Yes, you read that right! A friend told me a while back about a white bean cake she had tried. I was intrigued and tried it myself. I thought it was okay, but needed a bit of tweaking (maybe it really didn't; tweaking is just a hobby of mine so I can't help myself). I tweaked (with chocolate, maple syrup and coconut sugar) and enjoyed it much more. Then, a few months later, I read something somewhere about black bean brownies. I wasn't interested in trying it at the time, but logged the idea.

This week, after making Chaco Soup for our family, I found myself with leftover black beans. Back into my head popped the black bean brownie idea. I searched Allrecipes.com and found THIS recipe. I was impressed that for something so crazy, it had such a high rating. After reading the ingredients, I could see it had potential, it just needed....tweaking. After changing and adding several things, I love it. Does it taste like beans? Not at all. Crazy, huh?

Now, that said, not everyone in my family was as big a fan as I. One of my kids gobbled it up, the other didn't even try it (not a chocolate fan, though he did really like the white bean cake without chocolate), and two of my kids said it tasted really good, but they didn't care for the texture. My husband has been enjoying it, although he'd like me to alter the texture a bit next time, too. There are no bean chunks in the recipe and they didn't even know it contained beans (yes, every once in a while I'm sneaky like that), but I can see where they are coming from. It's more of a soft fudge texture. If you need a bit more to your brownie, I would suggest adding chopped nuts or almond flour (next time I'll chop 1 cup of almonds in my Cuisinart until fine and add that).

Okay, enough blabbing. Here's the recipe! Have fun...I'd love to know what you think! Do you like it as-is? Did you add anything to it? Are you too afraid to try it?

2 1/2 cups black beans (I soaked my own; canned will work)
3 eggs
1/2 Cup Cocoa powder*
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 Cup Maple syrup*
1/2 cup coconut sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter or coconut oil (I used butter)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee 
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Put everything but the chocolate chips in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and all the bean chunks are gone. Add chocolate chips and blend just to combine. Pour into a greased 8x8 glass pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until edges pull apart from the pan and brownies are set in the middle. Allow to cool completely. 

These brownies are best served cold and get better with age. They were good on day one, great on day 2, and outstanding on day 3. I can't wait for day 4.

*I made this recipe twice. The first time I used 1/3 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 cup maple syrup. The second time I did 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup maple syrup. I prefer the latter, but if you want to cut down on your syrup use, 1/4 cup was still great. Just cut back on the cocoa powder as well so they're still sweet enough.