Black Bean Brownies

Black Bean Brownies

Total time:  1 hour.

Gluten-Free intrigues me, and I couldn’t help but try making my own version of these. I thought that substituting some brown sugar in place of white sugar would help with some “stickiness”, but I still feel these could have held together better. The key might be xanthan gum or guar gum; if you’ve got either, try adding a teaspoon.

2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c white sugar
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp instant coffee (optional)
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease your brownie pan, and set aside.

In a small microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate chips. Stir every 20 seconds.

In a food processor or blender, combine beans and melted chocolate until it forms a smooth paste. You can add the rest of the ingredients and blend well, or you can transfer the beany chocolate to a large bowl and mix everything in the large bowl.

Transfer to an 8×8 brownie pan (or 7 x 11 glass pan), and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Today, I am using a packet of Starbucks Decaf Italian Roast VIA, which measured 1.5 tsp. I shouldn’t have put the whole packet in, as you can definitely taste the coffee. Maybe espresso powder or just cutting down to 1 tsp would make a better flavor. I don’t mind tasting the coffee, though. <3 coffee.

Overall, these were delicious and awesome. If I bake brownies from scratch again, I’ll be using this recipe. I might add some flour or guar gum to bind the brownie together better (it’s kind of crumbly), but I wouldn’t change anything else.

Day 2: They’ve been in a covered pan all night, and the top is now “sweaty” and they seem to be pretty dry. You can definitely tell it’s beans today. Very interesting.

Day 6: Don’t keep these for this many days. They developed a stench, and I had to throw them out.