Saturday, March 10, 2012

Eat your beans....for dessert!

No, really!  Black beans make a great chocolate cake and this one is great for someone trying to lose weight, stay gluten-free, or as a "cheat" from the sugar handling diet.
I suggest you make this cake in private and serve it, not telling anyone what is in it.  I did this the first time I made it and no one guessed.  Not one single person even came close to guessing.  They were all startled and amused when they found out.

I got this recipe online a couple of years ago and can't remember where it came from, so if you recognize it, please tell me.  I've changed it a couple of times since then to suit my own needs and tastes.  It comes out sort of like a brownie, but not so chewy.  This cake is excellent to serve with chevre and berries.  
 I like to flavor the chevre slightly with a bit of homemade vanilla extract and a little stevia, and sweeten the berries with some of the stevia.  Then I can use the lowest amount of honey and still feel like I'm eating a very decadent dessert.

Blend the following ingredients until smooth in your blender or food processor:

1 1/2 cups of cooked and cooled beans with some of the cooking liquid
5  eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 tsp of sea salt
6 Tbls of cocoa powder
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda.

Blend until smooth.
Add the following ingredients and blend again until smooth:
1/4-1/2 c honey
7 Tbsp of butter or lard, just barely melted

Pour into a buttered pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.  I used a deep dish glass pie plate and baked it for 40 minutes at 350 F.
We did a taste test on this cake, reducing the honey and using liquid stevia.  Here are the results:

First cake, made with half the honey and three half-droppersful of stevia.....delicious!

Second cake, made with 1/4 cup honey and six half-droppersful of stevia......good, but better with fruit on top.

Third cake, made with no honey and 12 half-droppersful of stevia.....almost the same as the second cake, slightly bitter.  Wonderful with thawed berry medley, lightly sweetened with stevia or honey....then the honey was not missed in the cake at all.  I bet it would be fine with fresh cream and fresh strawberries from the garden with no sweetener at all.  I'll let you know in June!


So.....who is going to get brave and make a black bean cake?  C'mon....you know you want to!

19 comments:

  1. Who would have thought.... When I order my beans I will try it out..thanks

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  2. Maybe I will try it - my birthday is coming up :)

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  3. I introduced it to two more friends yesterday, and they both loved it! You just have to try it....you'll be pleased.

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  4. this was easy to make and delicious_felt less guilty eating it too

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  5. Has anyone tried using agave as a sweetner? I wonder how it would taste or if it would work in this reciepe.

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  6. I'm sure agave would work just fine, as would maple syrup. Be sure to get your agave from a trusted source, as there is a lot of fraud in that industry, and you could end up with something no better than HFCS. Agave was a great idea until it got too popular! I'm sure that a good agave syrup would taste great in this cake.

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  7. Ahhhh! My cake recipe!
    Glad you like it. This one is a tweaked version of another one I found a few years ago.
    Planing on working out a white bean version sometime soon.
    Paula

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  8. Oh, yay! Now I remember....glad you found this and could take credit. PLEASE let me know if you work out the white bean recipe...I've been toodling with the idea, but haven't gotten to it. Maybe a spice cake, or a citrus-flavored cake.

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  9. I am so excited to try this as I am allergic to everything. I will be using a "butter" substitute as well. My question is, are you using fresh dry beans? or canned beans? I am not a "canned" person. Does that matter? Thanks! :)

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  10. Yes, I'm using fresh dry beans, usually ones I cooked and canned previously for convenience. I make large batches so I don't have to cook them each time.

    I also use lard instead of butter, since we have plenty of lard that I rendered from our pastured pigs. Please don't use margarine, shortening, etc, as those are poisonous...how about coconut oil if you don't have access to grass-fed lard?

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  11. how is this paleo? if your following a paleo diet you consume NO beans of any kind

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  12. I don't follow a paleo diet. I mostly follow the research of Dr. Weston A Price, but I make some adjustments to account for some of my own health frailties. Paleo works for some, but not all, and I don't agree with all of the philosophy behind it. I'm not sure where you got the idea that I am paleo as I've never stated it. Sorry.

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  13. I have made black bean brownies before and they are delicious!

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  14. This looks yummy! My family's favorite chocolate cake is a black bean chocolate cake- they often request it for birthdays and special occasions. They love it with sliced bananas spread over the top and a layer of whipped cream smoothed over that. (It's a family tradition they call Smith Traditional) I recently took the black bean cake to a birthday party, it was supposed to only be for the gluten free people, but it was gone before the German Chocolate (other) cake was. :) And no one said anything besides how good it was. :)
    http://www.stitchingheartstogether.net/2012/04/28/chocolate-black-bean-cake-and-strawberry-sorbet/

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  15. Ooooo....How is it that I never thought to have it with ice cream??? Mint chocolate chip is on my list, since we have fresh eggs and fresh milk at the same time....oh, my, I can hardly wait!

    http://blueviolafarm.blogspot.com/2012/05/mint-chocolate-chunk-ice-cream.html

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  16. I want to believe you...but am having trouble. Lol! My husband cannot tolerate beans...I wonder if he could tolerate this?

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    1. Try it! There was a time when I couldn't tolerate....my husband when he ate beans, and unfortunately for me, he loves beans! But since I started this soaking method, no more problems. Honest!

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