Black beans in a brownie!! Sounds strange hey, but it really does work! We are recommended to eat a wider variety of plant foods and this recipe gets in quite a few into a treat that would usually be void of nutrients and just empty calories. You can also adapt this recipe to make it sweeter if you like, but I like it not being too sweet as I don't feel the need to go back for seconds, plus I love the bitterness of the cacao. You can also freeze these, and I even cut them into really small squares and gave them to Isabelle as "chocolate ice cream" and she loved them.
Equipment
- Blender (s blade)
Ingredients
- 1 tin black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 70 ml butter (melted) (you could use extra virgin olive oil or even coconut oil - but see well-being note on oils) 70mil is around 50g of butter I believe, and 1/3 cup
- 3-4 tbsp cacao powder (3 tbsp if you don't like the bitterness of dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
- 1/3 cup date syrup (1/3 cup = 70 ml) or you could use maple syrup
- 1/3 cup dried dates (if you are using dried dates, some are harder than others, I filled the cup with the dates and then added some hot water and soaked them first).
- pinch sea salt
- 1 handful chopped dates
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5/170C. Line an oven proof baking dish (I used a 18 x 20 dish).
- Place all of the ingredients (save for the melted butter), into the food processor. Pulse a few times and then blend until smooth.
- Add the melted butter very slowly into the mixture whilst the machine is running . Do so slowly to make sure you don't cook the eggs at this step. If using olive oil, you can simply add at the previous step.
- Taste the mixture to ensure you are happy with the sweetness and the amount of cacao powder used. If not sweet enough, add a little more date syrup or maple syrup, or even stevia if you have it.
- Pour the brownie mixture into the dish and spread the mixture out evenly. Sprinkle the walnuts on top. Bake in the oven for around 25-35 minutes until the brownie feels springy but also firm and the surface of the brownie has started to crack.
- Leave to cool. Cut into squares and enjoy! I refrigerate a few and freeze the rest.
Notes
