Black Bean Brownies

I have tried a few recipes of brownies made with black beans and this recipe is my absolute favorite.  There is no flour or added sugar, just agave and the natural sugars from the bananas!  In these brownies you can not taste the black beans, but you get a pretty strong banana taste (depending on the size of your bananas and how ripe they are) with a hint of chocolate.  This recipe was adapted from Happy Herbivore's Black Bean Brownies.

Ingredients:

• 15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed (1 can)
• 2 whole bananas (barely ripe bananas work best - mostly yellow with a little green at the tips. My bananas were yellow with a few brown specks)
• 1/3 cup agave
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon (use less if you don't like a cinnamoney flavor)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup instant oats
• 1/4 cup raw sugar (optional if bananas are very green)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8x8 pan or line with parchment paper.
2. Blend black beans in a blender or food processor for about 30 seconds.  Then, add bananas and blend for about 15 seconds (you might need to mix the beans and bananas with a spoon.)
3. Add the other ingrediens excepts oats and blend until smooth, scraping sides as needed.
4. Stir in the oats with a spoon and pour batter into pan.  Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool before slicing.

Notes: If you want less fudgey brownies, add another 1/4 cup oats or flour.  The longer these sit, the more the banana flavor spreads out. If you can wait, try to eat these the next day for the best flavor!

By the way these freeze very well.  I had one in the freezer and am too impatient to wait for it to thaw on its own so I reheated it in the microwave for 30 seconds and it tasted amazing!

This recipe yields 12 brownies.  

Based on not using the optional raw sugar, 1 brownie is approximately 85 calories and 2.5g protein.