Recipe: Healthy enough for breakfast brownies

We’ll inevitably talk about food here, so here is one of my most requested recipes… black bean brownies.

Before all this, I had a generally healthy past, including a vegan stint, and was able to adapt to this diet and way of living fairly quickly. Also, after a whirlwind initial few months of studying up on my diagnoses and merely resorting to salads every.single.day, I also craved some normalcy, variety and options for flexibility when life got busy. Eventually, I slowly acquired more brain space dedicated to things other than managing, dealing with and learning about MS. It was then that I branched out and started playing with recipes that included only whole foods.

I aim for absolutely everything in my diet to consist of functional, nutrient-dense components, so ingredients like regular flour and sugar aren’t even in my pantry anymore, let alone my body. I think I have these brownies down to where they could pass for regular food and unsuspecting subjects have been fooled. In my opinion, these are best cold from the refrigerator, as they become fudge-like when cold.

I’m going to offer a caveat that I don’t measure nine out of 10 things I make… So, this recipe is truly a best guess. I aim for consistency and texture of the batter, not the perfect measurements, as I often have one or two different items I’m missing, or I choose to add a few more things in. See what works for you… best of luck! 

Ingredients like instant coffee, or coffee in place of the milk would likely be fabulous here, but I often eat these for a snack if I’m hungry in the afternoon and I’m super sensitive to caffeine, so think of this as the base recipe and flex ingredients as you’d like.  Sometimes I add vanilla, lavender, cinnamon, etc…play with it as you choose. 

I’m also going to say that this likely won’t be the BEST brownie you’ve ever had… but it IS the brownie you can eat for breakfast if you want, they are truly healthy enough and most of the time I do actually eat them for breakfast. If you haven’t gone fully or mostly whole-food, plant-based these likely will not hit a sweet tooth (though they do for me now) and in that case you might also want to add 1/4 natural sweetener like maple syrup or honey.

Liquid-ish ingredients:

-       1 can organic black beans (mine are typically Simple Truth from Kroger) and I don’t rinse them usually, so I add the bean liquid in as well

-       ¼ cup non-dairy milk (my go to is Milkadamia macadamia nut milk)

-       2 soup spoons (likely 3-4 tablespoons) Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Almond Butter (you could use peanut butter or any nut butter) I just like Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Almond Butter because it tastes gleefully like Nutella but it’s much healthier. (More is always better here, but since Justin’s runs $8-9 a jar I try to make the jar extend over four batches of brownies.) 

Dry ingredients:

-       Hefty handful vegan chocolate chips (I use the allergy-friendly vegan megachunks available at Target)

-       Hefty handful walnut pieces (or your favorite nut…I often use hazelnut pieces here too)

-       ¼ cup raw cacao powder (can use unsweetened cocoa powder commonly as well)

-       Mix of the following that equals about 1 heaping cup together, about 1/3 of each:

o   Ground flax seed

o   Ground chia seed

o   Almond flour

Instructions:

-       Blend the above three liquid ingredients on high in a Nutribullet (or other high-speed blender) until smooth, about 30 seconds.

-       Mix dry ingredients in a bowl

-       Incorporate wet into dry ingredients and mix thoroughly

-       VERY IMPORTANT: Wait 5-ish minutes after wet + dry components are mixed to check you have the right consistency. The flax and chia together will naturally thicken and bind the batter when mixed with the wet ingredients, but this takes a bit to happen. I aim for a consistency of “peanut butter-ish” here. If the batter is too wet, you’ll need a bit more flax, chia and almond flour. If it’s like hard cement, you’ll need a bit more milk. Test it a bit at a time if you are over or under.

-       Slightly grease a 9x9 pan so these don’t stick (I often use olive, coconut or avocado oil spray).

-       Pour into 9x9 pan. The batter should be firm enough to NOT spread to the edges of the pan when poured in if you have the right consistency, and you’ll need to spread to the edges yourself with a spatula, etc, making sure you have even thickness in the pan.

-       Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees F.

-       Let rest for 10-15 minutes once they are out of the oven, cut into squares. Move to a container and refrigerate once cooled.

-       I find these are best refrigerated and cold the next day or later on vs warm out of the oven. They have a fudge-like consistency once they’ve been refrigerated. I always store mine in the fridge and eat for breakfast or a snack.

Dry ingredients

Almond flour, ground chia, ground flax, walnut pieces, vegan chocolate chip megachunks, cacao powder and whatever else you decide…we are not super technical around here.

Liquid ingredients

Can of black beans + bean liquid (don’t rinse), non-dairy milk, 3-4 tablespoons of your favorite nut butter. Blend really well.

My vote for best nut butter

My favorite nut butter for these is Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut + Almond Butter. This is not a sponsored post, it’s just really awesome.

Mix liquid + dry and wait

Mix until you can’t see bits of dry stuff. Then and this is REALLY IMPORTANT: do something else for at least 5 minutes while the flax and chia set up and activate with the dry ingredients to make a firm batter. Then you find out what you are working with.

Pour and access the situation

Consistency wise you want a smooth-ish peanut butter-like batter situation here. Like enough to plop in the pan, but NOT so thin as to spread to the sides on its own.

Spread, bake, cool and refrigerate

Spread batter to whole pan, bake 40-45 minutes in a preheated oven at 350. Pull and wait 10-15 minutes before cutting. Let cool. Refrigerate. Enjoy.