Sunday, September 21, 2014

Black Bean Brownies



This is where The Great Debate in my household comes in (yes, it is so important that it requires the first letter of each word to be capitalised): How chocolately is too chocolately?

Yes, this is a source of major disagreement in my home. Ask my brother: milk chocolate is the way. Ask my parents: dark chocolate is life. I, myself, am a bit more flexible. I've grown out of milk chocolate (because milk is sent from SATAN), but I don't really like dark chocolate either. I like it in small amounts, and I've found a few choice brands that aren't too dark for me. One thing about dark chocolate: it makes me sneeze...a lot....and sneezing with chocolate in your mouth is not pleasant. Trust me.


"Okay, Sylvia your family likes different chocolates, that's nice. But how is this even relevant?" Well, I will tell you ladies and gentlemen! It is relevant because these brownies are extra, super duper chocolately. Like really chocolatey. They made me sneeze. My mum loved them. Loved them loved them. My brother actually gave them the seal of approval, but didn't bother going back for seconds (he ate 4 of my ice cream slice recipe, that was a proud, proud day). I had one with milk to dull the chocolate a bit, one with date caramel (that was actually so yum), and I put one in an insane nana ice cream recipe I came up with (again delicious). But I wasn't so wild about them plain. I fully intend to go back and see if I can reduce the amount of cocoa for people like me who aren't that crazy about dark chocolate. But if you are, then this recipe is for you!

One big plus that I want to just mention before I get to the actual recipe is that these are 120% GRAIN FREE! Yes, you heard me right. Not a single grain taints these brownies. And the nuts are optional! That is completely beautiful if you ask me (which is why I'm planning on putting the effort in to check on reducing the amount of chocolate). My food sensitivity ridden body thanks me for making/eating these.

Okay, now getting to the recipe for the extra-super-duper-chocolately-grain-free brownies (makes 12).
You'll need:
1 can of black beans (rinsed)
2 flax eggs
3/4 cup of cocoa/cacao powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons coconut oil
10 (pitted) medjool dates
1/2 cup agave
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
and i put some pecans on the top of mine. feel free to swap with walnuts. or leave out for nut free. also feel free to mix in the nuts, i just spaced and forgot to actually put them inside and then it was too late.

Grease a muffin tin and preheat the oven to 180 C. Make sure that you rinse the black beans thoroughly. Also make sure you pit the dates. Blend all the ingredients (except the nuts) in a food processor until it's a smooth, creamy batter (you don't want it thick and doughy at all, but also not runny. it should be a bit thicker than a store-bought brownie mix consistency. sort of like a mousse or frosting). Here's where you would mix in the nuts if you want to. Put the batter into the muffin tin (filling them about half-way). Here's where you would put the nuts on top if you forgot to mix them in like I did (whoops). And bake for 18-25 minutes.

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