Years ago I tried black bean brownies. I enjoyed the flavor and texture, but what I liked best was the fact they contained an unusual ingredient and that they were gluten free. Today’s Chickpea Brownie Bites are along the same line as black bean brownies, but instead of black beans the secret ingredient is chickpeas.
Packed with protein, fiber and fat, chickpeas are great on salads or pureed into hummus, but how would they be in brownies? Would the brownies be mealy? Could I taste the beans? Inspired by Brian’s guest post on More Than a Mountful, a wonderful blog written by Chef Dennis, the Culinary Director at Mount Saint Joseph Academy in PA, I made my own batch.
Thanks again to Brian from A Thought for Food for the recipe and congrats on getting his picture selected by Taste Spotting. His photo his far superior than the one I took today, but I’m very happy with my variation on the recipe and thought I’d share it with you along with Brian’s.
Half Batch Chickpea Brownies
I wasn’t sure what I’d do with a whole batch of chickpea brownies so I used half a can of chickpeas to make a half batch. I also changed the original recipe by using a mini muffin pan. That worked out really well and since these are such chocolate bombs I'd probably use the mini muffin pan again. Here's the recipe as I made it. They are really good!
Recipe
Chickpea Brownie Bites
Ingredients
- 4 ounces unsalted butter
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate chopped
- ¼ cup natural cocoa powder
- 1 15 oz can chickpeas drained
- 1 cup agave nectar or honey
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 eggs cold
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips plus more if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 36 mini muffin cups with paper liners. If you are halving the recipe, use 18.
- Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe mixing bowl for about a minute or until melted and very hot. Add the chocolate and stir until it melts. If it doesn’t melt, microwave butter and chocolate together for another 30 seconds and stir. Stir the cocoa into the melted chocolate mixture.
- In a food processor, puree the chickpeas, agave and salt until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and process until smooth. Pour the chickpea mixture into the bowl of melted chocolate and stir until blended. Make sure it’s sufficiently cool, then stir in chocolate chips.
- Spoon batter into mini muffin cups dividing equally among the 36. Bake at 325 F for 20 minutes or until brownies appear set and a toothpick inserted comes out with moist crumbs rather than batter. Let cool completely.
Ashley says
How fun!
Chef Dennis says
Great job with these lovely brownie bites!! wasn't Brians recipe great!!
Thanks so much for the mention!
justJENN says
Yeah after I made those chickpea chocolate chip cookies...I'm over it. Your pics look nice!
Sue says
I like the idea of beans in brownies! I'll have to give these a try.
Holly says
I'll have to try these. I made cookies with chickpeas some time ago and, while they were good at first, the texture changed dramatically within 24-48 hours. The chickpeas really dried out and were hard - bleh.
Brian @ A Thought For Food says
I forgot to say that I have to disagree with you about your pictures. They are fantastic!
Jess @ Bakericious says
I saw the guest post from Chef dennis's blog as well, very curious on the taste of this brownie.
Fallon says
Very interesting!
Betty @ scrambled hen fruit says
I'm going to make these to take to work. A good friend I work with is gluten free and she always complains that she can't eat goodies that people bring. These will be perfect!
Anna says
Lisa, let me know what you think. I thought these were really good and so did the rest of the family.
Cindy, thanks for the link. She used brownie mix. Interesting.
Stacie, I liked the black bean brownies a lot but I liked the texture of these better.
Stacie @ Imperfectly Healthy says
I've made black bean brownies which taste incredible, so I'm tempted to try these to see if there's a big difference. They look really good!
CindyD says
Brownies with chickpeas are popular today - check out this blog from the Houston Chronicle -
http://www.chron.com/channel/momhouston/commons/thehomeguru.html?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3aa0cd99aa-4c67-4e2a-906b-78c22d737da0Post%3a9996ec0f-98aa-4f28-b7fa-4e1889d7b2da
Lisa Ernst says
Thanks for this recipe and review. I'm always looking for alternative recipes that actually taste great. I'd never have thought that chickpeas could sub for flour, but I'll take your word for it. Can't wait to try these!