Challenge # 22: Black Bean Brownies

[moetushie]

The lowdown about black bean brownies is that of course they're not going to taste like regular flour, butter, egg brownies. Anyone who tells you differently is not being on the level. But! You could end up with something enjoyable and chocolatey anyway, so why not give it a go?



Black Bean Brownies

Makes 16
Time: 35 minutes

Special Equipment Needed:
Food processor
Rubber spatula
Microwave


Ingredients

For brownies:

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed - should be approx 250 g drained
3 eggs
3 tablespoons canola or another neutral-tasting oil
1/2 cup natural cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (I forgot this... But dense, fudgy brownies were what I was looking for.)
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I actually used The Good Stuff on this, perhaps a mistake)
1/2 cup sucralose (Splenda) or another one-to-one sugar substitute. If using honey or maple syrup, make sure to cut down on the other liquids in the recipe.
1 cup sugar free milk chocolate chips, divided (feel free to replace with your choice of chocolate chips)
1/4 cup almonds (chopped)

For frosting:

2 tbsp cashew butter (or whatever nut butter you have on hand)
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup sugar free milk chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking pan for brownie. Everyone always suggests using an 8 x 8 pan, but I don't have that. Mine was 9 x 13, maybe? Anyway, grease it up.

2. Throw everything except chips and nuts into the food processor and puree. You're trying to get the mixture as smooth as possible. Stop every few minutes to scrap the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

3. Stop the mixture when adequately smooth, unplug the food processor. Extract the blade and throw into the sink for later washing, regrets. Add nuts and 1/2 the chips, reserving some to sprinkle on top, and mix. Pour into greased baking pan and thump a few times to get the air out (not sure if this is needed in brownies, but why not do it anyway? Gets your frustrations out.)

Sprinkle remaining chips on top.

4. Bake for 30 minutes. Once baked, take out of the oven and cool completely before slicing. (Most recipes suggest letting it cool in the fridge overnight.)

5. As brownies bake, prepare the frosting! In a microwave-safe bowl, add milk and
chips. Zap for 30 seconds, take out and stir. Zap for an additional 15 seconds before taking out and stirring in half of your nut butter. Microwave an additional fifteen seconds if needed, otherwise mix in the the rest of the nut butter and stir vigorously until no lumps are present. Making this is really more about keeping an eye on the microwave and on your ingredients -- it's better to be cautious than to let your sauce burn or turn weird, so definitely keep an eye oon the microwave and turn on and off as needed.

Anyway, once you've got a shiny chocolate sauce -- yay, success! Isn't it like magic? It's too simple and stupid to be a ganache, but I love it.

Anyway, frost over cooled brownies (or not wait, like me, and dump it in immediately, cackling wildly.)


Nutrition: Each brownie (1/16 serving) is approx. 160 calories.

Notes:

- I've never gotten the sugar amounts right with this recipe. The first time I made it, I used honey, and it was kind of bland. Now I'm using a sugar substitute and it seems too sweet (I used the 3/4 cup measure the original recipe called for, but I think 1/2 cups would work better.)

- The frosting is incredibly dangerous to make. I thought I would eat the whole thing as-is.

- I used this recipe analyzer to figure out the nutritional profile for this recipe. Imput your own substitutions to figure out what it would be for you.

Some pictures!



And frosted:

Comments

[omens]

I've always been curious about black bean brownies! The microwave is just for the sauce, right??

[moetushie]

Yep! You can use a double boiler, but my luck has been terrible with those.

[miss_s_b]

Can I query "1 chocolate chips"? Is that one cup or 1 packet?

[moetushie]

One cup! Sorry, fixed.

[cosmolinguist]

I'm totally stealing that frosting recipe. Yum. (I love brownies too but can't easily find black beans now and if I did would make burritos out of them!)

[moetushie]

Using black beans for burritos is definitely fair shakes. I have some cooked ones I made in the Instant Pot that I need to cook into something... Maybe a soup or something? I'm getting hungry thinking about it.

But yeah! The chocolate sauce was dead easy and thickened up nicely. It would really go well if served immediately over some ice cream.

[gatheringrivers]

This I can actually modify to work with MY diet, so I'll have to give it a try - thank you! :)

[moetushie]

No problem! Enjoy. :)