Happy Leap Day, everybody!
The sun is shining and I woke up happy that one more day stands between us and March! Say it with me: spring in just three weeks!!!
Clearly, this calls for celebration, which for me is synonymous with chocolate.
Black Bean Brownies have been on my baking to-do list for years now. At first, I thought they sounded a bit off-putting. But I’m willing to try just about anything once. Also, I like the idea of healthier baking.
These are meant to have a nice kick of fiber to them. And I tried to lighten up the recipe by replacing the 1/2 cup of oil with mashed banana. There’s a hint of banana in the background, but to me, that isn’t a bad thing. I’ve spiced them up a little with cinnamon and cayenne. This recipe is great if you’re having a cake craving but you’re running low on flour, as it only calls for 1/3 of a cup.
All in all, a lovely moist brownie without even the slightest taste of black bean. This is my new go-to brownie recipe.
Hope this extra day is a productive one for you, and frankly, full of cake.
Stay tuned for Mom’s birthday cake later this week.
Thanks for visiting,
A :-)
Black Bean Brownies
Ingredients:
1/2 c chocolate chips, divided
3/4 c cooked black beans
1/2 c mashed banana
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/2 baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne
Icing sugar for dusting
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease square baking pan and set aside.
- Melt half of the chocolate chips using a double boiler. Reverse the other half.
- In a blender, puree black beans and banana. Add oil, vanilla and egg. Scrape into a medium-sized mixing bowl. To the mixing bowl, add cocoa and sugar. Stir until just moistened. Fold in melted chocolate.
- In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and spices. Fold dry ingredients to wet. Add remaining chocolate chips.
- Spread evenly into greased pan. Brownie batter is very thick, so you’ll have to spread the batter across the pan and into the corners.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Let cook for 15 minutes in the pan.
- Slice, dust with icing sugar and enjoy!
Anita Kushwaha, Author 
Wow spring is coming! These sound delicious xx
Thanks so much, Lynn! It was a fun little baking experiment. And yes, come on spring, ha ha. I can’t wait for all this snow to melt away. Hope you had a lovely weekend and great to see you here! xo
I did and I love this idea! Would love to try! xoxo
Thanks, Lynn! Let me know if they work out for you! ;-) xo
Yumm love this idea
Ooo! Lovely! And birthday cake in the works too :)
Thanks so much, Claire! I almost didn’t bake these because I remembered I’ll be making mom’s bday cake later this week (lemon and white chocolate, btw!) and I thought perhaps that would be too many treats for one week. But then, fortunately, I came to my senses, haha. ;-)
I’ve never heard of white chocolate and lemon before! I have to make a white choc cake with raspberry filling eventually because it’s the only cake I mention in my book which I haven’t baked yet. And I did say I’d bake them all!
Ooo, I’m looking forward to that post! :-)
I think it’s so cool that black beans can replace four :) and yes, Spring is on its way! It’s been beautiful and sunny here today :) x
I was surprised too! And honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference. I like to fool myself into thinking these are healthy, ha ha. Yay to spring! Oh I’m so glad to hear it’s been sunny across the pond too. :-) xo
It’s been really lovely – cold, but beautiful :) the British countryside in the sunshine is gorgeous x
Oh definitely! I have relatives that live in the countryside and it’s always a pleasure to visit them. :-) So lush!
Love the addition of banana, cinnamon and cayenne! Yum!
Thank you! I try to find ways of knocking down the fat and sugar in a recipe as much as I can. I added the spices because, to be honest, I was a little skeptical about the black beat taste coming through! But that wasn’t a problem at all. :-)
I’ve tried lentil brownies and had been curious about black bean brownies. Cayenne??! I never would’ve guessed that one.
Ooo, lentil brownies sound very intriguing. I might have to try that one next. Ha ha, the cayenne is a take on Mayan chocolate, and it adds a certain something to the background flavour without making it hot spicy, if that makes sense. Thanks for dropping by, Janna, and I hope all is well! :-)
I have heard about Black Bean Brownies, but have never tried them. I will now take your word that they are great, and I will put them on my To Do List :-) .
Happy Cake Baking :-) and yes…Spring is in the air for you :-) Have a good week :-)
Thanks so much, Lynne! We finished off the last of them last night, ha ha. If you give them a shot someday, I hope they work out for you too! Happy baking to you and I hope you’re week is going well so far! :-) Always great to see you here!
You are so sweet Anita, thank you. The week is going well, just seems to be flying, can’t believe it it Thursday tomorrow. x
Oh you’re so sweet to and you’re very welcome! I had the same kind of week! It’s been so busy lately. But at least we’re just a couple of days shy of the weekend! :-) xo