Dense Flourless Chocolate and Walnut Brownies

This recipe is based on the flourless brownie recipe found here at the Whole Foods website. I replaced the eggs, butter, and sugar with healthier ingredients and added a little mace for flavor.

These brownies are denser than my husband likes. To say he is particular about his brownies would be an understatement; he prefers brownies that are somewhere between "cakey" and "fudgey". I will need to play around with this recipe a little to suit his taste. However, if you like dense fudge-like chocolate brownies these are quite tasty. The texture is similar to a flourless chocolate cake.

When I tasted the raw batter I thought I could detect a little bean flavor. However when the brownies were cooked I could not taste any remnant of the beans. The brownies have a wonderful deep chocolate flavor. We like the combination of mace and chocolate, but you could substitute cinnamon or cayenne for the mace for a very different flavor.

Dense Flourless Chocolate and Walnut Brownies
Makes 16

Ingredients:

4 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer
6 tablespoons warm water
15 ounces cooked black beans, drained and rinsed (mine were still hot from cooking)
1/3 cup canola oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 pinch kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup amber agave
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup walnut pieces, roughly chopped
1 pinch mace (could substitute cinnamon or cayenne instead)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Place egg replacer and warm water in your food processor and process until frothy. Add the beans, canola, cocoa, salt, vanilla and agave and process until smooth. Stir the chocolate chips and walnuts into the batter (reserving a few walnuts for the top). I think the beans were easier to process because they were still hot from cooking. You may want to heat the beans in a saucepan or microwave before processing to make it easier to disintegrate. I find it is also easier to get smooth hummus if the beans are warm so I think this makes a difference.

Pour the batter into an 8 by 8 inch pan and smooth to create an even layer of batter. Top the brownie batter with the reserved walnut pieces and sprinkle with a little mace.

Bake for 20 minutes and check to see if the brownies are just set in the center. I cooked mine for 25 minutes with my oven set on 350 degrees convection. If you don’t have a convection setting you may need to cook yours another 5 to 10 minutes.

Allow the brownies to cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting. Serve cold, the texture is better if the brownies are completely cold.

These brownies have a moist dense texture. I am storing mine in the refrigerator because I think they would deteriorate more quickly at room temperature and the texture is better cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 135.11
Calories From Fat (56%) - 75.58

Total Fat - 8.84g
Saturated Fat - 1.64g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 20.5mg
Potassium - 140.74mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.44g
Fiber - 3.78g
Sugar - 0.37g
Protein - 3.43g

Comments:

While beans in dessert may sound odd other countries use beans in dessert often. One of my favorite desserts is adzuki bean ice cream. This love of red bean ice cream is what made me want to try making the black bean brownies. Overall the flavor of these brownies is better than I expected. As I indicated earlier if you are a fan of dense brownies these are quite good. While my husband and I would prefer these to be more cake-like my parents liked the dense version and took home some of the extras. No one could taste the beans and we all thought these had a nice flavor.

Each brownie contains 44 mg’s of folate, and over 3 grams of fiber. While the fat is higher than I usually make most of it is mono or poly unsaturated which are the fats we should be eating more often. The omega 6 fat in each brownie is only 0.85 of a mg which I really appreciate. I also like knowing they are made with agave and contain a little protein.