You made brownies out of *what*? – GF/vegan black bean brownies and peanut butter-chickpea squares

Legumes (i.e. beans and peas, as well as peanuts) are one of the major sources of protein in my diet. So when I discovered that I could make desserts out of legumes, I was thrilled: not only was this an easy way to make a gluten-free dessert, but it also came with a protein hit that made me feel less guilty about the amount of dessert I was eating. Once I add in ground flax seed (instead of eggs), they're practically health food! And usually they are "throw everything in the food processor" recipes, which are my favourite - less effort, fewer dishes - what's not to love?

The classic legume-based dessert are black bean brownies, which have been a staple of gluten-free desserts for a long time, in part because they are so easy to make: instead of having to buy fancy gluten-free flours, one only needs to puree a can of black beans (usually available for <$2 in Canadian supermarkets). However, traditionally black bean brownies depend on a lot of eggs to hold them together. I rarely buy eggs and so I try to find recipes that don't use them, both for allergy reasons and also just convenience, but it's taken me a number of years to track down a vegan black bean brownie recipe that works. But never fear - I have succeeded!

Shortly after, I was introduced to a recipe for peanut butter-chocolate chip squares. They are sweetened with maple syrup, and thus are fairly low sugar (unless you buy overly-sweetened chocolate chips, like I did by mistake). But definitely an awesome high-protein snack when the sweet tooth kicks in.

The thing about vegan legume-based baked goods is that they tend to be fudgy rather than crumbly - the center remains very moist. Now, as far as I'm concerned, this is what I want in a brownie anyway. For the blondies, this is why I would consider it more of a square than a cake, but they are certainly tasty, once I got past my expectations.

Black Bean Brownies

I based my recipe on this recipe by the Minimalist Baker. What I love about this recipe is that it baked the brownies in muffin tins - thus creating instant two-bite brownies, and ensuring each brownie has its own cakey shell and fudgy centre. I made the recipe pretty much as written, although I modified the proportions for Canadian 19-oz cans of beans.

• 1 19 oz can of black beans, well rinsed
• 3 1/4 tsp ground flax seed + 7.5 T warm water (just shy of 1/2 cup)
• 3 3/4 tsp coconut oil
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/3 tsp vanilla (or more)
• 2/3 cup sugar (or less, depending on how sweet you like your brownies vs. how much you're trying to cut down your sugar consumption; I find this is plenty sweet enough and will try in future with less sugar)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 small bag chopped walnuts

1. Combine water and flax and let sit for a minute or two. Then combine add all ingredients other than the walnuts, and puree in a food processor until quite smooth.
2. Grease a 12-muffin tin, and divide batter between each tin. Making this slightly larger recipe makes for quite large brownies.
3. Liberally cover the tops of the brownies with chopped walnuts
4. Bake for 20-26 minutes at 350°F until they are starting to pull away from the sides and the tops look dry. Note: the brownies, even when done, will not pass the toothpick test, because of the fudgy centre. Overbaking them just results in dry brownies.
5. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely before removing from the pan. They are very crumbly/fragile, so be careful. For best results, store in a single layer.
6. The original recipe says to refrigerate if you plan to store them for more than a few days, but mine rarely lasted that long. I did, however, freeze some of mine, and found they were just as delicious (and less crumbly) when frozen.
7. Share with friends or coworkers and amaze them when you point out that the recipe is nearly completely healthy: beans + walnuts for protein and flax for all kinds of good things.

Peanut Butter-Chickpea-Chocolate-Coconut Energy Squares

This recipe was modified from the summer edition of Alive magazine. Once again I have adjusted proportions for 19 oz cans of beans.

• 19 oz can of chickpeas, rinsed
• 2/3 cup of peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of maple syrup (or less, depending on your sweet tooth and how sweet your chocolate chips are)
• 1.5 tablespoons vanilla
• 2/3 teaspon salt
• 2/3 teaspon baking powder
• 1/3 teaspon baking soda
• 2/3 cup chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips, divided*; the lower the sugar in the chocolate, the better (in my personal opinion)
• 1/3 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut (or more, depending on preference)

1. Chop chickpeas in the food processor.
2. Add peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, baking powder and baking soda to the foot processor. Blend until smooth.
3. Add at least half of the chocolate, and pulse gently to combine*
4. Spoon into a square or rectangular pan ~80 inches square, lined with parchment paper. (I used an 8x11" rectangular pan, but a 9" square ban would work too.)
5. Top with coconut and remaining chocolate.
6. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350°F. (The original recipe calls for 20-25 minutes of baking, but I ended up putting mine back in the oven for at least another 10-15 minutes.
7. Let the squares cool completely before chopping.

The texture of the squares is definitely chewy rather than crumbly, but very tasty!

*I found that putting half the chocolate on top (I used mini chocolate chips) was fairly pointless, because they just fell off when I was cutting the squares. I would either recommend mixing more of the chocolate into the batter, or else using chopped chocolate (rather than chips) and layering it below the coconut (rather than on top, which I did); hopefully this way the chocolate will melt, spread and adhere better.