I made black bean brownies the other day, they were surprisingly good

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I have been keeping my carb down recently because my type 2 diabetes has gone a bit haywire and for the most part my snacks are cheese, almonds, sunflower seeds (not too many of them) and occasional berries. I miss biscuits and baked goods. I make a really good banana bread with high-fibre flour and artificial sweetener, and at Christmas I made sugar-free pavlova which was pretty good but everyone except DH refused to even try. Up until now those are the only things that have worked, everything else either tastes terrible or pushes up my blood glucose.

On Sunday I made brownies with black beans instead of flour and DH and I both tried them and they were horrible, they tasted of beans and the texture was soggy and just wrong. I was going to throw them out but put them into a container and left them overnight instead, and on Monday they were delicious. There was no bean taste, just chocolate, and they had gone fudgey in the middle and a bit crisp on the top. They are not as good as the proper brownies that I used to make with real chocolate and sugar, but they are still way better than you can buy in most shops. My cleaner was in today and I gave her a taste (I did warn her that it was made with black beans) and she inhaled a whole square and took a copy of the recipe.

So, my next challenge is crackers. I really miss them, especially Ryvita dark rye. Keto bread that you can buy is horrible and I haven't seen keto crackers anywhere.

Recipe please!

This is the recipe I used https://thebigmansworld.com/no-bake-black-bean-fudge-brownies/ I used butter instead of oil, and sweetener instead of sugar (https://ie.iherb.com/pr/health-garden-all-natural-monk-fruit-with-erythritol-plant-based-sugar-alternative-classic-1-lb-454-g/106083 a mix of white and golden versions), Valhrona cocoa and I didn't add the chopped chocolate because I don't like bits in my brownies. It's not very clear in the ingredients list, but he means one can of beans drained and rinsed. So the weight he gives is for the contents of the can (425g in my case) not the resulting beans which ends up at around 200-ish grams.

Edited to say that I've just noticed that it say 'no-bake' in the link, they absolutely are baked.

This is the recipe for sugar free meringue. I used the white Health Garden monk fruit and erythritol which I blitzed in the smoothie maker to make powdered sugar. If I make it again I think I will do 4 or 6 smaller pavlovas rather than one big one because it was a bit marshmallowy in the centre, it still tasted good but I like a little bit of crunch. https://sugarfreelondoner.com/sugar-free-meringues/

Ooh! This looks good will give it a try. What are black beans though?

At the risk of sounding a bit snarky, they are beans that are black. This is the brand that I used, they were in the 'health/wholefood' bit of my supermarket. https://biona.co.uk/products/biona-organic-black-beans One tin is the right amount for the recipe.

Following so I can find the recipe later.

Thank you,

Larger lidls have black beans sometimes.

https://www.wholesomeyum.com/keto-90-second-bread-recipe/
I like this, I use a muffin tin filled 1-2 cms in the air fryer for little bread rounds.

Sounds interesting

This is the banana bread recipe that I use, although there are a million of them out there so everyone seems to have their own preference. https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

After much experimentation I use a potato masher to mash the bananas, they end up just the right texture. I use a bit more butter than the recipe says (85g), I use Health Garden golden sweetener instead of sugar and I use this instead of normal flour, https://www.lonjevity-foods.com/product-page/fiberflour-ultra-fine and I use less of it than the recipe says for flour.

This doesn't always work right, which I put down to the nature of bananas being in different stages of ripeness and not being a standard size, but since I have stopped weighing the flour and just stirred it in at the end until the batter looks 'right' I have had better results. It's delicious toasted with butter spread on it.

I'm going to have a go at @Tinseltuttifruitti 's keto bread when I manage to source some psyllium husk powder. It would be nice to have a sandwich again.

I've got a tin of black beans in the cupboard, no idea why or what to do with them. So I'll give these a go.

I'm currently having a sausage sandwich made with @Tinseltuttifruitti recipe link and it's pretty good. I mean, it's not bread, but it's pleasantly neutral and holding the sausages so that's a win. I may experiment with adding seeds.

There’s Magic cake

www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-30/magic-bean-cake/8900508

That looks interesting @TheSandgroper, have you made it? I'm not keen on kidney beans, but it may not taste of them. Did you have to make allowances for the measurements (I only have US cup measures and Australian cups are different)?

I haven’t made it but do know that it has its fans.

There are a few recipes on google so perhaps one of them has metric measurements.

Seeds is a great idea, I'll try that 😀

I used to make these and they really were lovely! Mine were from the Helmsley sisters' cookbook.

I might make these again.

I also made Nigella's olive oil chocolate cake and it was really nice. Not sure if it is any healthier than other cakes though tbh