During my childhood, Mom let us enjoy a few extra sweet treats on Valentine’s Day, as compared to any other ordinary day of the week. After our class parties in elementary school, we usually came home with a shoebox full of little cards and candy, so she agreed we could nibble on a piece or two as part of our afternoon snack.
Once we finished dinner, we went back for a few more pieces of candy from our shoebox stash, or we picked out a store-bought baked treat from the pantry. Mom knew we loved sugar cookies covered in sprinkles and Little Debbie’s heart-shaped cupcakes!
As I grew up, I started skipping those cute colorful desserts and gravitated more towards the extra chocolaty treats. Chocolate cookies, chocolate cupcakes, dark chocolate truffles… Basically whatever Mom brought home for herself. She certainly passed along her chocoholism to me!
During my high school years, Mom discovered Trader Joe’s chocolate ganache torte: a round two-layer cake with chocolate mousse sandwiched between the layers and covered in a silky smooth chocolate ganache. After our first bite, we were both hooked… And snuck seconds every time we carved ourselves a slice. It rarely lasted more than two days!
As an adult, I now try to avoid refined sugar as much as possible, which is nearly impossible with all of the tempting Valentine’s Day chocolate treats currently sitting on grocery store shelves… Including that Trader Joe’s cake! But I’m planning ahead this year and making a batch of these Flourless Chocolate Chunk Brownie Bites to enjoy instead. They contain no butter, oil, flour or refined sugar and are just 44 calories!
A chocoholic’s dream come true, right??
These healthy brownie bites are one of the easiest desserts you’ll ever make! You just need a blender or a food processor. That’s right—no mixing bowls to wash!
To make this recipe super simple, you’ll skip the melted chocolate (I have no time or patience for that!) and just use unsweetened cocoa powder. You’ll add in a full ½ cup, so the brownies taste really rich and decadent! With that much cocoa powder, there’s no need for Dutched or special dark. Regular unsweetened cocoa powder works just fine!
Instead of refined sugar, you’ll sweeten these brownies with pure maple syrup. Be sure you buy the real kind! Leave the pancake syrups or sugar-free syrups on the shelf because those contain corn syrup or artificial ingredients, which we’re avoiding in this healthier dessert. The only ingredient on the label should be “maple syrup.” Real maple syrup generally comes in thin glass bottles or squat plastic jugs, and I’ve bought it online here for a discounted price.
Now things are about to get a little interesting… Rather than flour, you’ll use black beans to hold the other ingredients together! I know—it sounds really strange. But I promise these brownies do NOT taste like beans! That flavor bakes off while the brownie bites are in the oven, so they just taste extra rich and chocolaty once they’ve cooled.
Bonus: The black beans help make these brownie bites extremely fudgy, just the way I like them! And they give the brownie bites a protein boost, too!
Just before popping the pans in the oven, you’ll sprinkle a little finely diced dark chocolate into each cavity and swirl it in with a knife. The brownie batter is very thin and liquidy, unlike my traditional brownie recipes, so if you added the chocolate chunks to your food processor or blender, they’d just sink to the bottom… Meaning the majority of your brownie bites would be missing those chocolate chunks. Not good! So wait until you’ve portioned out the batter, and you’ll be all set.
Time for dessert! And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! 😊) I’d love to see your brownie bites and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Flourless Chocolate Chunk Brownie Bites | | Print |
- 1 (15oz) can reduced sodium black beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed
- 3 large egg whites, room temperature
- ½ cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder (measured like this)
- ½ cup (120mL) pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup (60mL) unsweetened cashew milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp (28g) finely chopped dark chocolate
- Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line 24 mini muffin cups with paper liners, and coat with nonstick cooking spray.
- Add all of the ingredients except the finely chopped dark chocolate to a blender or food processor in the order that they’re listed. Blend until completely smooth and no large piece of beans remain.
- Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups. Evenly sprinkle the dark chocolate between the muffin cups, and use the tip of a butter knife to swirl them into the batter. Bake at 300°F for 14-18 minutes, or until they no longer jiggle when lightly shaken. (The centers should still look glossy and slightly underdone!) Cool completely to room temperature in the pan; then let them sit for an additional 3 hours for the fudgiest texture.
If you prefer to cook your own black beans, you’ll need 1 ½ cup + 2 tablespoons of cooked black beans. You’ll also need to add about ¼ teaspoon of salt to the brownie batter.
These brownie bites contain enough cocoa powder that they already taste very rich and dark. No need to use Dutched or special dark! Make sure you measure the cocoa powder correctly, like this or with a kitchen scale. Too much cocoa powder will make the brownie bites taste bitter.
Honey or agave may be substituted for the pure maple syrup. Alternatively, ½ cup (96g) of coconut sugar or brown sugar + ¼ cup (60mL) of milk may be substituted instead.
Any milk may be substituted for the cashew milk.
I recommend 72% dark chocolate. Ghirardelli is one of my favorites. Make sure you cut the dark chocolate to be no larger than the size of miniature chocolate chips to ensure the brownie bites bake evenly. Miniature chocolate chips may be substituted for the finely chopped dark chocolate.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, dairy-free}
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You may also like Amy’s other recipes…
♥ Flourless Brownie Bites
♥ Practically Flourless Extra Fudgy Brownies
♥ Brownie Batter Energy Bites
♥ Fudgy Dark Chocolate Frosted Brownies
♥ Fudgy Mocha Brownies with Coffee Drizzle
♥ Fudgy Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Swirled Brownies
♥ Slow Cooker Fudgy Dark Chocolate Brownies
Has anyone tried making these vegan by using aqua faba (canned chickpea liquid) instead of egg whits? Wondering what the correct amount would be, 2 or 3 Tbsp per egg white??
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Lisbeth! The best vegan egg substitute in my recipes is Ener-G. (My brother is allergic to eggs, so I’m pretty familiar with egg substitutes!) In my recipes, you’ll need 1 ½ teaspoons Ener-G + 2 tablespoons warm water for each egg white, and you’ll need ½ tablespoon of additional coconut oil or Earth Balance for each egg yolk (although that doesn’t apply here! 😉 ). I’d love to hear what you think if you try these brownie bites!
Hello. Can any of the recipes using the black beans be frozen? Thanks. Linda
Yes, these brownie bites can be frozen! My other black bean brownie recipes can be frozen as well. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of them Linda!
Would this work with whole eggs? Any particular reason for using just the whites? Thanks!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Megan! Yes, you may use whole eggs. I have a few family members who are trying to reduce their cholesterol, so it just isn’t worth it to me to use / repurpose the yolks. 😉 The egg yolks will add a bit too much liquid to the batter… But if you reduce the milk by 1-2 tablespoons, that should work! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these brownie bites!
Would 100% dark choc be too bitter to add to this recipe? I’m trying to omit refined sugar completely so only have pure dark or raw chocolate in my cupboards … recipe looks delish btw. Thank you!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Emma! If you already like the taste of 100% dark chocolate plain / on its own, then you can definitely substitute it for the 72% dark chocolate. If you aren’t a fan of the plain 100% chocolate, then I’d recommend just omitting the chocolate chunks — or using stevia-sweetened dark chocolate (like this or these chocolate chips) instead! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these brownie bites!
Saw this recipe on Instagram and I just had to try it! I just recently started cooking with recipes that “substitute “ ingredients to make the recipe healthier. I just pulled my batch out of the oven and let me tell you it smells exactly like full fat non healthy brownies! I can’t wait to try one. They look SO amazing! Thank you for doing the hard part for us ! You’re research is very much appreciated by this newbie! Keep up the great work! I can’t wait to try your other recipes 😃🎉
You’re so sweet Lilly — that means so much to me! I’m truly honored that you’d try my recipe after seeing it on Instagram. What a huge compliment — thank you! 🙂 I hope you enjoyed these brownie bites, and I can’t wait to hear what recipe you try next!
These brownies are SOO good! I have a huge sweet tooth and am always looking for something to satisfy my craving without gaining weight! I just had my son 5 months ago and I’m slowly getting back into clean eating again 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. The only complaint I have is that the texture is a bit grainy because of the beans, do you have any suggestions on how to reduce this? Or maybe I did something wrong? Thanks in advance!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these brownies, Brittney! If the texture was grainy, then it was probably because of the blender or food processor that you used. Either its blades aren’t as sharp as mine, or else the mixture wasn’t blended long enough. Do you know the exact make and model of the blender / food processor that you used? 🙂