The much awaited month long Blogging Marathon begins today and we, a whole bunch of bloggers who may seem to be crazy to the outside world but are challenging ourselves with new themes every week, are super excited about it!
Since we are on a month long journey into feasting some delicious foods under the 4 categories- Baked, Regional[Indian], International / Fusion and Misc/ Street food/ recipe less posts, I thought I will start off on a healthy note.
As the header suggests, this post is a flour-less bake that uses Adzuki beans… This is the first time I made a flourless cake and it is indeed yum and delicious!
A– Azuki Bean Brownies
Category – Baked
Adzuki beans is very commonly used in the East Asian countries. It is also known by the names Adzuki or Aduki. The botanical name is Vigna Angularis .
This bean has a very long history! It is said to have been unearthed in some archaeological site in Japan and the beans have been dated back to somewhere between 4000 BC to 2000 BC!
Most of the times this bean is used in sweet dishes i.e.this bean is used in the mostly in the Japanese , Korean and Chinese confectionery . It has a strong, sweet and nutty flavor.
Until I went to China, I had never seen it. So I was naturally tempted to buy some and try it out. I made a few sweet dishes with the help of our Chinese friends and then I started using it like out regular dal and replaced it instead of Moong dal.It did taste good in savoury dishes too..
Now coming to the nutrient content , we find that 100 grams of the cooked beans provides
128 Calories
7.5 grams – Protein
0 Fat
0 Cholesterol
25 grams Carbohydrates
7.3 grams dietary fiber
It is a nutrient dense bean and is a good source of Folate, Phosphorus, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Manganese and Zinc.
So as I was telling you earlier, isn’t cooking something with this nutrient bean a healthy idea!
I looked up various recipes on the net and made my version. This brownie is not going to be fluffy like a cake. It is a little dense but you will absolutely love every bite of it.
I used:
Adzuki beans- 1 heaped cup
Bananas -1,medium sized
Cocoa powder, unsweetened – 1/4 cup
Egg replacer- 1 tablespoon dissolved in 3 tablespoons of water
Sugar- 1/2 cup
Quick cooking oats -1/4 cup
Chocolate chips – 1/4 cup
Chocolate chips , tutti frutti for garnishing
Icing sugar – to dust on top
- Soak the beans in plenty of water, over night
- The next day, wash , discard water and pressure cook with 3 cups of water for 15 minutes or till the beans is well cooked. It is ok if the beans turn mushy.Drain if the extra water.
- Blend the cooked beans, banana, sugar, cocoa powder, oats till smooth.
- Transfer to a bowl and add the egg replacer mixture.
- Add the chocolate chips and combine to mix.
- Pre heat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.
- Transfer the batter into a square tin lined with butter paper [Mine is 8X8 pan]. Sprinkle some chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 30 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean [ Oven times may vary so adjust time accordingly]
- Cool completely before slicing.
- Serve as such / dusted with icing sugar and tutti frutti
Note :
- You can use 2 bananas and leave out the egg replacer. I had just one banana at home the day I baked this brownie so used the egg replacer.
- You can omit the chocolate chips and make it even more healthier.
- The sweetness was just right so increase the sugar if you have a sweet tooth.
- Also sugar can be replaced with brown sugar.
- You can also add nuts in the batter before baking.
Take a look at the Blogging Marathon page to check out what my friends are cooking in this A- Z series in BM #32…
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Wow. wat a unique ingredient.. love to know about this, thanks for sharing with us
Have never heard of these beans before! And a flourless brownie with beans, wow! That's some idea I say! Looks very tasty. And no, I won't cut out the chocolate chips 🙂
cake looks so moist although I have never been an adzuki bean fan
thats an very interesting and delicious looking brownie dear 🙂
That's a very interesting and healthier version of brownies.. Can you taste the adzuki beans or is it masked by the chocolate flavor? Sweet way start the A-Z marathon 🙂
That is a very interesting substitute for the usual flour, PJ,
Wow lovely recipe and Interesting theme
Wow, brownie with Adzuki bean! I also have the same question as Pavani…Do you taste the beans? I am very tempted to try this, but need to wait until the marathon is over 🙂
only you can think of such an ingredient in cake or brownie, superb effort PJ, the brownies look mindblowing
These beans look like raajma…I have had some Japanese sweets with perhaps these beans..dont think they are available here…are they?…
Whatever the brownie surely looks delicious. ..and good information.
crazy is surely the way my family describes me the past few weeks :-)) I was busy writing A-Z many times and my lil one asked me if I had plans of going back to school 🙂 LOl !!
those are so similar to peanuts arent they ?? super sweet way to start the BM
Never heard about these beans , this sounds interesting . Wonderful recipe dear !
that is looking so yummy!!! finger licking good!!!
Sowmya
Amazing brownies. The fact that it is flourless makes it more nutritious. Do we get it in Nilgiris PJ?
new to me pj and a lovely write up with so much of info…cake looks moist…are these beans available here?
Heard a lot about adding beans in brownies, seriously this brownies is rocking PJ..bookmarking.
PJ the first thing I did was search for the hindi/english equivalent of this bean. I am surprised its red cow beans. Love the brownie. Bookmarking it.
PJ just love your brownies, and making it with these beans is simply awesome. I think I may have seen this in Nilgris, but could be mistaken. Can you please let us know where it is available if you know..:)..looking fwd to rest of the challenge you are going to do!
This is such a lovely ingredient. Totally guilt free 😉 Must look for it at Bangalore.
Friends, I have not seen the bean around here. I got a small batch when I moved down here from China..
Maybe it is available in Chennai esp in Nilgiris and other places. If you find it anywhere , please can you let me know so that I can share it here for others to try out.
And, I could feel the sweetness of the bean and it was not masked by the cocoa.
And if this beans is not available, the same procedure can be followed using Black bean / whole green gram / rajma…
This is such an interesting recipe! I am currently trying to cut down on glutens … this chocolate treat would be such a nice addition to my baking repertoire! I am going to try these very soon… but I'm going to use an egg. Should be fine, yes?
Always have used this in savory dishes and so was surprised to see this being used in baking. Great.
Wow nice recipe very very new to me love it thanks for introducing such a elegant recipe from china very nice so yum
Nice recipe- love the bean idea 🙂
I was under the impression beans = Savoury. Never knew these could be used in baking. Looks so tempting PJ…
Very unique Idea of making brownies with beans.. Yum.
A must try recipe. Never thought of using this in baking ever.
This was on my bookmarks for a long long time and then I totally forgot about it. Nice to see it now and feel like making it now 🙂
Good info about beans PJ but I too never made a cake with out flour. looks yummm….. have to search for this beans in chennai….I never saw that in chennai..
Never heard brownie with beans… amazing
This is the best way to hide these beans in kids diet..Awesome brownies..