It was a rainy day in usually sunny California, & I was bored. I was in between coats on a piece of furniture I'm re finishing (trust me, there's a post on that to come) & I didn't know what to do with myself! Yes there are many things to do on a rainy day, but all I felt like doing was baking. So I took a look into my pantry, & there wasn't much. I saw some coca powder, & then I saw...
Black beans.
I remembered I had seen a recipe a while back for black bean brownies, so I thought I would play around with that. I followed a bunch of different recipes I found online, and tweaked them & made it my own. I'm still going to play around & test some ingredients in the future, but this batch turned out great! They had a deep chocolate taste, & had a very moist and fudgy consistency. This batch made around 12-14 servings.
The recipe calls for:
-1 can of black beans
-3 large eggs
-3 tablespoons of canola oil
-3/4 cup splenda (you can substitute with sugar if you like)
-1/2 cup coca powder (unsweetened is what I used)
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, pure is best! :)
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
First step which I seem to always forget is to preheat the oven to 375. So if you're following my recipe, go do that. Now!
Once I got my oven preheating, I grabbed my can of black beans, which was 15 oz. Some recipes called for a can of low sodium black beans, but I just had a regular can and thoroughly rinsed them in a strainer to remove the sodium. I then put them in my mini food processor, along with the eggs and pulsed until they were a smoother consistency. They won't get completely creamy, I could still see lots of bean skins, so don't worry about that. Just make sure majority of the chunks were gone.
Following the pulsing, I poured the beans into a large mixing bowl, but left a few large spoonfuls in the food processor. I did this for easier mixing of the dry ingredients.
I then added the canola oil, splenda, coca powder, vanilla extract, baking powder, salt, and the chocolate chips and pulsed a few times until mixed. The chocolate chips didn't really break up, but it gave a more fudgy consistency for the end result.
Once incorporated, I combined it all into my bowl with the black beans, and mixed together. I then poured it into a nonstick baking pan that was given a spritz of non stick spray, like Pam.
If you're like me, you may get a little freaked out when you realize how watery the batter is. Don't fret my dears, it's going to be okay. Take a spatula and flatten out the batter in your baking pan, and then sprinkle a few more chocolate chips on top.
Pop that puppy in the oven and let it bake for around 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, it will be ready when the edges pull away from the pan. Let that chocolately goodness cool completely before cutting into single servings. This was the hardest part because by now, everyone in you household will be gravitating to the kitchen wondering what that amazing smell is!
So after waiting a good 20 minutes or so, I cut them into single servings, and then ate about 5 of them because they were SO delicious! That's the reason I don't have any pictures of the pan before I divided them, I was too excited to get my paws on em. I handed one to my boyfriend, and his exact words were,
"wow, that legitimately tastes like a regular brownie."
Music to my ears! Success. :)
These wonderful morsels are healthy for you too! The beans add some protein, so if you've got some finicky eaters in your household, give them one of these. They won't even know that they've got some good stuff hidden inside. ;)
Hope you enjoy my take on "healthy" brownies. Well, as healthy as I can get them for now. These taste very similar to the Vita Tops that I buy at health food stores, which are packed with vitamins and fiber, so I'm going to experiment with adding more healthy goodies to this recipe in the future.
Lil' Susie homemaker, over & out!
-Sierra
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