Sunday, March 27, 2011

Chickpea Brownies...A.K.A...Chocolate Ninja Protein

So I'm trying to incorporate more protein into my life, however I have an incurable love of sweets.  While one could argue that chocolate chip cookies ARE made with eggs, I really need to do better than that.  A few months back I attempted to make a chickpea (garbanzo bean) chocolate cake.  It was pretty good, but it was lacking the flavor I wanted.  I did some googling and tweaking and this is the finished product.  Let me preface this by saying that I am not one of those people with a high tolerance for odd tasting "healthy deserts."  If it doesn't taste good, I'm not going to eat it.  While these are not the exact same as traditional brownies, they definitely help out when you need a chocolate fix.


Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas (approx 14 oz-Drained)
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil or your oil of choice (Olive, Coconut, etc.)
1/3 Cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 1/8 cup white sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon baking powder
2 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon instant coffee
Optional add ins: Chocolate chips, chopped nuts, shredded coconut, or omit coffee and add some peanut butter.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 8x8 pan.  Mix all ingredients together in a blender and blend until very smooth.  Or mix together in a mixing bowl and use an immersion blender and blend until smooth.  Pour batter into pan and bake for approx 35 minutes, until it puffs up a bit and the edges become dry and pull away from the sides of the pan.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The chickpea brownies were amazing! no trace of bean flavor at all! very simple, very nutritious (subbed some fructose instead of sugar and added some chopped walnuts but otherwise followed as written.) This might be my nutritious breakfast tomorrow because I'm not a fan of protein either:) Thanks!!!

Claire said...

Yay! That makes me happy! I've used pecans in mine before so I am sure the walnuts were a great edition. I think I did the "brownie for breakfast" thing as well-they pack a good protein punch in a tasty portable package!

Anonymous said...

I am going to try your recipe today but I thought I would add red chili instead of the coffee for a different twist. Especiallybred chili and chocolate go so well together. I will let you know how it turns out.