Delicious chocolate brownies flavoured with gingerbread spices. Our secret ingredient for fudgey brownies is black beans and they also add a brilliant nutritional boost too!
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If you're looking for a festive brownie recipe that tastes amazing and also add a boost of nutrition to your diet, then look no further. These Gingerbread Brownies are the one!
They are soft and fudgey with a subtle gingerbread taste, absolutely perfect for this time of year.
Black Bean Brownies
The magic ingredient I use in these brownies is black beans. They are packed with fibre and iron, so brilliant for adding some extra nutrition to your family's snacks.
The black beans replace the flour in this recipe but I promise you that you can't taste them. They get blended up with the wet ingredients so are completely hidden.
How To Make Gingerbread Brownies
You will need a food processor or strong blender for this recipe, to blitz up the black beans.
These are the Gold Stars I used on top of the brownies but any kind of sprinkles will do just fine.
Substitutions
- Gingerbread Spices - I kept the gingerbread flavour quite mild so that the kids wouldn't be overwhelmed so feel free to double the amount of spices if you like a stronger flavour. You can also completely leave the spices out if you prefer.
- Dairy Free - You can easily make these brownies dairy free by using dairy free chocolate chips.
- Oil - If you don't want to use oil you can swap it for melted butter.
Storing & Freezing
These brownies will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
They can also be frozen and will defrost at room temperature in a couple of hours. However it is best to freeze them without the mini gingerbread men on top as these will go a little soggy when frozen and defrosted.
More Recipes
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Gingerbread Brownies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
Delicious chocolate brownies flavoured with gingerbread spices. Our secret ingredient for fudgey brownies is black beans and they also add a brilliant nutritional boost too!
Ingredients
- 1 tin (425g) black beans
- 3 large eggs
- 40ml oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100g sugar
- 30g cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 50g chocolate chips
To top:
- 16 mini gingerbread men
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- christmas sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170c fan.
- Drain and rinse the black beans and add to a food processor. Blitz for a few seconds until they are broken up.
- Add the eggs, oil and vanilla to the food processor and blitz again until all the ingredients are well combined.
- Add the sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and spices to a large bowl and mix with a spoon.
- Pour in the black bean mixture and mix until combined.
- Finally, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the mixture into a lined brownie tin and bake for 20 minutes.
- Allow the brownies to cool a little before cutting into 16 squares.
- Mix the icing sugar with a couple of drops of water and a little to the back of the mini gingerbread men, then stick on to the top of each brownies.
- Finish with some christmas sprinkles.
Notes
These brownies will keep in an airtight tin for up to 3 days.
They can also be frozen and defrosted at room temperature. Freeze without the gingerbread men as these will go soggy once frozen and defrosted.
Adriana says
Absolute genius! my kids didn't even notice the secret added ingredient.
Vicky says
Fantastic!