Black Bean Brownies
Did you know that you can create delicious chocolate brownies using black beans as the main ingredient?! Yep, today I am replacing the flour commonly found in brownie recipes with pureed black beans. These brownies are soooo good – they come out moist, dense, and with lots of chocolate flavor.
Black Bean Brownies
yield: 16 SERVINGS
cook time: 30 MINUTES
total time: 30 MINUTES
Replace flour with pureed black beans for a surprisingly delicious gluten-free brownie!
Ingredients
- 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained or 1 1/2 cups cooked dried beans
- 3 eggs
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil or vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Directions
1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 pan.
2
Place beans in food processor and process until mashed. Add eggs, vanilla, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, sugar and oil. Process until smooth.
3
Pour into pan and sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Additional Notes
(Adapted from allrecipes.com)
I set these brownies out after dinner and my family gobbled them up! I hope your family enjoys them too!
These soudn great. I suspect many people will like it because it’s gluten-free. I have a different reason. My daughter is vegetarian with peanut-allergies, and a “selective” eater. I’m always looking for creative ways to get protein into her diet.
Whoa! You have your work cut out for you! Sounds tough.
I’ve made a similar recipe using the black beans in lieu of flour and they are delicious! You would never know the black beans are in there. These are rich and chocolaty!
I plan to try these for my 10 year old with celiac disease, but also feed them to my incredibly picky 14 year old and husband and see if they notice;)
My dad us a meat & potato man & he never can tell, until we start snickering by the time he’s on his fourth helping 😉
Super excited to try this recipe, they look amazing:)
Lol, suddenly there is an increase in purchases of black beans at supermarkets… Hip2savers trying out all these new cool black bean recipes 🙂
Ha ha!! Thanks Lolita 🙂
Anyone know the calorie content in these?
It’s super simple to figure out calorie content using the myfitnesspal app. You can “create” a recipe, scan all the barcodes of the products, and then it adds and divides for you!
Yes- I LOVE that app!!
Looks great- thanks!
Oh Lina, I love these. These are bet these are especially good with the added chips on top. I have made them before and they really are delicious. No one in my family realized they were beans but they did realize that I accidently left part of an eggshell in the mix, lol!
Oh ha! I agree! Good stuff.
I must have tried the wrong recipe awhile back because when I made them my husband and I just about gagged. They didn’t taste at all like a brownie..just beans. ugh! My daughter ate them though. Not sure I’m brave enough to try another black bean brownie recipe… the last one was n.a.s.t.y. lol
I was looking at the recipe, and you may have left out the sugar??? The ingredient list says sugar, but the written instructions don’t include the sugar… try it again! They are great!
Ooops! Thanks that’s very important lol, edited.
I, too, tried a similar recipe and did not like the taste. Hope this is better. Thanks, Lina!
some recipes are not very good, but this one looks similar to some yummy ones i have tried before. definitely worth giving them a second try.
I am really looking forward to trying this recipe !! Thank you !!
I have to say that the beans are perfect for this because they make them come out super dense and yummy like the picture.
Don’t have a food processor. When you blend the beans do they get soupy? Would a blender work?
I have made a very similar recipe in the past and used a blender as I too do not own a food processor. Worked very well. FYI…no one in my family knew the “secret ingredient”. They all loved them!!!!
i don’t have a food processor either…i’m thinking you could mash them with a fork…
Saw this on food network and they added a bunch of ingredients right to the blender too. How easy is that? I’m going to try these tonight.
I just throw the beans and and wet ingredients in the blender, then add to a bowl to mix the dry ingredients. sometimes the blended mixture + cocoa gets a touch too think for my blender. plus the hand mixing in the bowl gives my arm a mini workout. 🙂
Stick blender works. I made similar recipe Wednesday night and used stick blender to mash beans and then regular spoon mix rest of batter.
I would love to have the nutritional information as well. I would guess that it should be good with eliminating the flour and using coconut oil.
I adore the white pan you made these in – where did you get it? can’t wait to try this recipe!
Thanks! Ross, very inexpensive. I love white dishes with cool shapes. 🙂
Is there a way to make this without a food processor? I do have a magic bullet that I can use to mash the beans, but would have to transfer to a mixer to add the remaining ingredients.
I used to make black bean brownies on weight watchers. No gf though. One box dry brownie mix, 1/3 c water, 1 can undrained black beans. Blend beans and water and add to dry mix. Easy. 350 for 45 min???
This is off topic but I need to ask something about savingstar…I purchased around $15 of st ives products at rite aid and my savingstar account is only showing $9.97…I did use the $3.75 off of $12 purchase of st ives and one $1 off video value…so do coupons affect the totals? or could it be that she had made a mistake and rang one up twice and voided that one and added the correct one… so my receipt shows a voided st ives…sorry but this was my first transaction using savingstar…
Actually Sarah, I had the same issue with frozen foods before. I think it was Lean Cuisines and I noticed that it did only give you the total of what u spend so YES coupons do affect the total. That was my experience too anyway
It has always credited me pre-coupons. It might be b/c of the void. I bought 2 St Ives sprays, used the VV and 2 $2/1 spray coupons a $2 +UP, paid over $7 with tax, and my account was credited $11.98.
Thank you both for replying….I had two items that were 4.99 and two that were 2.49…and the voided item was 4.99 (and of course the void is the first thing on the receipt…so if I take this back and get them to ring it up again…would that work?
I would do my best to recalculate how they got to 9.97. Is insofar th products missing? Is that the amount if coupons are subtracted? I had a problem once with saving star, I emailed them and then scanned them my receipt, they creditted my account for the missing amount. If the coupons are subtracted off, i would not he complaining as their policy technically reads that you are not supposed to use paper coupons at the same time as a saving star coupon, but everyone does, I personally have never had a problem with it.
That is what I was thinking….if you add 4.99 and (2) 2.49 that totals 9.97 and that is what is shows because the void was a 4.99 item….the total I purchased was 14.96 minus 4.75 in coupons.
Ask them on facebook. They are always on there and are very quick to get back to you! 🙂
Coupons have never affected my Sstar credits.
Whaaat!? Black beans? I am soo trying this!!
Is there way to make this without eggs? My in-laws don’t eat eggs or meat…wat can i substitute egg with?
I have had success substituting either 1/4 cup yogurt (regular and soy both work) or 1/4 cup pureed banana. Both are common vegan substitutes. You may have to play around to find what works best since this already relies on a flour substitute.
Ground flax seed mixed with water.
My most favorite egg sub is soaked chia seeds. I can’t rave enough about how amazing they are I usually eyeball an egg size glop of the chia gel but my guess it’s about 2 tablespoons per egg. They seeds add fiber and act exactly like egg. It’s pretty fool proof.
1/4 cup of pumpkin per egg. I have used this with success before as well as apple sauce too.(Friends Kids with life threatening egg allergies.) HTH
cant wait to try this! looks like I have some new recipes to try out this weekend 😀
My cousin made these one year when she was doing Weight Watchers. They were really good.
I can’t wait to try these! I just found out that I have Celiac and my daughter has the gene. It has been challenging; especially making sure we are watching calories as well as staying gluten free. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
you can also do a similar idea with white beans (navy or cannelloni), and bake in muffin/cupcake cups to make mini cupcakes. They will be a little dense, so you can experiment with extra baking powder/baking soda/ eggs for extra puffiness.
I didn’t even notice these were gluten free until reading the comments. My sister has an intolerance and I love to bake, so I have given myself a personal challenge to find gluten free desserts that use ingredients I already buy and that everyone will enjoy. I have tried gf box mixes and many other gf desserts that just don’t taste as good as their gluten counterpart, in my opinion. I can’t wait to try these for our next family get together.
I made this slightly differently as a cake and tested it at a family gathering. Everyone knew how it was made and they STILL loved it! 🙂 I used a simple ganache as the frosting.
All of these bean recipes all week look fantastic! But may not be a good idea to make one after another, if you know what I mean. 😉
Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat….
I admit–I’m not expecting much from these but I will give them a whirl…has anyone put choc chips in the batter??? I’m thinking they might need help! I really want to make healthier brownies–I really do…but these sound a bit crazy!
Ha ha I thought so too, trust me..definitely worth a try!
the chocolate chips are important if you are unsure. they are not the same as regular brownies, but still really yummy!
I just made these last night, with a slightly different recipe. I put chocolate chips in the batter… I think it helped with the texture of the beans, made the brownies more gooey and brownie like.
I just made these and the flavor is great but the texture is kinda fluffy, airy. Any ideas to make them more fudgy next time?
Dont bake them as long. I have a similar reciepe i add a tablespoon of coffee to it. makes it more chocolatey and fudgy. My recipe says to bake 25 so maybe check them five mins earlier. I look for them to just look set and pulled away from sides of pan slightly. Hth 🙂
Ok. good tip. I will try! Thanks!
Do you mean a tablespoon of instant coffee?
Is it possible to add a printable version is the recipes you post underneath the article so it’s easier to cut and paste?
There’s the print icon at the upper right of the page. It opens up another window, and you can click on sections that you don’t want printed. It’s super easy!
The spicy black bean burgers were good, I will give this a whirl, it looks yummy! Thanks Lina. I havea couple bottles of bean-o so keep these bean recipes coming!
Lol 😃
Hmm… i wonder what would happen if you made spicy black bean brownies. Like chocolate with chili. (Not with onion, garlic, cumin flavors). Could be a fun variation, especially one some of these colder days.
Do they make you gassy?
Dumb question, can you use pinto beans? It’s all I have on hand atm, would love to try them out tonight!
as long as they don’t have chili type flavors added, then you should be fine. the black beans just have a little extra dark color, but both taste pretty much the same. 🙂
I’ve had these (slight variation)…they were a bit crumbly and dry but I don’t know if this recipe is better or not. They were good but def. taste different…I don’t know how anyone could be fooled BUT they ARE GOOD!!!!!!!
I use organic maple syrup or honey in lieu of the sugar, and add some almond flour to mine. Yummy!
Oh! And my black bean recipe called for gf oatmeal, ground fine, as well. Added some additional yummy flavor, and they come out fudgey and goey 🙂
Wonder if you could replace sugar with bananas?
I want to try these! we are gluten free and trying to eat clean. So even though this is a treat, it’s a great one! I worry about the 3/4c sugar however. Could I use liquid stevia? then use almond flour to cover up for the sugar??
What about honey instead?
What about coconut sugar? I’m thinking of trying it that way 😳
Ha. I just happen to have everything on hand. Now I know what I making tomorrow if it’s still to wet out.
ha ha. me too. my front yard is one giant slushy puddle. 🙂
Just put it on the oven. Looks good. Smells good. I think I need to invest in a small processor though. Fork mashing just wasn’t enough. And I may have read it wrong but it looks like baking powder is in the ingredient list and not in the directions.
I made these with DARK choc. chips on top… I substituted sugar for: 3/4 cup flax seed meal, and 8 packets of Truvia. ( I should have used 10) I FORGOT the coconut oil in the microwave… I thought they were pretty OK and would be GOOD if I had made them with the 10 packets and coconut oil. 🙂
thanks for your comment! I think I’ll use stevia and add in some almond flour. .
Made these for dessert tonight and they were AMAZING!! Hubby couldn’t tell they weren’t “normal” brownies! I added pecans and drizzled caramel on top before baking. HOMERUN!
Wow awesome and thanks for sharing!
I’m new at substituting other ingredients for the sugar. Would Agave work and how much? Or any other ideas not listed already.
has anyone tried the brownies w/honey instead of sugar? or with something else like palm sugar?
So excited to make this! I can’t have gluten and I miss brownies!
Does anyone know of some fair trade cocoa we could use? We’ve stopped using Hershey’s recently and I’m not sure what good alternatives there are.
I usually get Equal Exchange or Frontier cocoa through my co-op or Vitacost. The first time I used Frontier, I was blown away by how much more chocolate flavor it had. They must cut or add filler to most store brands!
I’m trying these with coconut sugar instead of the regular sugar… Will post results later 🙂
Letting black bean cake and brownie recipes sit over night in the fridge removes any residual bean flavor. We use this method for a black bean cake and it really does make a big difference.
beore or after cooking?
Yes, would love to know if you mean before or after baking.
OMG!!!!! So good!!! Kids are licking their fingers and finally got veggies in the boy’s tummy – aka The Bad Food Kid. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much Lina! These taste amazing! Followed your recipe except I added walnuts on the top instead of chocolate chips and the result is so yummy! 🙂
Great! You’re welcome!
Made them AGAIN today since the first pan went so fast! This time I substituted half the sugar with 25 vanilla stevia drops and added flax seeds with the rest of the ingredients. I topped them off with chopped pecans, sprinkled mini dark chocolate chips and white chocolate chips on top, then drizzled caramel on top of it all! HEAVENLY TURTLE BROWNIES!
Wow! That sounds great!
Made these tonight! They are delicious!! I can’t have gluten, so these are perfect!
I made these over the weekend and they taste amazing. I used “Special Dark”, added some applesauce in place of half the oil, cut the sugar back and crossed my fingers in fear that they would taste too “healthy”. ;o) Everyone loved them! Thanks so much for the recipe and I will definitely be making these again!
Just made these…yummy but a bit cakey for me. I like ooey gooey brownies. I upped cocoa to 1/3 cup. Next time I think I will decrease to 2 eggs and add more oil. My reg recipe uses 1/2…yes its a lot but makes them sooo yummy. Might must add another tbsp or 2.
Made these for the teens at church tonight. One is dairy intolerant and another is gluten intolerant. ALL of them loved them. One guy said they were the best brownies he had ever had.
That’s so great! Thanks for reporting back 🙂