Black Bean Brownies

[connie]

Black Bean Brownies
These are vegan if you are careful with the choice of chocolate chunks/chips or just omit them, so great for those allergic to dairy or just avoiding it. The black beans can be switched out for any bean as need, so butter beans (great northern beans) and kidney beans (red beans) all work just as well. I haven't tried any others, but there is no reason as to why they would not work.

Ingredients
8oz (225g) cooked weight of black beans - roughly 100-110g dried weight
water
8oz (225g) wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
14oz (400g) dark brown sugar
2oz (50g) cocoa powder (make sure its sugar free...)
4 tsp instant coffee powder (to taste)
6-8oz (150-225g) chopped nuts&/seeds (optional and as available)
4oz (100g) chocolate chunks (optional)
1tsp vanilla essence


Method
Soak the beans overnight and cook them as per their instructions, then drain them.
Preheat the oven to 360F or 180F (Gas 4)
Put the beans and vanilla in a liquidiser/blender and add enough water to cover them completely and have about 1cm of water on top, then puree until really smooth.
Mix all the dried ingredients together.
Add the bean puree to the dried ingredients and mix well. You should have a slightly runny, thick batter - rather than a dough.
Pour the batter into a several small greased baking tin, so it is no more than 2-3cm thick. I find smaller sized trays better for this so that the middle cooks because this recipe has a tendancy to cook on the outside and leave the middle runny or burn the outer edges to get the inner cooked...
Cook at 180C for around 25-30 mins or so, turn round half way through cooking.
Cool completely in the tray, then turn out and cut up.

In theory it makes 24 square brownies of 5x5cm each. I say in theory, because in this household they don't often last long enough to get to the counting stage. Hence why I have also tried the freezing them approach - they freeze well if you can get them to the freezer that is.

 

[Trellum]

Wow Connie! This is the first time I hear of a brownie made with beans! And I'm a big bean eater! Thanks for sharing it! Not sure I'd be ready to make this one myself, but I'd sure like to try them! Maybe one of these days (probably next year) I might make a batch of these! I bet they're super healthy!

 

[Zyni]

Can we sneak some Beano into the recipe too? lol

It is a nice recipe, and I'm always looking for ways to sneak in healthier stuff, but I don't really like the idea of gassy brownies. Does soaking the beans really help make them less gassy?

 

[connie]

Can we sneak some Beano into the recipe too? lol

It is a nice recipe, and I'm always looking for ways to sneak in healthier stuff, but I don't really like the idea of gassy brownies. Does soaking the beans really help make them less gassy?

Soaking them is essential because you are starting off with dried beans... Sorry it had not occurred to me that that was not clear. I don't find these gassy, but then I live off a high fibre diet anyway and always have done, so these have no effect on either myself or my husband.

As for Beano, I have no idea... what is it? (even though you meant it as a joke...) I'm in the UK...

 

[Zyni]

Beano is an enzyme product that you take with gassy foods to help prevent gas. I was only half kidding. A friend of mine is a vegetarian and eats beans daily, yet they still create gas. Maybe different people are affected differently.

I do like the idea of getting something healthy into treats. Thanks for sharing.

 

[connie]

Beano is an enzyme product that you take with gassy foods to help prevent gas. I was only half kidding. A friend of mine is a vegetarian and eats beans daily, yet they still create gas. Maybe different people are affected differently.

I do like the idea of getting something healthy into treats. Thanks for sharing.

Get your friend to look up the herb "Savoury" adding it to casseroles and anything containing beans that is savoury really does take quite a lot of the gas out of the situation. (I'm veggie as well.) It isn't the easiest of herbs to track down but will grow in a temperate climate, so seeds can be sown and grown instead (which is what I plan to do this spring).

 

[Zyni]

Great. Thanks for the tip. I may even try some myself. I'm always looking for ways to get healthier foods into our diet, and this will help.

So, do you sneak other veggies into other treats? I'd love to hear some more ideas. I'll bake them to better health. lol

 

[connie]

Great. Thanks for the tip. I may even try some myself. I'm always looking for ways to get healthier foods into our diet, and this will help.

So, do you sneak other veggies into other treats? I'd love to hear some more ideas. I'll bake them to better health. lol

No, here I have no issues getting veg/fruit into our daily diet. If we count it up, we often have between 8-10 portions of veg/fruit in our diet, but we are both vegetarian with no dairy in our diets and both very adventurous with what we eat.

One thing I can suggest is an easy replacement for sugar - dates. Just soaks them in hot water and liquidise/blend them, then add the thick puree instead of sugar. You will need to reduce any liquid in the recipe accordingly and it helps if whatever you are making/baking is darker in colour, but it helps if they are the nice dates - not the cheap supermarket pre-stoned block dates which are awful. You only need 5 dates to count as one of your 5 a day...

Another is with casserole and stews - don't thicken then with corn starch/corn flour etc, use red lentils. You will need to add them much earlier in the recipe, but they will completely disappear and thicken the stew/soup naturally.

I'll see what else I have in the way of cakes and the likes that have alternatives in. I'm looking at a black bread at the moment that has carrots in it! I think I have a thread going on that one at the moment, under the bread forum asking if anyone has any other black bread recipes.

 

[Zyni]

Oh, nice. Thank you for the info. Those ideas sound quite do-able. I love vegetables myself, but I have a couple of picky eaters on hand. I'll definitely try the dates. That sounds great.

I'll look at your bread thread as well. I enjoy homemade bread and black bread is really good. Infusing it with carrots sounds like an excellent idea.