Black Bean Brownies

A few years ago I made Black Bean Brownies for the first time.  They were surprisingly yummy (and my kids ate them up).

I decided to make them again, but I tried a different recipe this go around.

I tweaked the recipe a little and decided to use 1/4 c cocoa powder vs just 2 T, and I drizzled some PB over the brownies.

The kids ate these brownies up as well, and they still have no clue what the secret ingredient is!

Black Bean Brownies

Ingredients: 

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 c cocoa powder
• 1/2 c quick oats
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/3 c honey
• 2 T sugar
• 1/4 c coconut oil
• 2 t pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 c + 1/4 c chocolate chips, divided
• 1/2 c peanut butter

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F. 
• Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips and peanut butter in a food processor and mix until smooth. 
• Stir in 1 c chocolate chips.
• Pour batter into 8x8 parchment-lined pan. 
• Sprinkle remaining 1/4 c chocolate chips on top of batter.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Cool completely before cutting into bars. 
• Melt peanut butter in microwave safe bowl for 30 seconds on high.
• Drizzle over brownies.

You can find the original recipe here on Chocolate Covered Katie.

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Black Bean Brownies

Over the past few months I've read a few articles and seen a few TV clips featuring brownies made with black beans.

I decided to give it a try myself.

I searched online and saw that you can use a 1:1 ratio of pureed black beans to replace flour, so I simply decided to use my favorite from-scratch brownie recipe, and simply use pureed black beans instead of flour.

The end result was a very, very fudgy brownie.

As for the taste - it was amazing!  If I didn't make them myself, I would have thought the brownies were just regular fudge brownies.

I do admit that at first I was very hesitant to even try it - I just couldn't get it out of my head that there were beans in the brownies.

But they were truly delicious.

Of course the big test would be with my kids...

They devoured the brownies!  I did not tell them they were eating brownies with beans inside - if I did I'm sure they would not have even given them a nibble.

I do need to experiment more with the texture,  but from now on, whenever I make brownies, if I have black beans on hand, I will definitely be using them to replace the flour.

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