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Today I thought it was about time I tried black bean brownies, the most weird, healthy and humble brownies recipe there is. But along the way I threw in so much stuff, basically everything I had lying around, it turned out to be yep still weird, but in a crazy decadent way. The brownies contain more black beans than butter or sugar, but that is totally negated by adding a layer of deep, dark butter caramel. With 'normal' black bean brownies you will leave people guessing the secret ingredient, today's brownies however have so many secret ingredients they will leave a distorting trail of crumbs, full bellies and confusion. They are a bit strange (but not just because of the beans, you can't really taste them) and nonetheless utterly delicious and lusciously rich.
The basic black beans brownies recipe was adapted from Joy the Baker (she is great, I'm a huge fan of hers. I might dedicate these brownies to her cat, which is good-looking, funny and a bit scary, just like the brownies) and I also had a little look at the version of Green Kitchen Stories (the king and queen of the green cuisine, I'm afraid they would be terribly shocked if they knew what I did with the bean brownies)
The deep, dark butter caramel sauce recipe was adapted from Smitten Kitchen (also a tremendous source of inspiration) but because I was going to sprinkle salted nuts on top I used unsalted butter.
Brownies:
50 gram butter
150 gram chopped chocolate
1 1/4 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup salted nuts, I used a mix of pistachios, pecans and almonds
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line an approximately 23x25 cm baking pan with parchment paper, leaving about 4 cm of overhang on all sides.
Fill a medium sauce pan with 4 cm of water. Bring the water to a simmer. Place butter and chocolate in the bowl. Place the bowl over simmering water and stir until chocolate and butter are melted and combined. Remove the bowl from the simmering saucepan (the bowl might be hot!).
Puree the beans in blender with the flour, 1/2 cup of the nuts, cocoa powder and baking powder.
Allow the melted chocolate mixture to cool for a few moments. Whisk in the bean puree and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs for about 3 minutes, whisk in the sugar. Add to the chocolate mixture. Use a spatula and fold to incorporate.
Add whatever you have lying around in your pantry, in my case banana chunks and chocolate covered raisins.
Once thoroughly combined, pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake brownies for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with just a few chocolate crumbs on it. The center may seem undercooked, but it will cook further as it cools. Brownies are better slightly underdone than overdone.
Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
Deep, dark butter caramel sauce:
1 cup sugar
85 gram butter, the better you can get, the better it will taste (true!)
1/2 cup cream, at room temperature
Melt the sugar over medium high heat in a larger pot than you might think you'll need. (I'm sorry the melting takes a while, but in the end it's all worth it!) Cook the liquefied sugar to a nice, dark copper color. Add the butter all at once and stir it in, before turning of the stove and pour in the cream (the sauce will foam up quite a bit when you add it; this is why you want the larger pot.), whisking until you get a smooth sauce. Keep whisking till it has thickened a bit, pour over the brownies and sprinkle with remaining nuts.
Use the overhanging parchment paper to remove the brownies from the pan, slice and indulge.
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| The mysterious landscape of brownies |
