Raspberry Swirl Brownies

The world's worst raspberry-swirl brownies you ever did taste:

E's mom was ever so sweet and got me the fantastic dessert-filled cookbook Sinfully Vegan: Over 140 Decadent Desserts to Satisfy Every Vegan's Sweet Tooth so I eagerly jumped in to try out their raspberry-swirl brownies (replete with tons of glorious cocoa and raspberry preserves). Before I get any further, let me just make it clear that I suck and not the book. Not like you couldn't've figured that out anyways. But yes, I am high in suckage. Anyways, these brownies looked glorious going in (and man was the raw batter good to wolf down) and they looked glorious coming out. And they tasted glorious in their warm gooey goodness as I tried not to burn my tongue. But come the next morning, they were stiff and rubbery as a car tire. I suspect this is not the fault of the recipe, but the fault of The Fear that Accompanies Vegan Baking--this fear is overcooking/undercooking items. Many vegan bakery items actually have to firm up outside of the oven as part of the cooking process, so it is often incredibly difficult (especially with cookies) to tell when it is done--many times it'll feel squishy as shit and seem completely undercooked but if you leave it in due to The Fear That Accompanies Vegan Baking, you will overcook. I suspect I did exactly that with the brownies, partially because I also doubled the recipe and cooked them in a larger pan, so I was worried that they should be baked longer and overcompensated on the baking time. The rubberiness may also partially be due to a lack of eggs. But one cannot be quite sure. Damn you though, you weird binding ovals from hell!