Black Bean Brownies

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I was looking for a vegan black bean brownie base and I came across one from Happy Herbivore. I tried out her recipe and it was definitely yum but there were a few tweaks that I decided must be done to suit my taste buds. I was not a fan of the cinnamon with my chocolate brownies. The cloves I added in were a last minute thing, sort of “why not” in my head.

Please use ripe bananas here. In the second batch, mine weren’t that ripe and they turned out great, but the riper bananas will produce better tasting brownies. The riper bananas also allow for the minimal amount of added maple syrup to do the perfect job of sweetness!

I’ve been on a walnut kick lately and love the walnuts in these. I’m sure most nuts would work here. I’m a fan of walnuts here because they’re a softer nut and these brownies are fairly tender and fudge-y. Clearly you could not go wrong with adding in some chocolate chips, If you’re feeling up to it. An addition of 90% cocoa chocolate would be swell without adding in excess sugar. I’ll have to remember that for next time.

The almond flour adds some thickness to the fudgy brownies. The original recipe calls for instant oats instead, so you could use that or even another flour may work.

I really enjoyed how the appearance resembled fudgy brownies. The tops were shiny and sorta crackly like traditional brownies! I could probably eat a whole pan of these things.

They store very well for a few days in the fridge and taste better cold. Keep in mind these turn out even better the next day (or two!), so try and have some patience.

If you’re planning on making this for some sort of gathering, try and make it the night before so the texture gets dense and moist.

Spreading some sunflower seed butter on is soooooooo incredible. Man. Try it.

Ingredients:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed very well (I used no salt added)

2 whole bananas, very ripe

1/3 cup maple syrup (or honey)

1/2 cup almond flour

6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1-2 tbsp instant coffee

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp cloves (optional)

1/4 walnuts, chopped (optional)

Combine all ingredients in food processor except flour and nuts. Blend until smooth and well combined.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8×8 pan.

Stir in flour and nuts into batter and then pour into greased pan.

Cook for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool before you slice/eat entire thing.

Store in fridge.

*Note! I’ve made this with 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar, thrown oats into the food processor instead of almond flour, (sans cloves) for an ever healthier, dark chocolate treat! Very good.