In the search for healthier yummy recipes to feed Lil’ Man, I stumbled upon a recipe for black bean brownies. Ok, so stop making that face and read on. Oh, and this one is GLUTEN FREE!!

I read the recipe, and a bunch of comments and did some more investigating online and made a few tweaks to the recipe and got to cooking.

Ingredients:

• 1 15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 eggs
• 3 T. sugar free applesauce
• 3/4 c. cocoa powder
• 1 T. Hazelnut extract (You could use vanilla)
• 1 1/2 c brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1 t. instant coffee crystals (optional)- I used 1 t. of very strong coffee instead.
• 1 C. chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 8×8 baking dish. I used an 8 inch round baking dish.
3. In a blender, combine all of the ingredients EXCEPT the chocolate chips. This is important.  I didn’t do this!
4. Pour batter into greased baking dish and top with chocolate chips. Bake for 25-35 minutes.  The brownies are super fudgy. If you want cake-ier brownies, add a pinch of baking powder.

 

If you like your brownies really sweet, add 1/4 c. white sugar. I like my desserts not super sweet, so I opted to use a little less sugar, and I’ll top mine with a scoop of ice cream- Yum!

They are not bean-y.  If I didn’t know they had beans in them. I wouldn’t be able to tell.  They are very moist, fudgy brownie. And if you use a flax egg and vegan chocolate chips, you’ve got a yummy vegan recipe!