The Best Gluten Free Healthy Brownie Recipe Ever | The Last 5

One of my favorite activities is cooking, baking in particular. Whenever I'm bored or even stressed out, I like to go into the kitchen and whip up some sort of concoction. There's something about the process of making warm baked goods that is really soothing to me. I especially love to find healthier recipes for dishes that are usually terrible for your waistline. Christine Bullock's Evolution 20 program has some recipes that fit this category like raw lasagna and chocolate bars that were fun to experiment with during The Last 5 that kept me busy for awhile.

But the other night, I got the urge to bake something and that made me think of a recipe I came across earlier on one of my favorite food blogs, Skinnytaste. It's a brownie recipe that is gluten-free and dairy-free and the main ingredient is black beans. Yes, you read that right. BLACK BEANS.

I was so puzzled by how this could possibly taste good and I happened to have the basic ingredients needed, so...challenge accepted. I set to work mixing and baking and waiting, and finally came up with a brownie that looked like a brownie and smelled like a brownie, but did it taste like a brownie? Well, the answer is absolutely. It has that fudgy texture that everyone loves about brownies and is deliciously chocolatey. I was seriously shocked by how good they taste considering the ingredients list. The best part is that they're only 150 calories per serving. Now I understand why they're called "Amazing Flour-less Brownies." Bravo, Skinnytaste, bravo.

I tweaked a couple of things from the original recipe because I wanted to add in a few ingredients, and I also didn't have any sort of coffee or parchment paper and only had refried beans. Plus, I'm a rebel and just wanted to experiment a little. Below is my version of the recipe.

1 (16 oz) canned Organic Fat Free Refried Black Beans (make sure it's unseasoned)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli Premium Baking Cocoa 100% Unsweetened )

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon olive oil

1 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Harrison's Original Sweet Shoppe from Whole Foods)

Preheat the oven to 350˚ and line a muffin pan with paper baking cups. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a bowl and mix until smooth. Then, fold in half of the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the baking cups and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top. It ended up being 13 individual cups for me. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy with a nice, cold glass of almond milk.

Let me know if you try it and what you think in the comments below!