Thursday, January 21, 2016

Black Bean Brownies: So Good They're Practically a Vegetable!

Introducing our friend, Dr. Jana Vanderslice as the baker and barista in the cafe today!

Black Bean Brownies-
Brownies So Good for You, They’re Practically a Vegetable!

OK, I know what you are thinking…
“Black Bean Brownies???”
“That must be one of those Trendy, Gluten Free,
California Hippy recipes!”

And well, it is gluten free, but it is All American Chocolate Deliciousness!
I may or may not have had these for breakfast. (They are full of protein & fiber!)
I will neither confirm nor deny that I have had them instead of a vegetable for a meal. And that could have happened for both lunch and dinner two days in a row.

Yes, they are That Good!!
You just have to try them! It will only cost you a $1 can of black beans. You’ve got nothing to lose! And go ahead and buy 2 cans of black beans because you will want to make these more than once!

But before we begin, I know yall are all longing for the token Texas Girl pic out in the pasture with the cows!


I’m the fifth generation of my family to live on the Circle B Ranch in Beautiful East Texas!




Our brand was first used by my great, great grandfather Obadiah Belcher (the Circle is for the “O” in Obadiah, & the “B” is for Belcher.) My grandfather, Oveal Belcher (“O” & “B” again), actually burned this brand into the barn wall. Here we are in one of my favorite places growing up- right by his side!



God out did Himself when He created this land! This is sunrise from my front porch!


“If I had no voice, if I had no tongue,
I would Dance for You like the Rising Sun!
And when that day comes and I see Your Face,
I will shout Your Endless, Glorious Praise!”


This is my backyard… well part of the backyard! This is a huge ranch. I’ve got quite a big back yard!




And Yes, it does snow in Texas!



So now let’s get down to business and cook your New Favorite Recipe! Black Bean Brownies!!!



Ingredients:
¼ cup of oats
1 can of black beans (drained & rinsed)
½ cup chocolate chips (or a little more J)
3 tablespoons of canola oil
3 eggs
1 cup regular sugar (OR ½ cup of brown sugar & ½ cup of regular sugar)
½ cup cocoa powder
3 teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

And now… One bowl & three easy steps!!

Step 1:
Place the oatmeal in the food processor and blend until it is as close to a flour consistency as you can get.


Step 2:
Place the beans, 1/4 cup chocolate chips (or a little more J) and oil in the food processor. Cover and process until blended.


*Hint-This is a Jana Sized ¼ cup of chocolate chips! Splurge and go with “a little more” than ¼ a cup of chocolate chips!



Step 3:
Add the eggs, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cover and process until mixed.
                                                      
*Hint- Use the empty can as your spoon rest and your trash can.




*Hint- Baking soda takes the gas out of beans. When you cook a pot of beans, always add baking soda or even Dr. Pepper or Pepsi. Your family will thank you! J

Well actually, I guess there is a Step 4:
Pour into a sprayed 9” square pan. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of chocolate chips (or a little more J). Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

*Hint- I also like to use the mini loaf pans or cupcake tins. Decrease the cooking time if you use smaller pans.




What’s wrong with this picture???

I got so excited about baking the Black Bean Brownies that I forgot to add the chocolate chips on top! I usually add other stuff, too.

*Hint-Personalize your brownies by sprinkling different candies on top in the last few minutes of cooking. Ex: Green and Gold M&M’s for Baylor Bears Football, candy corn for Fall, Ande’s mint chocolate bits for Christmas, red sprinkles for Valentine’s day, or drizzle melted white chocolate bark for zebra brownies, etc.
#Reach4theStars! (Seekerville theme 2016!)

 #NoLimits! (Seekerville theme 2015!!!)

And Now for the Hard Part gasp and hold your breath… rinsing out the food processor and putting it in the dish washer. Yes Ladies, it will take you 2-3 minutes. Yes, it’s a teeny, tiny hassle. But YES it is Absolutely Worth it! Don’t chunk this recipe because of a 2 minute clean up! Cowgirl Up! Get your Betty Crocker on and Just Do It!!! Sing a Jesus song, rinse, repeat. It will be done before you know it!

Parting Words on this Glorious Chocolate Wonder…
When I find something that I can eat (even a few bites), that is Chocolate (HELLO!!!!!), and Good for me (did I mention the 5gm of protein & 4gm of fiber?)…
Well, let’s just say the Angels Sing, my Girls come over, and it’s a P-A-R-T-Y!!!
YeeHaw!!! (Ok, I don’t say YeeHaw in real life, but it just sort of fits here don’t you think?)

 And here's an easy-to-print version!!!!
                                                      
Brownies So Good for You, They’re Practically a Vegetable!
 Dr. Jana Vanderslice

Ingredients:
¼ cup of oats
1 can of black beans (drained & rinsed)
½ cup chocolate chips (or a little more J)
3 tablespoons of canola oil
3 eggs
1 cup regular sugar (OR ½ cup of brown sugar & ½ cup regular sugar)
½ cup cocoa powder
3 teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Step 1:
Place the oatmeal in the food processor and blend until it is as close to a flour consistency as you can get.

Step 2:
Place the beans, 1/4 cup chocolate chips (or a little more J) and oil in the food processor. Cover and process until blended.

*Hint- Splurge & go with “a little more” than ¼ a cup of chocolate chips!

Step 3:
Add the eggs, brown sugar, regular sugar, cocoa, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cover and process until mixed.

*Hint- Baking soda takes the gas out of beans. When you cook a pot of beans, always add baking soda or even Dr. Pepper or Pepsi. Your family will thank you! J

Step 4:
Pour into a sprayed 9” square pan. Sprinkle with ¼ cup chocolate chips. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

*Hint- I also like to use the mini loaf pans or cupcake tins. Decrease the cooking time if you use smaller pans.

*Hint-Personalize your brownies by sprinkling different candies on top in the last few minutes of cooking. Ex: Green and Gold M&M’s for Baylor Bears Football, candy corn for Fall, Ande’s mint chocolate bits for Christmas, red sprinkles for Valentine’s day, or drizzle melted white chocolate bark for zebra brownies, etc. 








60 comments:

  1. Oh, WOW! I've never heard of this and I thought I knew all about every kind of brownie.

    Beautiful photos! Thanks for taking us on a tour. I feel like I've had a whirlwind trip through Texas (and through about one hundred exclamation points). It looks like God's country, for real.

    Now, I don't have a dishwasher so, that two minute clean up is really two minutes and twenty seconds so I'm afraid I can't cook this. LOL. Oh, and did we forget to wash the pan? Or is it disposable?

    I love the name Obadiah. I gave all my kids really old middle names. Abraham. Augustine. Emmanuel. Samuel. Etc.

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    1. Aren't these pics great??? I love old names, too. We have a Sarah, Matthew, Seth, Bethany, Zachary and Luke, and we've got an Abraham, Elijah and Gabriel as old middle names... It kind of just fit with David and Ruth. And I love that I've got two grandkids with "Logan", two with "Ruth" one "Magdalena" (two great-grandmothers were Magdaline), and a David... so they've used some family names, and that's lovely, too!

      I love those names, Virginia. Simply beautiful.

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    2. That is too funny! It is simply Amazing here! I'm just grateful to have been born into this family!
      And I'm "Jana Lou". How's that for a Texan girl name?!

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    3. Jana Lou????? OH BE STILL MY HEART!!!!!!!!! Nice to have you in the cafe today, sweet thing!

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  2. I didn't know the baking soda trick! Great tip! Brownies look yummy. Thanks for the recipe, Jana.

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    1. I'm not sure if we'll get Jana onto the computer today, she's been under the weather, which makes it harder for me to TEASE HER!!!!! It doesn't stop me, of course, but it does make it harder! :)

      And I have to try that baking soda trick!!!

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    2. The baking soda totally works! By accident- which is how most of my best recipes are made- I pour too much baking soda in a pan of beans to soak overnight. But Wow! They poofed up & were so soft! Dr. Pepper works if you're in a hurry.

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  3. I love this recipe and want to try it but I don't have a food processor so I can't pulverize the oatmeal. Do you think I could use oat flour or regular flour instead? If so, how much? Does the pulverized oatmeal turn out to be 1/4 cup as well?

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    1. Kav, I'd pulverize some and send it, but they just raised our postal rates to you again, the brats! :)

      I don't know, I'll let the expert advise us, but I don't know why oat flour couldn't be substituted??? Because ground oats are ground oats, aren't they?

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    2. I've made them with just oats & loved them that way, too. You will have a different texture, but I liked the tiniest crunch of an oatmeal flake. It makes me feel like I'm eating a Healthy brownie.
      I've also added up to 1/2 cup of oats just for the fiber. I would just play around with it until it "felt right" with the consistency of a normal brownie batter.

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    3. Thanks...maybe if I got the quick cooking oats...the kind that are partially pulverized...that would be a good compromise. I'll try it and see.

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  4. JANA!!! Love, Love, LOVE this post today, girlfriend -- so fun to see the pix!!

    And I have a funny story about black bean brownies. The last time my hubby and I traveled to Birmingham to visit my daughter and SIL, she made us dinner several times.

    Well, the first night was dee-lish -- pork tenderloin that was some of the best we've ever had. UNTIL ... she told us that it was from a boar that my SIL Nate shot on a hunting trip.

    Well, okay, that was fine because it really did taste good, and besides, the chocolate brownies and ice cream she served for dessert MORE than made up for it. I literally moaned while eating them, telling her these were THE BEST brownies I have ever had and wanted to know what was in them because I needed the recipe.

    Laughing, my daughter promptly divulged that they were black bean brownies at which point my husband promptly dropped his fork on the plate at the half-finished mark and stared at her with mouth agape. "You put black beans in these brownies???" he said, face suddenly very pale. That was the LAST of the brownies for him, I assure you because he is a man who believes "cheese" has no business in "cheesecake" and beans have no business in brownies. He blames it on his grandmother who once served him "the best chocolate cake he'd ever had." UNTIL she told him there was saurkraut in it!!

    My husband now has a healthy fear of my daughter's cooking, making her promise NEVER to do anything like that again to him. ;)

    So, although I will not serve this recipe to him, I may just make it for myself because I absolutely LOVE it!!

    Hugs,
    Julie

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    Replies
    1. Your daughter sounds Amazing! Good for her! Black beans are the latest Pinterest craze.

      And it must be a "man thing" about weird food. My very own big brother, Jeff, said he wouldn't try them, but maybe by the time he comes this spring I will have talked him into it.

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  5. Hey Kav! Regular flour would work I would think. I use oatmeal for the fiber & to be glutten free. You could use a blender to mash up the black beans & chocolate chips. You could probably substitute chocolate syrup for the chocolate chips. Just taste it to make sure that the "beany" taste is gone & you have a wonderful Chocolate flavor! And add Vanilla!

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    Replies
    1. I can't wait to try these this weekend for Football Sunday. I have a high love for and tolerance of all things gluten, and I have passed this on to my Yankee children... which means we have to RUN or do something to work it off, but I'm okay with slipping a little healthy goodness onto their plates!

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    2. LOL -- I don't even have a blender -- but I have a great potato masher and a strong arm. :-) That will mush the beans down and I thought I'd heat the choco chips a bit until they're soft and then add them. It will be the Great Kitchen Experiment.

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    3. I'm with you, Kav. No processor. I've come to realize I just don't like gadgets. Except Edna who is really not a gadget. She's a member of the family. LOL

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  6. Loved this glimpse of your East Texas "backyard," Jana! I'm a native Texan, and even though I'm living on the East Coast now, I will always call Texas home.

    And with several gluten-intolerant family members, I am definitely clipping and saving this recipe! Thanks for sharing!

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    Replies
    1. Texas just gets into your blood doesn't it?!
      I like this recipe because it doesn't use any of those glutten free, expensive, hard to find ingredients like xantham gum or rice flour. Most everyone has this stuff in their pantry.

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  7. Welcome, Jana. Nice have another Texan in the house. Beautiful pix.

    Another intriguing brownie recipe. I have one I've been wanting to try that has okra in it. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Then again, brownies with black beans is too. ;-)

    Hope you feel better soon. Perhaps another batch of brownies will help.

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    Replies
    1. Mindy, I have okra in the house and will be trying that recipe soon. IF it turns out, I'll share it here at the Cafe.

      Not that I have great hopes for any recipe with okra in it, but the reviews have been great for these brownies, so I'm game. :)

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    2. Okra??? That is sooo Texan!

      One time I tried to make zucchini bread for my mom but ended up buying a cucumber instead. So I just doctored the recipe up by adding applesauce, raisins, etc. and called it Zucchini Surprise. The Surprise was that there wasn't any zucchini in it! She loved it anyway! She even served it at bridge!

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    3. I don't think you should worry about the okra or a black beans. I think you've proved here, Jana, that if you add enough sugar and chocolate to a recipe, the rest just really doesn't matter!

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    4. I know! Seriously! I did think about that. But shhh, don't say it out loud! I like to Pretend these are good for me! And I do add a couple of scopes of protein powder sometimes, so that counts!

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  8. THANK YOU Ruthy the GREAT for allowing me to be a part of the cafe today!!
    And yes, I had a BB Brownie for breakfast to celebrate today!

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  9. YOU ARE A RANCHER GIRL???? How cool is that???? I love brownies, and I love black beans. NO BRAINER, I WILL LOVE THIS RECIPE.

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    Replies
    1. Tina!!! I didn't grow up here, but we visited all the time. I've played & adventured over every inch of this place. I Love living here now.
      Happy Baking!!!

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  10. Sorry, still in my Jane Austen clothes from Seekerville. You have no idea how difficult it is to change out of these dresses. I can barely breathe but am having fun.

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    Replies
    1. I'm in mine as well, and I can see why women picked at their food.... There's no room for flatulence in these binders!!!!!

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  11. Jana, I love black bean brownies! I'm so glad you brought them to the Cafe today!

    (I see brownies on the menu for dessert tonight!)

    But more than brownies, I love your ranch! Fighting serious covetousness here! But then, your ranch is in Texas and I don't want to leave the Black Hills. :) The legacy, though...that's priceless.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah! Another BB Brownie fan!
      And the Black Hills area is so beautiful! I'm going to go there someday!

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  12. Jana I feel like you've missed a KEY POINT HERE! You do understand that sugar is a green leafy vegetable, right?
    I mean have you ever seen a sugar beet?

    So this isn't so much a dessert as it is a SALAD!

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    Replies
    1. Salad!!! Absolutely!!!
      And chocolate is really from the cocoa bean- so there you go!! And you're welcome!!!

      Delete
  13. I wonder what this would taste like baked in a cast iron skillet. Like the world's biggest brownie/cookie.
    Frosting is called for!

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    Replies
    1. Oh Heavens!! In a cast iron skillet?!?! In front of the fireplace, in the evening, with a good book-- You've just made my day!!!

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    2. And FROSTING makes them Divine!
      For Christmas dinner I cooked them in mini, baby bundt pans. I piped buttercream frosting in the little bundt hole and topped them with red & green M&M's. Mercy!! (and no one even noticed the black beans! :))

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  14. Jana, thanks for sharing the recipe and the beautiful pictures. I think this is a recipe I may actually try.

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    Replies
    1. Jackie! I sure hope you like it!
      Just add whatever you like! Lately I've been adding a squeeze or two of Hersey's chocolate syrup. I figure by the time those extra calories are divided over the entire batch of brownies, it really isn't that much more to worry about!

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  15. Sounds awesome sweet country girl! Thanks for sharing something yummy that is also "good for us"! Cool!
    *And, I am ALL ON BOARD for the EXTRA Chocolate Chips ~ as a 1/4 cup sure seems like a "scrawny" amount! Lol! ~ These are after all "grown-up" brownies ~ since they are so nutritious ~ so we can handle a HEFTY amount of CHOCOLATE! Um hm and YUM YUM! :) Love ya and miss ya! ♡♡♡

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    1. TERESA My Friend!!
      You are a Treasure! And I bet these could almost be considered heart healthy! Chocolate, anti-oxidants, etc. :)

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    2. Heart-healthy, yes! That gets my vote!

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  16. Jana, I LOVED your post. How fun to see your big back yard and the sunset. Wow. You really have a fun sense of humor. I'm afraid the black beans had me hesitant, but I trust the baking soda works and will try them. smile Like Mary pointed out. with enough sugar and chocolate anything is going to taste divine.

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    1. Yes, a box of brownie mix is easier, but these are an Adventure! And you can add extra baking soda. I pretty much cook by instinct more than recipes (my grandmother's fault!), so I'm always adding a bit of something here & there.
      They will sure smell good in your RV!!

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    2. Those trees with the sunrise are Sycamore trees like in the Bible with Zaccaeus. Aren't they beautiful?

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    3. Aw, there is something simple and lovely about that word "sycamore".... It paints a picture with nary a word.

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  17. And I should mention that name brand beans are better than generic/cheapo beans for this recipe. I like Bush's or Ranch Style. They smell & taste less "Bean-y" if that is a word.

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    1. Oh, that's good to know, Jana. Hubby is our designated grocery shopper, and he would have brought home the cheapo beans. I always like Bush's, though--yum!

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  18. Hello from TEXAS!!!
    I'm glad Jana shared her black bean brownie recipe with you today. I am the official taste tester- with no pay:). I have been test tasting them almost weekly for about three months. She has changed the recipe a million times. This week she baked a special batch for me with coconut and pecans on top. The zebra brownies with the white chocolate drizzle were Great, too! Be sure & keep them in the refrigerator. They are better cold. I wonder what my crazy daughter will add next! Stay Tuned!!!
    Jana's Mom!!

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    Replies
    1. Jeri!!!! Thank you so much for your wonderful book reviews! You are THE BEST!!!!! With a cute kid, besides!

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    2. Oh, McKenna is really Ruthy!!!! I forgot I had my little friend signed into Google to do her homework.... Oops! But I bet McKenna and Ruthy love your reviews, Jeri and Jana!!!!

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    3. Jeri, we're so glad you stopped by! I would love the job as taste tester. :)

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    4. Wow! Thanks, Mom! You're the Best!!

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  19. Jana, the brownies sound awesome. But I don't know how to play around with recipes until they seem right. I'll have to stick to the written rules of black bean brownies. You're talking to the girl who has been known to trash a recipe if it requires much mixing!

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    Replies
    1. Ruthy may or may not be laughing... just a little!

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    2. Terri! You are too funny! You need a little mini-me to do your stirring for you. That was my job as a little girl. Even now as an adult when I hear "Jana, come stir this for me", I jump up & do it! It's an automatic kind of thing.

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  20. I'm sorry I'm late!!! I've had a crazy day today. My birthday! :)

    These look amazing, Jana! Thank you!! I'm always using beans to add fiber to my diet. These will be perfect! And thanks for sharing your photos of the ranch. I just love the fact it's been in your family for generations. :)

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  21. Missy! I hope you had a WONDERFUL Birthday!! Yes, I am so very, very grateful for this Godly heritage! God has been Very Good to me!

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