Brownies -- no flour but made with black beans...

[Tussiemussies]

This past weekend my husband tried a recipe from all recipes.com for brownies that had no flour in them but were made with eggs, cocoa, black beans,vanilla -- we did not use the sugar but added stevia to taste. They were like a chocolate cake snack bar -- really moist. We did scatter chopped walnuts over the top. We loved them so much he made another batch two days later! We did not add the dried coffee. Here is the recipe if you are looking or a healthy snack!:)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/black-bean-brownies/

[peggy]

I love allrecipes. I especially like the ratings so any recipe i try has been tried and retried and tweaked and modified to when I try it it almost always is something we love. I'll have to investigate this for my gluten free family.

[JaneV2.0]

I make flourless cake with black soy beans once in awhile using a similar recipe, but with sucralose. (Soy, I know http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/big_standart/scare3.gif ) I like to add cream cheese frosting made with a splash of whiskey or brandy. I've modified the recipe to make carrot cake, too.

[Tussiemussies]

Peggy , I like the rating system too and sometimes I like to even read the reviews. Hope this will work well for your family...:)

Jane, that sounds interesting, I know tofu is used in a lot of things so why not soy beans...I was just reading Dr.Wheil (sp) and it still is inconclusive on some aspects of soy . I just love soy though oh wel... Your cake sounds good -- can you post the carrot cake version when you have time, I would love to try that too. What type of icing do you make?

:)

[JaneV2.0]

I don't think soy is a particularly healthy food, and I don't eat it often, but I make an exception for flourless cake. When I make it, I work from--and modify--two or three recipes. For carrot cake I add grated carrot, raisins or pineapple, nuts, and apple pie or pumpkin pie spice. You could substitute zucchini for carrot. I make cream cheese frosting from Neufchatel, butter, cream and sucralose, heated and blended. The possibilities are endless: orange or lemon peel, raspberry coulis, ganache...You could add coconut oil, coconut milk, and/or unsweetened coconut and sliced almonds to frost a chocolate cake.

[Tussiemussies]

Thanks Jane, it sounds really good. I would have to eliminate the pineapple since DH is a diabetic. Can you tell me what your cake base is? I would really like to try this out...:)

[Tiam]

Sounds wonderful. Black beans have a strong flavor. I wonder if they were chosen for their color? Would a blander bean be better or not?

[mara61]

I have made these before. They are good, different texture and taste but good.

[JaneV2.0]

I've read of people using other kinds of beans. I picked black soy because they're lower carb/higher protein than others. If there's a beany flavor to them, it's undetectable (to me) in the finished product.

I use a recipe similar to the one linked above but with more eggs and no chocolate chips; it seems more cake-like than brownie-like to me. No cake base necessary.

[Tussiemussies]

Hi Tiam, no you don't taste the beans at all, I think they just make it moist. Agree Jane, it is more cake like than brownie and it comes out thin. I'd like to see a double recipe for the height but will have to see how much longer it will have to stay in the oven. We didn't use the chocolate chips either but did sprinkle walnuts on top. The whole batter was made in the Cuisinart which is great! :)

[redfox]

My Mom made these, and they were intense, but decent. And, I just finished up being the 'talent' in a three day series of video shoots for allrecipes, canning a series of things. (Their recipes, not mine.) A friend is a videographer with a contract to produce vids for them, and engaged me & my kitchen for this short series, as I am an experienced canner. It was fun, though pretty exhausting! I was on my feet for 12+ hours, canning & cleaning - and I was well paid, which means I'll get a vaca with DH this year after all. The crew was fabulous, all 30 somethings. Best part was watching the crew pose the food for the "Beauty Shots" with my vintage dishes...

[Tussiemussies]

Redfox, that sounds like such a fantastic experience!!! How much fun it must have been to see all that goes on behind the scenes??? I didn't know you are an expert canner... Are you a member of any canning associations? Do you give lessons in canning and do you have a big garden that you do your canning from?? :)

[Blackdog Lin]

Too cool Redfox! I love AllRecipes, and am on there practically daily. Please let us all know when your vids are posted - would enjoy seeing them (and you!), and of course being an "intermediate" canner (I think of us as being a bare step above beginner status) I look forward to learning more about canning.

[peggy]

How very cool Redfox! Yes, do let us know when these videos come out.

[redfox]

Redfox, that sounds like such a fantastic experience!!! How much fun it must have been to see all that goes on behind the scenes??? I didn't know you are an expert canner... Are you a member of any canning associations? Do you give lessons in canning and do you have a big garden that you do your canning from?? :)

Oh, tussiemussies, I claim experienced, not expert! I grew up canning, and have been doing it ever since. It's actually very very easy, though I have not canned meats or anything that requires a pressure cooker canner - just waterbath. I used to can out of a huge farm garden & orchard. In the city, I buy stuff by the flat & can when I find the time. One year, we canned about 5 bushels of grapes we found growing feral at an abandoned house around the corner. Too bad they had seeds! De-seeding that many grapes is quite a PITA.

In the vids, only my hands will be seen. Blackdog, if you've canned, I doubt you'll learn anything from me... and the recipes were not mine. For instance, one strawberry jam recipe called for 2 cups of strawberries and 4 cups of sugar. Yikes! I would have reversed those proportions, and the end result is waaaay too sweet for me. We used local organic strawberries, and it covered their beautiful, heady flavor.

It was so much fun, though, and learning about the process of videoing was cool. We never did one recipe all the way through... The director had me sterilize all the jars, which of course I then had to re-do when we actually used them, and in the editing room, the right sized jars for the recipe will be cut into the food prep sequences for that item. I did food prep for many of the recipes in sequences and then canned them. In real life, I would have processed one item from start to finish. The vids will be edited to show that.

At the end, she taped me setting the timer on the stove for each time, using different hand positions, and turning the flame on the burner over and over to different levels, as called for in the recipes. The kitchen was way too chaotic during actual canning to get those kinds of shots. I think we did 12 recipes in 3 days. I'll let y'all know when they go up. I think it will be in September, as they are in post-production now, editing & adding the voice-over. Just a warning... I was very disappointed in the pickles. They floated... Bah! I couldn't cut them up to fit the jar, and the quality is not to my standards. Oh well... They were pretty yummy. We all divided up the bounty at the end.

[Tussiemussies]

Hi again Redfox, it just sounds like such a great experience. Canning is an art form....well you must be pretty good about it if you were on the show. All the details of the show sounds exciting to me.:)

I bought a pressure canner but haven't used it yet too. When we moved I lost a little piece that goes on the top but I'm sure I can call the company and replace it. Let me know if you ever try it.

If you are on Facebook there is a site I joined called canning across America, they don't put out a lot of posts, but I thought you might be interested.

Great that you still can even though you are not growing. Those grapes, well I just cannot imagine steeding them, what a job, I hope it was worth it! LOL

[Tussiemussies]

Hi again Redfox, I have memories of my Grandmother making jam and putting paraffin wax on top --about 1/4 inch thick and covering the whole surface. Do you have any knowledge of this? Thanks!:)

[redfox]

Hi again Redfox, I have memories of my Grandmother making jam and putting paraffin wax on top --about 1/4 inch thick and covering the whole surface. Do you have any knowledge of this? Thanks!:)

That's what I did when I was a girl, canning with my Mom! It's been replaced by waterbath canning. Fun memory... Straining juice through cheesecloth, Food preservation is such an ancient art.