Black Bean Brownies

When I was a kid my parents would hide Easter eggs for my brothers and I every year.

My mom would fill them with candy and the occasional five dollar bill and my dad was the master at hiding the brightly colored eggs so that they were completely camouflaged in plain sight.

Yellow eggs blended into a patch of daffodils, green eggs disappeared into the grass and pink and purple eggs wound up inside of tulips. He was even known to tape eggs places so that you could technically still see them (rules say all eggs have to be visible) but it would take us all afternoon to find.

A few years ago he found an old Easter egg taped under the bathroom sink, filled with exploded m&ms. He was so tricky that his egg was hidden in plain sight for 12 years!

I think what makes Easter eggs so awesome is that they’re pretty on the outside and filled with fun surprises on the inside.

Just like these brownies.

To the naked eye these look like any other scrumptious chocolate brownie, but on the inside they are filled with protein and fiber rich black beans. And they taste amazing.

Maybe you’ve heard the new trend of putting black beans in brownies–I’ll admit that I was skeptical at first. After looking into the popular recipes I quickly saw a problem. These recipes were still using the same unhealthy brownie ingredients -flour, sugar, boxed brownie mix- but were then throwing in ¼ cup of beans and calling it healthy.

If I make an ice cream Sunday with all the fixings but then throw a handful of beans on top, is it any healthier? Uh sorry but no.

So I set out to create a black bean brownie that was filled with only wholesome ingredients and an entire can of black beans.

It’s fun to share these brownies with an unsuspecting friend and then drop the bomb that they just ate black beans!