Black Bean Brownies (Vegan/ GF)

Yup. I jumped on the bean brownie bandwagon.

I’ve tried a couple of bean brownie recipes in the past and they’re just.. meh.. I pretty much gave up on the idea until one day I saw this recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie. I know I can trust Katie so I decided to give bean brownies another go!

Sooooo glad I did.

I changed the recipe around a bit since I didn’t have black beans or rolled oats or chocolate chips (I know right, who am I?!) at home. I also increased the amount of cocoa powder because I love my chocolatey goods chocolatey. I added the exact amount of syrup that Katie’s recipe called for but personally I thought these turned out a bit too sweet. They are, however, extremely fudgey and chocolatey and don’t taste beany at all! So do yourself a favor. Go make these now.

Black Bean Brownies (Recipe adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie)

1.5 c adzuki beans (I used these cause I didn’t have black beans. I think all beans work fine.)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 c rolled quinoa or quick oats
1/3 c maple syrup
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c chocolate chips (Didn’t use cause I didn’t have any)

1. Preheat oven to 170 C.
2. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor/ VitaMix. Taste and adjust sweetness. (The perks of vegan baked goods! You can taste the raw batter with no worries ;D)
3. Stir in chocolate chips if using.
4. Pour batter into a greased 8×8 pan.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from pan. Then cut into 9-12 pieces.

In case you were wondering, the cookies in the picture above (Yes they also contain beans! How exciting right?) are the result from very loosely following this recipe. Except I used rolled quinoa instead of oats, adzuki beans instead of butter beans, spelt flour instead of wwf, pureed pear instead of apple sauce, omitted baking soda, cardamom, and chocolate chips. So I guess you could say I wasn’t following the recipe at all… They still turned out okay but they’re more cake-like than cookie-like. You’re totally welcome to give them a try if you so desire 🙂