Replacing all purpose flour in brownie recipes with black beans can be a great start to make brownies more nutritious (less refined flour, more plant based protein and fiber), but sometimes they can turn out less than appetizing. After trying my hand at many different desserts containing beans, I have found two important rules. First, you need to mask the bean flavor with other stronger complementary flavors. Second, make sure you have enough dry ingredients.  If you don’t follow those rules, you end up with mushy bean dessert. Lucky for you, I already did all the baking and testing so you don’t have to subject yourself to some of my previous awful recipes 🙂

If you like peanut butter, you can check out my peanut butter black bean brownies here. But if coffee and cream brownies sound more your style read on…

I originally shunned away from the idea of using coffee in black bean brownies because I was afraid it would be an overpowering flavor and I am not a huge coffee drinker. However, coffee does have a lot of antioxidants and research suggests health benefits, including reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes and alzheimer’s disease. Additionally I received a sample of Kohana Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate from Kohana Coffee to participate in their recipe contest, so it seemed like the perfect time to give it a try. I’m really happy I did try because the coffee really amped up the chocolate flavor, masked the beans and didn’t make the brownies taste overly coffee-like. Bonus antioxidants in your dessert are always something to celebrate!

Coffee and Cream Brownies