Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit...

November 6, 2013

It's that time of year again when I take my pilgrimage to Rochester to see my old teacher. As usual, payment for my lessons is in the form of baked goods, which for the past few visits has been in the gluten-free realm. This allows me to explore baking sans flour. 

My gluten-free friend, Rose, actually pointed me in the direction of Black Bean Brownies a few months ago. She baked some and they were surprisingly moist and bean-grit-free. I was impressed.
While her recipe was super vegan and gluten-free, I was in search of a brownie recipe that merely replaced flour with beans and still used eggs, sugar, etc. And I didn't want to go on a hunt for special ingredients. My take on gluten-free baking is to not seek out fancy products but find everyday substitutions. I'm so glad I found this recipe for Black Bean Brownies that fit my requirements.

I usually have a can of black beans on hand so theses brownies were convenient and super easy to make. I took the lead from The Minimalist Baker and used my muffin tin (need to grease it well) to create individual portions of brownies. Add Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (which I found out are gluten-free) for an extra level of chocolate.
Trust me, you won't even notice that these were made from blended up black beans. The texture is pretty much the same as brownies made with all purpose flour. They're also super moist and super delicious and you have the added bonus of fiber and protein (hidden beneath the layers of sugar and chocolate).

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