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Black bean cookies? You bet. These cookies made with black beans are a healthy dessert that tastes chocolate-y and satisfying.
Here at A Couple Cooks, we love healthy, nutritious, whole foods. Alex and I also love the excuse for a little splurge. So we’ve got two cookie recipes for you today! One is a straight up splurge, our Ginger Molasses Cookies. And one is a little non-traditional: these Chocolate Black Bean Cookies! Despite the name, which might sound unconvincing to some, these cookies are chocolate-y and delicious. Keep reading for how to make them!
How to make black bean cookies
This chocolate black bean cookies recipe is adapted from the good people at Green Kitchen Stories. It’s full of nutrients, and can be customized to gluten-free and dairy-free diets. And here’s the best part: it actually tastes good too! This cookie is chocolate-y and dense — a bit more cake-like than the traditional cookie texture, but it works in this case with the fudgy-ness of the chocolate.
We’ve tested these chocolate black bean cookies with multiple recipe testers and taste testers. And the verdict across the board was — two thumbs up! The only caveat is that there was some suspicion of using the term “black bean” along with “cookie”. So, you may want to re-brand these guys depending on who you’re making them for, to really sell them!
The process for making these cookies is simple: just use a food processor to blend together black beans, olive oil, peanut butter, cocoa powder and sugar into a chocolatey dough. You’ll add just a bit of flour in to hold the cookies together. Then, bake them for about 10 minutes until cooked through. The recipe below calls for saving out black beans to add to the top: this is totally optional, so you can do this only if desired.
A final note — we’ve been working hard for the past several months to give our site a new look. Check out our new redesign! We’ve worked to customize it to work on your computer, tablet, and mobile phone (code word *responsive* for you techie people).
Looking for healthy dessert recipes?
Outside of these chocolate black bean cookies, here are are a few of our favorite other healthy desserts:
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Tahini Vegan No Bake Cookies
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
- Blueberry Crisp
- Baked Bananas with Toasted Coconut
- Five-Spice Baked Pears
- Berry Brownie Yogurt Parfait
- Maple Vegan Blondies
- Fudgy Vegan Brownies
- Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Chocolate Sweet Cherry Vegan Tarts
- Easy Bananas Foster (use vegan variation)
- Perfect Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
- Healthy Peanut Butter Buckeye Balls
- Simple Apple Crisp in a Jar
This black bean cookies recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten free, vegan, plant based, dairy free and naturally sweet.
Print
Chocolate Black Bean Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 16 cookies 1x
Description
Black bean cookies? You bet. These cookies made with black beans are a healthy dessert that tastes chocolate-y and satisfying.
Ingredients
- 15-ounce can cooked black beans (or 1 ½ cups cooked)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons milk or almond milk
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 5 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour or rice flour (for gluten free)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Rinse the beans and drain them; save out 48 beans for decoration (3 per cookie – or omit this step if desired and just use 1 cup of black beans for the filling). In the bowl of a food processor, add the remainder of the black beans, olive oil, peanut butter, milk, and sugar. Blend until smooth.
- Add the cocoa powder, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and ¾ teaspoon kosher salt to the bean mixture and blend until smooth and the batter resembles a thick mousse.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon 16 evenly distributed dollops of batter. Bake for around 10 minutes (the cookies should still be a little soft when you remove them from the oven). Place the saved black beans on top, if using. Set aside a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Adapted from Green Kitchen Stories We stored the cookies in the refrigerator due to the black beans on top. If you plan to store the cookies, you may want to omit the black bean topping as the topping did become a bit tough after a few days.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Black bean cookies
Looks great! Can’t wait to try another variation of beany baking. I made a Mexican-spiced chocolate black bean cookie last year and it was a hit with everyone. Definitely don’t shy away from using beans in cookies. :) I have also used chickpeas in a chocolate chip blondie with great results. No flours needed. :)
Mexican spiced cookies sound delicious! As do chickpeas in a blondie – interesting! We will have to check out your recipes :)
I like the new “responsive” theme – and I like the sound of these cookies too ;)
I dig it. I made black bean brownies a while ago and loved them! I’m sure these taste lovely as well :)
Lovely new site design. I love the clean look. I also like the idea of these cookies. I’ve had brownies with black beans, but would never have thought of making cookies with them.
That decoration is crazy cute!
The new design is gorgeous. I just redid mine last spring but am already so over it and want to redesign it again. Such a time commitment! I’m intrigued by these cookies. Haven’t seen black bean cookies before, just brownies.
Thank you! Yes, it was a bit of a time drag — hopefully we can live with this one for a bit :)
I love the new design! And the very first cake my hubby made for my birthday (when we were dating) was a black bean cake. I haven’t tried cookies yet, but these sure look delicious.
Thank you! Interesting — I had only heard of black bean brownies and cookies, but never cake. We’ll have to ponder that too!
1. love the new blog design!
2. so excited to see this recipe – and the gluten free recipe. just found out i have celiac disease and so am on a new mission for gluten free baked goods so thank you :)
Thanks, Anna Maria! Wow, when did you find out about celiac disease? We’re glad to offer up some gluten free ideas — though we are not ourselves, we love to think of ideas for friends that are! We’ll keep them coming :)
The site looks amazing, and so do these cookies! I had to read it twice to believe they really had so many black beans in them – I never would have guessed it from the picture. Will definitely have to give these a try!
Thanks, Jess! Yes, a whole can of black beans! We received a lot of positve feedback on the taste too — though some friends were still adamant that they are not “true” cookies with the black beans :) Let us know if you try them out!
Love the new blog design, it looks really great! As do these cookies, perfect for a slightly less-indulgent holiday treat!
Thanks, Kathryn! So glad to know you enjoy the new design! Let us know if you try out the cookies; we’re interested to know other opinions on the “healthy” cookie :)