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USFSP | Recipes

Making Brownies with Black Beans, Does it Work?

Ashley Campbell Student Contributor, University of South Florida St. Petersburg
This article is written by a student writer from the Spoon University at USFSP chapter and does not reflect the views of Spoon University.

Does it work? Does it taste bad? Making brownies with black beans is a simple and tasty twist to regular brownies.

Before trying this hack, I was very skeptical of it working. Brownies using only a box mix, a can of black beans and water seemed just too good to be true. To my surprise, they were delicious, and they didn’t taste anything like beans.

When I rinsed and drained the beans, my entire kitchen smelled like black beans and even more so when I pureed them in the blender. I had no trouble mixing the beans with the box mix and half of a cup of water. I think that next time, I might just blend the beans with the additional water I added, that way the bean mixture isn’t so thick. 

Looking at a bowl of brownie batter that consisted mostly of beans made me nervous for the outcome, so I decided to taste the batter. After all, there weren’t any eggs, so I had nothing to fear. Before even being cooked the batter didn’t even taste like beans in the slightest!

Once they came out of the oven, the first thing I noticed was that they looked like fudge, and they were very thin. The brownies appeared small but that did not really bother me. Once I cut them I was surprised how dense and moist they were. They tasted sweet and chocolaty; I would never guess that they were made with beans. 

Making brownies with black beans was something I had never tried before, and I was completely impressed with how these came out. And, with no oil or eggs, these healthy brownies tasted like anything but. This recipe was so easy to make that I would make these again.

Making brownies with black beans
Ashley Campbell

Black Bean Box Mix Brownies

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 5 minutesCook time: 25 minutesTotal time: 30 minutesServings:20 servings

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°

  2. Drain and rinse the can of black beans and blend them with 3 tablespoons of water until they are pureed

  3. Combine beans, brownie mix, and water in a mixing bowl, and stir well until all of the ingredients are completely mixed

  4. Pour the mixture into a greased 9×13 inch baking pan

  5. Ashley Campbell

    Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean once inserted