Do you think brownies are off-limits because you have diabetes? Throw in some beans for added fiber, reduce your serving size, and enjoy Spicy Black and White Bean Brownies.
The CompostMaster and I attended Burning Man in 2005. If you aren’t familiar with the festival, it takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. You camp for a week and you can’t purchase anything while you’re there. We bunked in with the Department of Tethered Aviation (e.g. kitefliers) and our job was to feed their 40 members.
One night, we decided to serve adult s’mores. Our friends Snapper and Rolando came to visit while I was making the chocolate sauce, basically a combination of cheap chocolate bars and red wine. Rolando, whose real life job is to design floats for Mardi Gras in New Orleans, suggested I add some black pepper. “Pepper and chocolate, really?” I asked. He said it was the best way to make cheap chocolate taste more decadent. Boy, was he right! The sauce improved by an order of magnitude after I added the pepper.
I don’t cook with chocolate very often these days, but several years ago Bob’s Red Mill sent me some of their heirloom Orca beans and asked me to create a recipe, the first thing that came to mind was bean brownies. Then I remembered Rolando’s trick and I decided to throw in some chipotle chili powder. Well, I added a little too much in the first batch (1 teaspoon) – those babies were really spicy – so I cut the amount in half and it was perfect.
If you don’t think you like black beans, but want to incorporate more beans into your diet, give these dappled black and white Orca beans a try. They seem less earthy and less “beany” to me. I cooked a pound of the beans in a slow cooker and then had them available for stews and salads all week. They were especially good in my Black Bean Chicken Chili (I left out the bulgur) and Black Bean and Brown Rice Casserole.
Disclosure: This was originally a sponsored post written on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill. However, as of April 2019, Bob’s Red Mill no longer appears to offer orca/calypso beans. However, you can find them from other suppliers (affiliate link). You could also use Bob’s Red Mill Black Turtle Beans (affiliate link). All opinions are my own.
Spicy Black and White Bean Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips divided
- 3/4 cup cooked orca (calypso) beans or black beans
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8- x 8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place half of the chocolate chips in a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir. Repeat, if necessary, until the chips have melted.
- Using a food processor, blend the beans and oil together. Add the eggs, cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla, and melted chocolate chips. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, chili powder, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Pour the chocolate mixture from the food processor into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Stir in remaining chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until brownies start to pull away from the sides of the pan and are still shiny in the middle. Cool in the pan, then cut into 16 squares.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Info Per Serving
Back in 2014, I belonged to a group called Virtual Potluck. Here are recipes other members of the group developed using orca beans.
- Hearty Orca Bean Soup from Food Hunter’s Guide to Cuisine
- Orca Bean Salad from Cookistry
- Ham with Orca Beans and Rice from Miss in the Kitchen
- Tostadas with Smashed Orca Beans from Thyme in Our Kitchen
- Whiskey Orca Beans from Bite & Booze
- Orca Bean Stew from 30AEATS
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