beans and dairy were standard. Pre-vegan movement.
I kind of recall the broccoli forest being lighter on the dairy.
I Highly suggest the spinach ricotta pie.
Filling, and quiche-y but not so much egg-y. There is ample spinach, cheese and just enough ricotta. The “icing” on the pie is a thin layer of sour cream schmeared on top which gets a sprinkle of paprika, and cooks far nicer than you would expect.
It is a no fuss, very easily multiplied recipe.
I used to whip out 20 if them when I worked in a retreat center kitchen with no problem.
Try it, I promise it will delight even the kids at the table.