Triple Chocolate Surprise Brownies

Layered brownie "cake" with walnut butter, banana slices, & chocolate syrup

Surprise! These brownies have black beans & spinach in them... nothing says ooey, gooey brownie goodness like um, black beans & spinach? I understand the purpose of the beans, they would add density & moisture and perhaps a depth to the chocolate similar to the way coffee would, but not so sure about the purpose of the spinach. Moisture? Texture?

I came across this interesting recipe for Triple Chocolate Surprise Brownies at health.com and they captured my interest.  I decided to make them, but I altered the recipe a bit to make them vegan & gluten-free (basically just for the heck of it and to say it can be done).

I swapped out the eggs in their recipe with ground flax seed & water, replaced butter & olive oil with walnut oil, used walnuts instead of pecans, banana instead of apple, buckwheat flour instead of regular flour, less sugar, & different types of cocoa/chocolate blocks.  OK, so I changed their recipe a lot.

Ingredients

• 1 10 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained (about 1 cup)
• 4 tablespoons walnut oil
• 1/2 cup thawed and squeezed dry frozen spinach
• 1 ripe banana*
• 2 tablespoons of finely ground flax-seed
• 6 tablespoons of warm water
• 1/2 cup sugar*
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (Hershey's Special Dark)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons instant espresso powder (2 packets of Starbucks VIA ready-brew Colombian)
• 3 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 3oz bar of Endangered Species Tiger chocolate (dark chocolate w espresso beans).
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

*I posted what I used, if I made these again I would use two bananas for better texture/moisture and 3/4 cup of sugar to make them a bit sweeter.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325°. Put warm water, flax-seed, instant coffee, and vanilla in a bowl and let sit for 5-10 minutes to gel up. Put black beans, walnut oil, spinach, banana, flax-seed mix, sugar, & cocoa in a food processor; pulse for 1 minute or until smooth (I used a blender, I don't have a food processor...). Microwave semi sweet chocolate pieces in a glass bowl, stirring every 30 seconds or until smooth; cool for 5 minutes. Transfer blender/processor mix to large bowl, add melted chocolate & salt, and mix. Stir in buckwheat flour and bits of the tiger bar chocolate. Pour into an oiled/greased 9x13-inch pan; top with chopped walnuts. Bake for 20-25 minutes; cool for 15 minutes.

The end product wasn't bad; definitely a decent dark chocolate/coffee flavor.  Like I said above, I would use two bananas and a little more sugar if I made these again to give them a more dessert like sweetness & dense brownie moisture.  I might skip the extra sugar and use walnut butter to make a sweet, fluffy walnut frosting for them as well. Yum! I would also consider skipping walnuts altogether and making these with some cinnamon & cayenne to make some spicy Mexican brownies... makes sense with the beans after-all ;)

You can feel good about serving these vegan brownies that also helped endangered species with that "Tiger Chocolate" :)~