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High Protein Cherry Chocolate Vegan Mug Brownie

I’m not a vegan food blogger. This vegan mug brownie is actually the first vegan recipe I’ve posted on either of my blogs. That said, I think I’ve knocked it out of the park with this one.

With five ingredients and about five minutes, you’ll have a vegan mug brownie for one with 17 grams of protein and just 158 calories. It’s rich and chocolatey, and the cherries actually give it the appearance and texture of melted chocolate chips inside.

But enough talk, let’s get down to brass tax.

You're going to love this 5-ingredient, high protein vegan mug brownie made with frozen cherries, vegan protein powder, cocoa powder, coconut flour, and unsweetened apple sauce.

Ingredients for This High Protein Vegan Mug Brownie

This cherry chocolate mug brownie was inspired by one of my most popular recipes, a one minute protein brownie that uses canned pumpkin to create a fudgy chocolate brownie. Instead of pumpkin, this version uses cherries and apple sauce (you’ll never taste the latter) to mimic the same fudgy goodness.

Here’s everything you’ll need:

  • frozen cherries
  • unsweetened apple sauce
  • coconut flour
  • cocoa powder
  • vegan protein powder

Easy enough, right?

high protein cherry chocolate vegan mug brownie recipe

Cherry Chocolate Vegan Mug Brownie Ingredient Modifications

I’ll touch on a few ingredient notes and potential modifications below.

Protein Powder

The most common question about any protein powder based recipe is about the protein powder itself. For this recipe, I used PEScience Vegan Select. If you’re familiar with my recipes, you know the whey and casein PEScience Select is one of my go-to powders.

I always like to say you can use any protein powder you’d like, but you may need to slightly modify the liquid ingredients to account for consistency differences. I’ve included process photos in the recipe card below so you can get an idea of what your brownie batter should look like before microwaving.

vegan mug brownies on a plate and in the bowl

If you’re using a whey protein, swap it gram for gram but start with one tablespoon of apple sauce and add as needed. I’ve compared the PEScience vegan and whey/casein and found that the vegan requires roughly 50% more liquid ingredients to hydrate the batter.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why I use vanilla and add cocoa powder, it’s for a more authentic chocolate flavor. If you wanted to use chocolate protein powder, omit the cocoa powder or add maybe a teaspoon.

Cherries and Apple Sauce

Like I mentioned above, pumpkin makes a phenomenal brownie if you’re not a fan of cherries. Here’s a handful of other ingredient ideas that I like to use for similar purposes:

Note: I tend to use more carbs than fat in my recipes to keep them on the lower calorie end of the spectrum, but I’ll include fat sources as well. 

  • ripe bananas
  • sweet potato puree
  • strawberries
  • avocado
  • plant based butter or margarine
  • nut butters and reconstituted powdered nut butters
  • other fruit purees

All right, that’s plenty of options. Feel free to play around, but I’ll reiterate how amazing the juicy cherries are in this vegan mug brownie!

vegan mug brownie step 3

I’d Love to See Your Mug

If you make this vegan mug brownie, snap a pic and let me know what you think. Tag me on Instagram @mugsformuscles or join my free Facebook group and share it with the gang.

 

Yield: 1 serving

High Protein Cherry Chocolate Vegan Mug Brownie

high protein cherry chocolate vegan mug brownie recipe

A 5-ingredient protein brownie made with frozen cherries, vegan protein and cocoa powder, and coconut flour. 

Prep Time 3 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Add the cherries to a mug or small bowl and microwave for 60 seconds. vegan mug brownie step 1
  2. Add the apple sauce. Stir well.  vegan mug brownie step 3
  3. Add the dry ingredients to the mug and stir until everything is evenly mixed. Some small chunks of cherries should remain. (A rubber spatula makes easy work of this.) vegan mug brownie step 4 dry ingredients
  4. Spread the brownie batter evenly in the bottom of the mug. If you want to remove the brownie from the mug after, you can transfer the batter to a second mug or bowl sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  vegan mug brownie step 5 before microwaving
  5. Microwave for 60-75 seconds or until the center looks nearly cooked. It's better to undercook than overcook with protein brownies. 
  6. Top with additional cherries, dairy free whipped cream, or other toppings, if desired. 

Notes

  • If you're using fresh cherries, you may want to add a teaspoon of honey or some type of liquid to hydrate the brownie batter (as needed). 
  • For a whey or casein protein powder, start with half the apple sauce and add as needed to avoid over hydrating the brownie batter.
  • For cherry and apple sauce substitutions, see the post above. 

Nutrition Information

Yield

1

Serving Size

1 brownie

Amount Per Serving Calories 158Total Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 0gCarbohydrates 22gProtein 17g

More High Protein Recipes You Might Like

Since you’ll have cherries on hand, you might as well try my copycat cherry garcia smoothie bowl.

cherry garcia protein smoothie bowl

And if you love frozen fruit as much as I do, you’ll appreciate my protein ice cream recipes. Most will be as simple as swapping the whey protein for a vegan protein powder.

Blueberry Mango Protein Ice Cream

You're going to love this 5-ingredient, high protein vegan mug brownie made with frozen cherries, vegan protein powder, cocoa powder, coconut flour, and unsweetened apple sauce.

J. Horton

Thursday 10th of January 2019

Huge fan of this recipe. Crazy good macros and great for satisfying cravings. I like to switch the cherries out for whatever frozen fruit I have around and it works great.

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