Put sugar, cocoa, flour, flax, salt and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to break up clumps. I put them into a blender first to make sure they were all finely ground and that got me amazing results with a crinkle top. They still turn out great without doing this, but they really are amazing if everything is finely ground.
Add the chocolate chips, water, oil and vanilla into a bowl and melt in the microwave for 60-75 seconds, or use a double boiler if you don’t use a microwave. Mix to combine.
Add the melted mix into the bowl with the flour and mix until combined.
Prepare a square baking pan. I tried all types of baking pans (ceramic, metal and glass) and got the best result with a glass pan lined with parchment. You can also grease the pan if you don’t want to use the parchment, but the parchment helps the brownies bake more evenly and makes it much easier to get them out.
Pour batter into the prepared baking pan. I used an 8 inch. A 9 inch can work but you will need to watch the baking time, start checking at 20 minutes, because they will be thinner.
Bake for 25-28 minutes. The glass pan took around 28 minutes. The metal pan only took around 25. You want the top to be just baked, but not raw. If you use finely ground dry ingredients, you may also see that crinkle top forming. Do not overbake or they will be dry and fall apart. You want them moist and fudgy, they cook more as they cool.
Allow to cool completely, at least 30-60 minutes, before cutting, this allows it to set more and helps with the texture.
Notes
If your sugar is larger crystals or your flax powder is flakey instead of ground fine, you may want to put it them in a blender. I blended all of the dry ingredients to get them into a fine powder and that yielded amazing results and got me that crinkle top that regular brownies have.
Olive oil gives this the perfect texture and flavor. Almond butter works good as well, but you’ll need more water. However if your almond butter is very runny, you may not. Start with none then add a tablespoon at a time until the mixture is not dry anymore and looks like a batter. I tried this many times (used an average thickness of almond butter) and each time I needed ¼ cup water to get a batter. You can also try tahini for a nut free version.
Make sure to prep your pan well so they don’t stick. I recommend using parchment paper as that makes it easiest.
I tried using all kinds of pans, but got the best results using a glass pan.