Surprise yourself and others with these chocolatey cake-like brownies made with black beans.
Black Bean Brownies (with flour)

Ingredients
⅓ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
⅓ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 Tablespoon powdered sugar (optional)
Directions
- Wash hands with soap and water.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8x8-inch or 9x9-inch baking dish.
- In a blender container or food processor, mix oil, eggs and vanilla. Add beans and blend until smooth. If using a blender, transfer mixture to a bowl.
- Stir in sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and nuts, if desired.
- Pour the mixture into the baking pan. Bake until a knife inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean, about 14 to 15 minutes.
- Let cool and cut into 16 squares. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.
Notes
- Cook your own black beans. About 1 ¾ cups cooked and cooled beans can be used instead of 1 can (15 ounces) of beans.
- No blender? In a large bowl, mix the oil, eggs and vanilla with a fork. Add beans and mash with the fork until the beans are as smooth as possible, about 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and nuts, if desired. Continue with step 5.
- Try adding ½ teaspoon of spice such as cinnamon.
- No eggs? Use 6 Tablespoons aquafaba (the liquid drained from any canned white bean such as garbanzo beans) for the eggs. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
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Comments
These Black Bean Brownies were a hit at a recent pantry tasting event. Several shoppers requested the specific pantry ingredients--canned black beans and the chopped pecan pieces, so they could make the recipe at home because they liked them so much :)