Black Bean Brownies

There are a lot of black bean brownie recipies out there — but none were QUITE what I wanted. Many of them use cane sugar or sugar substitues, or coconut oil, and almost all of them called for adding chocolate chips. I didn’t want to do any of that. So I found the closest recipe I could, tweaked it a bit, tried it out. It was good — but not good enough for company. I tried it again bumping up the amounts of cocoa powder and dates. It was much better, though I actually liked the batter better than the brownies.

If you want to give my recipe a try:

Sandra’s Black Bean Brownies

Ingredients

14 oz can black beans, drained & rinsed
2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons flax meal softened in 6 tablespoons water)
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
1 cup pitted dates
2 tbsp brewed coffee (optional) or water
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup non-alalized cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Cooking spray
Chopped walnuts to top

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 x 8 square baking dish with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
2. Add all ingredients except walnuts to a powerful blender or food processor and process until smooth. Pour batter into baking dish, top with walnuts and bake for 30 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and let brownies cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing. Cut into 16 squares.

The final product (before cutting):