These Black Bean Brownies are flourless, fudgy and delicious healthy dessert. No one will ever guess these brownies are made with black beans and are packed with protein and fiber.
Other gluten-free desserts we love are these healthy zucchini brownies, almond flour brownies and cottage cheese brownies!
Reader’s Review
My go to brownie recipe. No one ever believes they are healthy! I use a flax egg or chia egg always turn out great. Thanks for the recipe.
Mindy
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Black bean brownies have all the taste and sweetness you crave in a brownie but contain no refined sugar. Dates provide all the sweetness you need!
Black beans also have the perfect texture and color to replace flour making this black bean brownies recipe truly naturally gluten-free!
No one will be able to tell these brownies are made with black beans. My kids call them “beautiful”, they really do not have black bean flavor! We loved them so much, I now developed no bake brownies recipe with similar ingredients!
Ingredients for Black Bean Brownies
You will need just 10 simple ingredients, most of which are pantry staples and you probably have on hand right now.
- Black beans: Black beans are the basis of this brownie recipe. No substitutions, not even lentils or chickpeas. You can use canned black beans or dried beans. If you have any cooked black beans like Instant Pot black beans, use about 1 1/2 cups to 1 3/4 cups.
- Medjool dates: Most grocery stores carry 2 types of dates, “regular” and Medjool. You have to buy Medjool variety. Their meaty and moist texture adds volume and fudgy texture to brownies. And fresh is best! As dates get older, they dry out and sugars start to crystalize on the outside.
- Eggs: I used 2 large eggs. I have not tried to make egg-free black bean brownies. What might work is 1/4 cup coconut oil. But you would have to cool brownies. I think when coconut oil cools off, it will solidify and hold brownies together.
- Coffee: Brewed coffee adds more depth to the chocolate flavor but you can skip it. It’s not a crucial ingredient but if you have leftover morning coffee, save it and add to brownies.
- Cacao powder: You can use cocoa powder instead of cacao powder. It’s interchangeable in all chocolate recipes, the only difference is that health benefits of cacao powder are greater.
- Applesauce: I use unsweetened applesauce.
- Baking essentials: Pure vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt.
- Chocolate chips: I use dark chocolate chips. You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips.
How to Make Black Bean Brownies
Just blend, bake, and enjoy. Dirty one blender, not even another bowl.
Prep: I cannot stress enough that it is a must to line your 8 x 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Blend ingredients: In the following order, add eggs, applesauce, black beans, cacao powder, coffee, vanilla, baking soda, salt and dates to a high speed blender or food processor.
Either kitchen appliance will work, but I should caution you that it is a struggle to fit all the ingredients into a mini food processor.
Black bean brownie batter doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth and can have small chunks of dried fruit or beans in it.
Add chocolate chips: Stir until well combined.
Bake: Transfer batter with rubber spatula into the baking pan, level and sprinkle with more chocolate chips. Then bake black bean brownies for 30 minutes.
Cool: Let the brownies cool completely before slicing. These brownies taste great warm or cold and get even fudgier the next day.
Tips for Best Results
- Don’t make substitutions: Don’t skip Medjool dates or black beans. Both add volume to the batter and fudgy texture to brownies. If you skip them, your black bean brownie batter consistency will be off.
- If your dates are hard: Usually when they are older, they will be hard to blend. Soak them for 10 minutes in hot water, drain and then blend.
- Let brownies cool: It’s worth repeating multiple times. I know it’s hard, but please have patience. Again, this is to ensure that bars do not fall apart.
- Line baking dish: It makes brownies easy to cut and remove, and ensures they do not fall apart. I love these parchment paper sheets.
- Do not use any other sweetener: Any dry sweetener like sugar, stevia or xylitol will not work in this black bean brownie recipe. The same goes for honey or maple syrup.
Variations
- “Regular” dates: I tried and didn’t love the results but you can use them. Soak 15 of them in warm water for 15 minutes and drain well. One of the readers used prunes instead and she said the brownies turned out amazing! I haven’t tried, please let me know if you do.
- Vegan: Someone in the comments skipped eggs and used flax eggs. Someone else said it didn’t work. You can also try 1/4 cup melted coconut oil instead and cool brownies completely in the fridge.
- Dairy-free: As is, this recipe is dairy free, except the chocolate chips. Just use dairy-free chocolate chips and you are all set!
- Add-ins: Add chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts to the batter. Top with fresh raspberries or sliced strawberries before baking. Also freeze-dried fruit will work well as an addition.
How to Store
Store: Keep black bean brownies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. But I doubt they will last that long!
Freeze: Simply place brownies in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on a counter at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
I freeze cut up brownies right in Pyrex glass container I bake in. It comes with a plastic lid. Just lift a black bean brownie with a butter knife and defrost. Perfect!
FAQs
For rich fudgy brownies, remove when the center still jiggles somewhat. For a firm brownie, use the toothpick method. Remove when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out almost clean (a few crumbs is okay on the toothpick).
More Brownies Recipes to Try
- Oat flour brownies
- Banana brownies
- Chickpea blondies
- Healthy pumpkin brownies
- Sweet potato brownies
- Protein brownies
- Healthy brownies
- Greek yogurt brownies
Black Bean Brownies
Video
Ingredients
- 14 ounces can low sodium black beans, drained & rinsed
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
- 10 large Medjool dates, pitted
- 2 tablespoons brewed coffee, optional
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cacao powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, divided
- Cooking spray, I use Misto
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 8 x 8 square baking dish with unbleached parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- In a powerful blender or food processor add ingredients in the following order: eggs, applesauce, black beans, cacao powder, coffee, vanilla, baking soda, salt and dates; then process until smooth. Add 1/4 cup chocolate chips and stir to mix.
- Pour batter into baking dish, top with 1/4 cup chocolate chips and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let brownies cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing. Cut into 16 squares.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Do not leave sitting out, mold could develop.
- Freeze: In an airtight container up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This turn out amazing! Soo good. I’m going to surprise my girlfriend with these brownies. She was placed on a low sugar no starch diet. Brownies were her fav dessert. I can’t wait to have her try these. Thank you so much, Olena!!!
You are welcome, Billy. Your GF is so lucky! Nobody makes me brownies LOL.
Hi! These look so good!
I really want to try this recipe but the canned beans I found all had added salt or added sugar. I bought dried beans which I am now soaking and am going to cook. The question I have is how many ounces of beans do I use? A 14oz can is not 14 oz of beans once drained is it?
Hi Susan. 14 oz can of beans yields about 1 + 3/4 cup beans drained. You can use canned beans with salt, drain and rinse them well. Don’t add extra salt to the recipe. A little bit of salt is always necessary in almost any recipe to help bring out the flavours. So, that’s fine.:)
These worked out so well with the dried beans that I cooked. I left out the choc chips because I didn’t have any and added an extra 50 grams of dates to make them a bit sweeter. Just about to bake my second batch to take to my workout group tomorrow night. Thank you so much.
You are so welcome. Cooked beans are way better than canned ones! I always cook my own beans now. You may also wanna try my Fudgy Vegan Protein Brownies – you will love them!
How many cups did you use?
hello!1 i just made this browniea and the texture isn`t solid enought!! i don`t know what went wrong but it does not have the brownie texture that it supposed to have 🙁
Hi Eva. Probably nothing went wrong. These black bean brownies are fudgy brownies, they are supposed to be soft and creamy. If you let them cool completely the y would be quite easy to slice and look like the ones in the photos. Butter, egg and white flour brownies do have a different texture because they are made of different ingredients.
you were right!! once i put them in the fridge they were absolutely delicous!! i could not stop eating them!!
This was my first time making black bean brownies. I was pretty skeptical, but they were way better than I was expecting. I didn’t have apple sauce, so I tossed in a small apple. They taste really great with some cold almond milk. Thanks so much for the recipe!
They are truly awesome! I’m not into weird stuff but these brownies are amazing, I agree!
Oh my…I’m drooling! I know my kids will love these and I love the fact that they are so much healthier…can’t wait to make them 🙂
Haha. Wait, I’m going to post protein brownies shortly. Those are even lower in carbs and sugar. And protein #s are a dream come true!!!
Love all of your recipes!! I’ve had fun trying different ones recently, so glad I found your site! Could you sub the dates for Stevia in the raw or some kind of natural sugar option? Thanks!
That’s awesome, Heather!:) Comments like this one mean so much to me and keep me going! Well, dates are a pretty natural sugar option.:) I know what you mean. You can reduce amount of dates. I just made protein brownies I will be posting soon with only 5 Medjool dates and stevia. Plus I didn’t add any chocolate chips in my protein brownies. You could reduce sugar right there. Try half dates, half stevia. I do not recommend subbing all stevia because brownies will have that strong and weird stevia aftertaste. You know which one I’m talking about?!
I do!! 🙂 I guess I don’t buy dates very often so I was trying to work just with what I have. But I’ll give the dates a try to avoid a lot of Stevia taste. I may end up loving them ha! Thanks!
You can also use prunes instead of dates. Or even honey or maple syrup would work, I’m pretty sure. I loooooove dates now although never really bought them until I started clean eating.
About how much honey would you recommend? Still new to this whole cooking thing, and not good at just “winging it”! Buy studying requires eating and this seems like a godsend compared to just stuffing my face with Oreos ^^
Hi Prianka. You can’t replace dates with honey in this recipe because the yard not only sweetness but texture also. I highly recommend buying Medjool dates, even the cost more. They are irreplaceable!
What do you recommend using in place of the eggs to make these brownies vegan?
Try flax egg replacer maybe. Should work because it has lots of fat in it. Please let me know how it works out for you.:)
these are fantastic! i made them last night and i’m so happy w/the results, i was a little scared at the idea of the beans. do you think adding walnuts or pecans would be a good addition? thanks for this wonderful recipe
Yes, nuts would be wonderful here. These brownies are too good to be true. I still can’t believe myself how good these are. You are welcome. 🙂
Just made these and all I can say is WOW! They are soooo good! Will defiantly be making these more often.