Seriously fudgy, chocolatey, heart-healthy black bean brownies
Oh that expression…”you can’t have your cake and eat it too”! (or eat your cake and have it too, hey Ted Kaczynski :0 ) What does it mean? That it is impossible to have something both ways? Like you can’t have an insanely rich dessert that is ALSO good for your health? Well, this recipe for vegan black bean brownies COMPLETELY turns that expression on it’s head!
Did you say black beans?
Ok, so this in not an original idea. There are a lot of black bean brownies recipes floating around out there. Lucky you that you found this post to these brownies because they are seriously good and seriously easy. I wanted brownies that reminded me of my mom’s homemade which were always dense and rich and fudgy. I also wanted a yummy brownie with no eggs or oil or processed flour. What’s a girl to do? Black beans!
don’t you want one right now?
Dozens of articles and recipes dating back nearly ten years, suggest the use of black beans as viable subs for flour and fats in baking. One recent study conducted at The Department of Biomedical Sciences at Missouri State University (click here for the full text) concluded that black beans were a very good shortening replacement in brownies. Apparently they black beans are great in many recipes, especially in chocolate recipes like brownies or cakes. A little more research revealed that black beans can sub for flour too, which is good news for those with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.
What makes these brownies so healthy?
1. Beans (rather than oil and flour) for their fiber and protein and cholesterol-reducing properties, read more here
2. Cashew butter (rather than butter/oil) for anti-oxidants and heart-protecting mono-unsaturated fats
3. Cacao/cocoa: Flavonoids in cocoa help lower blood pressure and improve blood flow to the brain and heart. They’ve also been shown to help thinking skills.
4. Walnuts improve artery function and may decrease risk of heart attack by half ( PLUS, just one ounce of nuts per day increases lifespan and decreases cancer risk!)
5. Aquafaba (the water you usually drain from canned chickpeas), instead of eggs= no cholesterol. Click on aquafaba.com for more info….
And now here’s how
I have played around with varying versions of this vegan black bean recipe easily half a dozen times. If you like your brownies chewy, fudgy, dense and chocolatey, this here version is a winner. For my cake-like brownie fans, double the aquafaba!
A food processor or blender makes mixing a breeze. Here the first group of ingredients is blended for about a minute:
before ⇑ after 60 seconds ⇓
Next up is adding the aquafaba…see the shiny result after about 15- 20 seconds:
again, you can double the aquafaba if you crave a more cake-like brownie
Once blended, the batter is poured into a bowl and the oat “flour”, baking powder and salt are stirred in. No worries with over-stirring as you are not adding wheat flour and thus no gluten can be formed that could otherwise make these “tough”. Actually, now that I think about it, I could probably have mixed it all in the food processor, with just a few quick pulses at the end to incorporate the chocolate chips and nuts. Oh, well, you guys get the idea 😉
wasting a bowl…
Bake in an 8×8 dish for brownies that will be about an inch and a half thick. Certainly a larger pan would work for thinner brownies. These guys took about 50 minutes at 350 F, and I started checking for “doneness” (toothpick inserted comes out pretty clean, not gooey) at 40 minutes.
Black bean brownie straight from the pan. I used my mom’s tip: spray the knife with a little cooking spray and the brownies are cut and removed easily 🙂
Please give these a try and comment below…yay or nay, I can take it!!
- 1 15 ounce can black beans drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup cashew butter oil-free if possible aka homemeade
- 1 cup organic sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon espresso powder* see Sound Bites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons aquafaba chickpea water (double amount for cake-like)
- 1/2 cup oat flour simply grind whole oats in food processor/blender until flour-like consistency)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tbsp cacao powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 ounces vegan chocolate chips: I used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
- 3 ounces walnuts chopped
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Preheat oven to 350 F.
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Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.
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In the bowl of a food processor add black beans, cashew butter, sugar, maple syrup and espresso powder.
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Process for about a minute until smooth.
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In a small bowl, whisk together oat flour, baking powder cacao powder and salt.
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Add flour mix to food processor and process until combined.
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Add aquafaba and process for about 15-20 seconds until shiny.
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Add chocolate chips and 2/3 nuts and using a few quick pulses, blend until just combined.
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Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and sprinkle on remaining walnuts.
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Bake for about 50 minutes until toothpick comes out nearly dry.
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Cool, cut into 16 squares.
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Enjoy.
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Once cooled, you can freeze them. Take out of freezer about an hour before serving.
Experts and novices agree that adding coffee to chocolate enhances chocolate flavor. I could find no article that credits anyone with the idea to do so. Perhaps is because coffee and chocolate hit European shores at roughly the same time (mid-1600's) and became rapidly popular? I did find one reference, however. Apparently in 16th century Venice chocolate was mixed with coffee and called bavareisa and became immensely popular. The rest is history
