Black Bean Brownies

So these are INSANE. I read about them and got the recipe from The Table, and I admit I was pretty skeptical. Black beans, I said, do not taste like chocolate. Yes, they are the right color, but they are still BEANS, I said. But...they are brownies, and if you go light on the chocolate chips and use dark chocolate cocoa powder, they are practically HEALTHY for you to eat. That can't be right.

But the blind test convinced me to give it a go. I pulled out the blender and started mixing them together while my husband was out...I wanted to get it done and in the oven before he got back!



The batter was looking pretty nice, the blender smoothed the beans right out into a silky, chocolatey-looking mixture. And it smelled okay. So I decided to give it a taste before baking it. The batter was delicious, which was very encouraging.

I tried one while it was still hot from the oven. OH MAN. You guys. This blew my mind. The brownies were super chocolatey, with a fudgy cake texture, almost melty still from the oven. Beans? What beans? I can honestly say I wouldn't have known they were in there if I hadn't made them myself. The brownies were dense and moist and everything you want a brownie to be. Sure enough, my husband tried them when he got back and had no idea. After I told him, he did point out that there was a (very slight) gritty texture towards the end of a bite, but I doubt he would have noticed if he wasn't in "testing new recipe" mode. Overall, I thought these were fantastic. I have since tried them without the chocolate chips, and they are still delicious without the extra fat. I'm thinking some extra dark chocolate shavings would also be good in these, and I've seen versions that have coffee in them, which I think would add a great extra flavor.