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.
I loved these brownies!!
That’s great to hear Deanna. Thanks for taking the time to share your positive feedback!
This is one of the best recipes I’ve tried for healthy sweets!
It’s so simple and final product is just rich and moist. I followed the recipe and Olena’s tip on letting it fully cooled before cutting (even though the amazing smell was very tempting). Made it for the second time today and this will definitely be on my go-to healthy recipe list. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’m so happy to read this! Thanks for your positive feedback, Tam!
Delicious!
Only have a small food processor so it got a bit messy – I did it in two batches! And I was ‘converting’ the cups to grams – not sure how accurate that was, but they taste great and are lovely and squidgy. Has anyone tried making this using a handheld stick blender?
Not handheld but I mixed the ingredients in a stand up blender and it worked out ok. Only disadvantage was that because the blender container is deep, it was harder to take the stuff out. Brownies turned out great though! Next time I will add some shredded coconuts and walnuts.
These were AMAZING!! I was totally expecting theses to taste bad because of the black beans but they tasted like brownies. You have to try these! The best part is that they are 100% healthy!! Yum!!!
Thanks for the positive feedback Danica!
Nice, bit different from a regular one but still delicious
This is a delicious recipe that I have made many times now. Easy and wonderful.
So great to hear Tasha!
I ended up making both the no cook and the brownies that you cook on the same day. I wanted to see what the difference was. These that you cook you truly do have to wait until they completely cool off to get the right flavor from them. But they were very good AFTER the wait. The next day they were even better. The texture was so close to reg brownies. I’m going to make them again today and I’m going to try Soaking the dates first. I use the Costco dates Hopefully that will help them blend up quicker. As for the ones you don’t cook they didn’t work for me. Way to salty. But these are great. Very good thank you again
Is it possible to substitute the dates with bananas?
I am not sure as I have not tried. I think they will fall apart more but maybe you can experiment. 🙂
Made these in my Instant Pot with the recipe under how else to use your egg bites mold and they were tasty. Thanks for the recipe.
Although I carefully greased my mold and waited over an hour before attempting to remove, they still didn’t come out “perfect”.
Next time I’ll probably add more cacao and a little coffee because the chocolate flavour wasn’t as strong as I’d like – tasty nonetheless. While they were still warm, I Iightly rubbed the tops with a wee bit of cacao butter and they didn’t have that dry look another commenter mentioned when they cooled.
Thanks again for such a “clean” recipe.
Hi could you use softened dried dates instead of medjool
I have tried that with this recipe and results was not the same unfortunately.