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Black and Blue Bars
Friday, April 2, 2010 at 7:55AM 
I’ve been tinkering with these dense-moist-chocolately-but-good-for-you treats for months. I think they are finally ready for prime time. Actually, I’ve been in love with these for quite some time, but I’ve only just recently gotten them to where they taste good to the standard American diet eaters in my life too. They make a perfect dessert topped with fresh berries and are a convenient grab and go snack when you have to be on the run.
It’ll be pretty obvious why I call these black and blue bars in a moment. I used to call them brownies because they are sweet, dense, moist and very chocolately. In the end, I decided that it is better to call them bars so that eaters will consider them on their own unique merits. They are yummy and addictive, but you’ll never pass these off as a brownie to someone expecting the usual sugary, high-fat confection. As I said, they are their own unique creation — much better than brownies if you ask me.
But whatever you call them, these taste decadent, but are actually pretty darn near guilt-free: they are vegan, gluten-free, have no added fat, very little added natural sweetener, low glycemic load, and are a good source of fiber, antioxidants, folate and iron. They even have 3g of protein, all in a 50 calorie package. Using the dates option (see below), they are Eat to Live compatible too. Not bad.
I’ve pretty much lost any cravings for sweets with one big exception - chocolate! Trouble is, most chocolate comes packaged with loads of fat and refined sugar. Fortunately, my usual morning chocolate smoothie covers my taste for chocolate in a very healthy way. Still, every so often I wished for a similar flavor with a solid bite. I thought, if healthy ingredients can produce a chocolate taste this good in my smoothie, why couldn’t I make a healthy brownie based on the same idea?
Naturally, I took my search on line. It lead pretty quickly to a low-fat black bean brownie recipe. I gave them a try, and while they were much, much better than I’d expected they would be, they tasted more like chocolate banana bread than brownies to me. That might be a good thing to some, and if you like the taste of bananas, you’ll probably love that recipe. But I’m not a banana fan, and because I almost never eat anything sweetened anymore, I also found them too sweet.
Since my morning smoothie contains blueberries, I thought that might be a natural substitute for a good portion of the banana. Success! I also tinkered around with other ingredients to get the texture and flavor just where I wanted it. Knowing me, I’ll probably keep experimenting with this, but even in this version, I think they are awfully good. And NO, you can’t even remotely detect the presence of the beans. I hope that you enjoy them too!
Makes 16 Bars
1/2 cup whole oats (if gluten-free is a concern to you, be sure to use gluten-free oats)
2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 medium banana
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
1/3-1/2 cup good natural cocoa powder (I like Dagoba)
1/4 cup agave syrup OR 6 medjool dates OR combination to taste
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9 square baking pan with parchment or lightly oil. Place oats in a blender and grind until a fine powder. Place all other ingredients in a food processor (starting with 1/3 cup cocoa) and blend until smooth. Add oat powder and blend again. Taste for chocolate flavor and sweetness, adding extra of either if necessary. I like my chocolate very dark, so I use the full 1/2 cup cocoa powder and only 1/4 cup of agave, but your tastes may differ.
Spread the batter into baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Don’t overbake. These store best and taste best when refrigerated. Eat alone as a snack, or serve topped with fresh berries.
Reader Comments (6)
I'm trying to make these now, but the knife won't come out clean. I'm getting a crust on top and mush below. I have an electric oven and I'm using a glass pan. They've been in the oven well over an hour now!
Hmmmm...Something's definitely wrong. The knife should indeed come out clean and they should be nice and firm. In all of the dozens of batches I've made, I've only had this happen to me once. In that case, I had a million things going on, got distracted and left out the oatmeal. Could it be that you did something similar (i.e. left out the oatmeal, used too few beans, used too much banana?). When I actually remember all of the ingredients, I get consistently good texture. Good luck.
Hi, I made your recipe a few weeks ago for my partner and she introduced it on her Japanese recipe website (you can check out photo if you like!).
Banana and Blueberry Bars
It has become one of our favorites for our afternoon snack. We also eat it with soy whip and fresh/frozen blueberries when we're having company or feeling decadent. We also enjoy asking people to guess what the secret ingredient is, and so far, nobody has.
In my case, I used a whole banana, as I didn't want to have half lying around. They still turned out great.
One question: what is difference between oats that are gluten free and those that are not?
Thanks again for your recipe!
William
These moist chocolate bars look delicious! Chocolate has always been my favorite dessert and comfort food. It's good that these contain less sugar.
Steve Kerr
www.ohealthlounge.co.nz
Mine didn't set properly while baking either, crust on top and mush below. I used Quaker Oats, the kind in the cylinder, not the instant ones. I searched Whole Foods for "whole oats" but couldn't find anything with that name. Maybe that is the problem? Otherwise I followed the instructions exactly as written.
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