Black Bean Brownies (vegan)
Black bean brownies that are rich and fudgy and easy to make! These brownies are made from wholesome ingredients and are vegan, gluten-free, oil-free but don’t compromise on flavor, just like my chickpea blondies.
What to expect
TEXTURE/FLAVOR: Soft and fudgy but not too dense. This recipe uses more maple syrup than other black bean brownie recipes to balance out the bitterness of the cocoa powder and minimize any possible black bean flavor. Black bean brownies will never taste exactly the same as regular brownies but have a similar fudgy texture and chocolate hit!
DIFFICULTY: Super easy! You just need a strong blender or food processor to make the brownie batter. Even though these brownies don’t contain any eggs, you don’t need any special egg replacers such as flax eggs!
Simple ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Notes about the ingredients
Black beans. I recommend using canned black beans that are unsalted as salted black beans tend to have a stronger bean flavor. Soft home-cooked black beans will also work!
Nut butter of choice. I used and loved almond butter for the brownies as they complement the chocolate flavor. Most runny nut butters will work! Even though I normally enjoy peanut butter, I found that it clashed with the black beans (however, you may like it). To make these nut-free, use sunflower seed butter.
Pure maple syrup for sweetness and the fudgy texture. Alternatively, you may use any other liquid sweetener.
Unsweetened cocoa powder. Use one that you enjoy the flavor of because it’s very noticeable in these brownies! You may use raw cacao powder but your brownies will be more bitter.
For the best results, I recommend weighing your dry ingredients! Too much oat flour or cocoa powder will make your brownies cakier.
How to make black bean brownies
First, add all the ingredients (except the chocolate chips) to a food processor or high speed blender and blend until the mixture is as smooth as possible. The mixture might look grainy from the skin of the black beans, but that’s absolutely okay!
Note: If you’re making oat flour from whole rolled oats, blend them first. If you blend them at the same time as the other ingredients, they won’t blend properly.
Finally, remove the blade of your food processor and mix in the chocolate chips. Over time, your batter will thicken as the cocoa powder and oat flour will absorb the wet ingredients.
Baking the brownies
These vegan black bean brownies take about 26 minutes to bake, give or take a few minutes depending on your oven. If you prefer fudgier brownies, bake them for less time but if you prefer cakier brownies, bake them for longer.
After you take the brownies out of the oven, they will deflate a little – that’s absolutely okay!
Other possible add-ins
These healthy brownies are perfect with just dark chocolate chips. However, you can also add:
- Espresso powder or instant coffee granules, to enhance the chocolate flavor
- White chocolate chips
- Chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds
- Crushed pretzels with a pinch of salt
Alternatively, you may like my beetroot brownies, sweet potato brownies or protein brownies.
Customizing this recipe
You can use any other liquid sweetener such as agave nectar or date syrup in the same amount. You’re welcome to reduce the maple syrup to your liking but your brownies will be less fudgy and the black bean flavor and bitterness of the cocoa powder will be much stronger.
I haven’t tested these brownies using brown sugar or coconut sugar. However, you’re welcome to experiment with quantities!
These gluten-free black bean brownies bake well in a muffin tin. Depending on how much you fill each cavity, try baking them for around 20 minutes.
Other vegan desserts with legumes or vegetables
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Black Bean Brownies (vegan)
Ingredients
- ~1 ½ cups (230g) unsalted black beans, rinsed well at room temperature (I got this amount from one 15oz or 440g can of black beans)
- ½ cup (125g) almond butter, or nut/seed butter of choice
- ½ cup (50g) cocoa powder
- ½ cup (45g) oat flour, (note 2 for homemade oat flour and alternatives)
- ¾ cup (255g) maple syrup, (note 3 for alternatives)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ cup (85g) dairy-free chocolate chips, plus extra to decorate
Instructions
- Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
Prepare the black bean brownies:
- Add all the ingredients except the chocolate chips to a food processor or blender and blend until the mixture is as smooth as possible. If you have a high-powered stick blender, add the ingredients to a bowl and blend. The batter should be slightly runny but sticky.
- Remove the blade from your food processor. Add the chocolate chips and mix with a spoon or spatula. If your brownie batter is warm from the blending, let it cool down before mixing in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into your prepared baking dish. Smooth the surface with a spoon or spatula. If desired, sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top of the batter.
Bake the brownies:
- Bake the black bean brownies for 24-29 minutes. The brownies are ready when they have puffed up and the surface looks dry. If you insert a toothpick in the middle, it should come out with a few moist crumbs but no thick batter.
- Place the baking pan on a wire rack. Allow the brownies to cool completely in the baking pan for at least 1 hour.
- When the brownies have completely cooled, remove them from the baking dish and cut them with a sharp knife. The brownies are very fudgy so it may help to run your knife under hot water before cutting them (see the blog post above for more tips for cutting). If desired, sprinkle the brownies with flaky sea salt or enjoy with vegan ice cream.
- Store leftover brownies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you would like to freeze the brownies, freeze them separately to prevent them from sticking together (once they are frozen, you can place them close together).
Notes
- If you’d like to make your own oat flour, add ~1/3 cup (45g) of traditional rolled oats to a food processor or blender and grind them up as finely as possible. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend. Alternatively, you can use all-purpose flour or almond flour, in the same amount. Brownies made with almond flour will be more fudgy and moist.
- Alternatively, you can use any other liquid sweetener in the same amount. You’re welcome to reduce the amount of sweetener but the brownies will be less moist, more bitter and the black beans flavor will be more noticeable. I also recommend baking your brownies for less time.
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These were sooooo good!!!
Hi Toby, that’s wonderful to hear!! Thanks for the kind review 🙂
I love these and make them all the time. I have changed the recipe slightly instead of maple syrup I use half stewed apple and half date syrup they are moist and fudgy without being too sweet and my husband who is suspicious of anything healthy loves them.
Hi Mimi, I’m thrilled you love this recipe and that it’s a regular for you! And great to know that you could sub the maple with other ingredients. Thanks so much for your feedback, I appreciate it a lot!
This recipe was AMAZING! I used almond flour and peanut butter and my husband said they were the best brownies he’s ever had. I love that you feel good after eating them because the slow absorbing carb of the beans and fat from the nut butter help regulate blood sugar and slow the absorption of the sugar from maple syrup in the brownies. Truly a more balanced and perfectly delicious treat.
Hi Molli, I’m thrilled that you and your husband loved these brownies! I absolutely agree about the ingredients as well. Thanks for taking the time to let me know, I appreciate it a lot!
Hello 🙂 I made these and they came out deliciously decadent!!! I added some cinnamon and next time I’ll add a bit of express powder. So yummy! My daughter and I finished them up very quicky, lol. Love that your recipes are easy vegan goodness. Thank you for posting. 🙂
Hi Nancy! I’m so so glad you and your daughter loved these brownies and found them easy to make! Good idea about the espresso powder too. Thanks so much for your lovely feedback 🙂
I made these yesterday and they turned out really well. A couple of changes:
My tin of black beans was 400gms and I think I was down by about a quarter of a cup.
I used smooth unsalted peanut butter.
I’d run out of chocolate chips so roughly chopped up a bar of dark chocolate. It was labelled ‘artesan’ so I thought it would be excellent, but it turned out to be very sweet: 58gms sugar per 100gms!
I don’t have a square baking tin so I used my silicon muffin moulds instead, and baked for 20 mins.
I used my nutribullet and it struggled a bit. The mixture was very thick, not at all runny, I added about a quarter of a cup of soy milk to loosed it up, and had to keep opening the lid and scraping up the oat flour that was stuck to the bottom.
But I’m very pleased with how they turned out and will be trying them again with proper dark chocolate chips, and I might choose almond butter or tahini next time.
Hi Lisa! I’m so glad you enjoyed these brownies! Thanks for letting me know how the recipe worked for you, and with the differences with your ingredients/equipment. I would also find the batter thick in a Nutribullet, but it sounds like you troubleshooted it well! 🙂 Thanks so much for your feedback and I hope you enjoy making them again!
I made these today- so good. One bowl – easy ingredients- and chocolate! I might add some walnuts next time for a bit of crunch but these were excellent as is. Melt in your mouth chocolate.
Hi Maryanne, I’m so glad that you enjoyed these brownies! Reading your comment makes me want to make them again haha. Thanks so much for your feedbacl 🙂
My favourite thing about all the recipes on here is how easy they are. Simple ingredients makes it simple to swap them.
I loved these mess free vegan brownies! Here are a few adjustments I made:
1. Swapped the maple syrup for the granulated erythritol sweetener to make it glucose friendly. I added ~170g. Adjust to your liking. I will mention that I think the maple syrup does add to the depth of flavour. So next time I’ll try to get dark monk fruit sugar.
2. To compensate for the liquid in the sweetener, I added some unsweetened soy milk to make the batter thinner.
3. I didn’t have any chocolate chips, but I’d highly recommend adding them. Mainly because they’d help to mask occasional rogue bean in the mix!
4. If you have an old/less powerful food processor, like me. Then, be patient to make sure you get a smooth batter.
5. I added a few more table spoons of cacao powder and some instant coffee powder to make sure to mask the bean flavour. You can’t taste the coffee but it helps to intensify the chocolaty flavour.
6. I swapped oat flour for almond flour and it worked great.
Oh, and I added some batter to silicone muffin moulds to bake together. It helps with the impatient ones at home 😀 Most definitely give your brownies the time to cool down!
Hi Vai, oh I completely agree! Thanks so much for the info on everything that you changed. I’m glad that they worked with erythritol (and good idea to add milk to compensate). And great tips about the chocolate and cacao powder! Thanks so much for your feedback and enthusiasm with recipe testing, as always!