So, as I mentioned earlier, I’m moving soon and trying to use up everything in my cupboards. Since I spent a significant portion of medical school preparing for a zombie apocalypse (The Walking Dead had a big impact on me), this is no easy task. I have so many cans of everything. Black bean brownies it is. Problem – I had no maple syrup, which is my go-to sweetener and dangerously little honey (my second choice). Since buying more of either is kind of defeating the purpose of using up my cupboard contents, I had to get creative.

Enter the saddest bag of hard, crusty dates ever. I poured the bag into a 2 cup pyrex measuring container and filled to the 2 cup mark with boiling water (completely covering the dates). After 45 minutes the dates had softened significantly and I blended them up into a sweet syrup, which I used in place of my usual sweetener.

This recipe is roughly based on the Hemsley & Hemsley “Art of Eating Well” cookbook, but I measured out the weighed ingredients for you, increased the sweetener since the dates weren’t quite as sweet as maple syrup, decreased the butter because – come on – half a cup is plenty, and decreased the cocoa powder to a scant 1 cup because that’s all I had. I’ve noticed in their book they are VERY generous with pretty much all spices, cocoa & vanilla extract in desserts, etc and I really like the results. I enjoy strong flavours, spicy food, and dark chocolate. You can decrease the cocoa a little if dark chocolate scares you.

Black Bean Brownies

Ingredients

2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed
1/2 cup butter or coconut oil, melted
4 eggs
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup date paste (pour boiling water over 2 cups dates and let sit at least 30 min before blending to a paste)
2 Tbsp vanilla
1/4 - 1/2 tsp sea salt (adjust to taste)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C.
Grease the inside of a 24 x 20cm baking dish.
Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
Taste the batter, then pour into the prepared baking dish.
Bake 45min until surface is cracked and brownie feels firm but springy to touch.