Really Easy Brownie Pastry

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Really Easy Brownie Pastry is a brownie filled strudel pastry dessert. Melt-in-your-your-mouth chocolatey deliciousness! And…it’s dairy free!

Really Easy Brownie Pastry is one of the most impressive easy desserts you will ever make!

The instructions may seem complicated at first glance, but I promise that this is just so easy!

Just place the filling on the dough, roll, and bake! That’s all there is to it.

This dessert can be made flat more rounded. To make it rounder, the batter needs to be thicker, so add a bit more flour (a little at a time until reaching a thicker consistency).

When it comes out of the oven, just sprinkle with powdered sugar and drizzle with chocolate topping (shown in recipe).

Prefer individual bars? Try Really Easy Brownie Pastry Bars.

If I can bake, anyone can

I am the type of person who, when she sees something that looks easy to create, will try to do just that. And I will continue to try and try (sometimes spending more on the attempt than the item would cost to buy ready-made), until I either succeed or decide that I have had enough and have at least given it my best effort.

So, after a visit to a bakery one day, I decided to try my hand at some baking, starting with chocolate chip cookies.

Happily, they always came out tasting good (unless I forgot them in the oven and they burned), but I could never get them to come out the same way twice in a row. Sometimes they were more cakey, sometimes they were flat, and every once in a while they would even come out just right. But they never came out the same way twice in a row. Ever. However, I never gave up.

My next attempt at baking was birthday cakes. I started with a 9″x13″ pan and those were fine, but I wanted to present my kids with birthday cakes that were made of layers. So, I bought the round pans and found a good recipe.

Birthday after birthday, the cakes came out tasting terrific, but they were always lopsided. I was told to use a knife to level them off, but I would’ve had to cut off so much, I would’ve been left with very short cake, which wouldn’t have done at all. So, I just worked with what I had and used frosting to fill in the valleys as best as I could.

During this period of time, I learned a very valuable lesson. DO NOT put on frosting if your cake hasn’t cooled because the frosting will get runny. This is especially true if your cake is not level because everything on the top of your cake will slide…right…off.

Another issue I had while learning to bake cakes is that it is not like cooking. With cooking, like a lot of people, I can eyeball ingredients and the dishes will still come out good. Not so with baking. Most baking requires measuring, but like with measuring actual measuring spoons and cups.

One day, my daughter Elissa came into the kitchen while I was preparing some recipe or other (I had moved on to try other things besides just chocolate chip cookies and birthday cakes). Elissa is very competent when it comes to following directions when cooking and baking, and was horrified.

“You are NOT really measuring oil in the palm of your hand, are you?!”

I didn’t see what the problem was, and told her that I couldn’t be bothered to stop what I was doing to get the measuring spoons, and I certainly know what a tablespoon of oil should look like.

“You can’t bake the way you cook,” she informed me.

Finally, I decided OK, I am going to follow directions. I will measure properly and that will be it. So, I did.

The cake came out tasting really good, but it was really heavy.

I complained to Elissa.

“I followed the directions and even measured and look at it!”

We decided that she would try the recipe to see what was wrong (she is great at following exact measurements and was tired of my complaining).

I read the instructions to her (off a very highly reviewed recipe) and was very gratified when it came out heavy for her too. Ha!

She insisted we go over the instructions again and she also wanted to see the original recipe. I gladly showed her.

“You doubled the recipe,” she accused me. “Why?”

“Because I wanted a higher cake.”

“That is NOT considered following directions. The recipe is for two pans and you put double in each pan, so it couldn’t rise.”

Oh. I took back my “ha” and never did that again.

After a while, I finally gave in. Now, I follow directions and measure properly. Well, mostly.

Not surprising, everything I bake comes out as it should (of course…as long as I don’t forget to remove from the oven…!).

Baking Pantry Essentials

I never know when someone in my family is going to want a dessert at home, to bring to a friend’s house, or need for an event, so I like to make sure I can bake anything with very short notice. To that end, I keep a variety of supplies and ingredients in the house that will allow me to do just that. 

I can’t tell you how many times I was glad to have whatever I needed within reach for the last-minute visitor or for when one of my kids went to a friend or had a school event without much prior notice.

I have slowly collected things over the years as I needed them (or if I found a good sale) and like to keep more than one of the smaller items, in case I don’t want to wash dishes in the middle of baking.

My basic “equipment” includes:

• a stand mixer, which I use mostly for dough and, sometimes whipping
• a hand mixer (for things that aren’t dough and I don’t want to mix manually)
• a small scale
• different sizes and shapes of baking pans, including loaf pans
• mixing bowls (or just large bowls—I have plastic, glass, and metal)
• cookie sheets 
• pie dishes
• dry measuring cups
• liquid measuring cups
• whisks
• rubber spatulas (really good for when you don’t want to leave anything in the bowl)
• rolling pins
• a baking mat for rolling out dough
• baking strips
• a good supply of baking (or parchment) paper (also round for layer cakes)

I can certainly get by without a lot of the above, but it makes baking so much simpler when I just have whatever I need at my fingertips.

In addition to the equipment, there are the baking ingredients that I try to keep in the house at all times: 

• flour
• white granulated sugar
• brown sugar (light/dark—I usually keep dark)
• confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
• salt
• baking powder
• baking soda 
• cocoa powder
• ground cinnamon
• ground nutmeg
• ground ginger
• ground cloves
• baking chocolate
• chocolate chips
• instant dry yeast
• vanilla and/or vanilla sugar
• cooking oil/cooking spray
• margarine or butter
• eggs
• honey
• instant coffee
• various extracts (real or imitation)

I also make sure that I have the following on hand to be able to make a variety of fillings, frostings, and toppings:

• whipping cream
• powdered pudding mix
• powdered sugar
• a good chocolate spread

Then, there is the following to make last-minute quick desserts:

• packaged pie dough or ready-made pie crusts
• puff pastry dough

Lastly, it’s not a bad idea to keep fun toppings, such as chopped walnuts, raisins, and the oh-so-important container of sprinkles.

Benefits

Not only is this pasty delicious, but check out the benefits of chocolate!

Continue to Content

Yield: 8 - 10 slices

Really Easy Brownie Pastry

Print

Delicious dairy free brownie filled pastry.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 sheet puff pastry dough (approximately 1 pound, rolled out to around 1/8" thick or so - mine comes out to approximately 16" x 10")
• 1/4 cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar

Filling

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup oil *
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (imitation is fine)

Chocolate topping (if desired)

• 1 cup powdered (confectioner's sugar)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 - 3 tablespoons water or non-dairy milk substitute, such as oat milk*

Instructions

The Pastry

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, sugar and salt.
1. Add oil, eggs, and vanilla extract and mix well.
2. Spread or roll out pastry dough.
3. Place the filling along the middle of the length of the dough so it is approximately 2-3 inches wide, starting an inch or two from one of the shorter edges.
4. There should be approximately 12" of filling with an inch or two on the other side as well (if your filling isn't thick enough, it will seep out the sides, so to prevent this the dough should extend beyond the filling). **
5. Fold the long edges of the dough over the filling and overlap.
6. Gently flip the dough over on to a lined or greased baking sheet.
7. Place in a oven that has been preheated to 350°F and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until the dough has become a light golden brown.
8. Remove from oven.
9. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top.

The chocolate topping

1. Mix powdered sugar, cocoa.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of liquid and mix well. Add up to one more tablespoon of liquid only if needed to be able to drizzle (if you add too much liquid, add a little more powdered sugar to compensate).
3. Drizzle on top of strudel as desired.

Notes

* Add only 1/3 cup oil for a thicker filling.
** If the filling seeps out the ends while baking, you can leave or cut off.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 405Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 47mgSodium: 279mgCarbohydrates: 60gFiber: 3gSugar: 28gProtein: 6g

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