I love peanut butter. I love it so much that I try not to keep it in my house because I know I will attack it with a spoon and believe me, it never has a chance. It’s one of those foods I have the hardest time keeping to a proper serving size. So when my partner came home with a container of peanut butter I asked him to hide it from me.
It didn’t work. When there’s a will, there’s a way and I knew there was peanut butter in the house. I found his not so great hiding spot (behind the toaster) within a few minutes. Poor guy, he actually thought he could hide it in the kitchen.
Anyway, I realized my best hope at not devouring the entire container of peanut butter was to bake with it. And bake with it I did!
Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies
Moist, rich chocolate brownies swirled with a creamy peanut butter mixture. These are so delicious no one will ever know that the secret ingredient is beans!
Serves 16
Ingredients:
Brownie Batter-
- 1/2 cup dates
- 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup navy beans, mashed
- 1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond)
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar (any granulated sugar will work)
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
Peanut Butter Swirl-
- 1/4 cup all natural peanut butter
- 1/4 cup navy beans, mashed
- 2 tbsp unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond)
Instructions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper.
- Place dates in a 1/2 cup dry measuring cup and pour hot water over them until the measuring cup is full. Let sit for 5-10 minutes (depending on how hard dates are).
- Add peanut butter, beans, non-dairy milk, coconut sugar and vanilla to a food processor or blender (I used my Magic Bullet) and blend until combined. Add the soaked dates and the soaking water and blend again until smooth.
- In a medium bowl mix together cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
- Pour the blended mixture (from step 3) into the bowl (from step 4) and stir until combined.
- Pour into lined 8 x 8 baking pan and set aside.
- Prepare the peanut butter swirl my adding the peanut butter, beans and non-dairy milk to a food processor or blender (I used my Magic Bullet) and blend until smooth.
- Using a spoon drop spoonfuls of peanut butter swirl batter randomly over the brownie batter.
- Insert a butter knife into the center of a peanut butter swirl blob (right down to the bottom of the pan) and pull the knife away from the blob in a swirl-like pattern. Repeat until all of the peanut butter swirl blobs have been cut/ swirled into the brownie batter.
- Bake for 45 minutes and let cool completely in the pan before cutting and serving.
- Enjoy and share with your friends/family!
And there you have it, how I solved my peanut butter predicament. For the record, I could have easily eaten all of these brownies myself. I was able to restrain myself, however, and brought some to share with my friends at work. I think they appreciated the brownies much more than they would have appreciated me bringing a jar of peanut butter and spoons!
xoxo Erin
Nutritional Information:
Calories: 115.5, Fat: 6.6 g (1.2 g saturated), Carbohydrates: 12.7 g, Fiber: 2.8 g, Sugar: 6.5 g, Protein: 4.4 g
Nutritional information is based on a serving size of 1 brownie, 1/16th of recipe. Nutritional information was calculated using this.
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UPDATE! This recipe was shared at Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays, Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Healthy Vegan Fridays, Gluten-Free Fridays, Whole Food Fridays, Allergy-Free Wednesdays, My Meatless Mondays, Fat Tuesdays, Make Your Own Mondays, Tasty Traditions, Thank Your Body Thursdays, Potluck Party, Fresh Bites Friday, Natural Living Mondays, Real Food Wednesdays, Wonderful Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Fight Back Friday, Whole Food Wednesdays, Full Plate Thursday, Melt in Your Mouth Mondays, Wellness Weekend, Tuesday Greens, Healthy 2Day Wednesdays, Tasteful Tuesdays, Tried and True Recipes, Mostly Homemade Mondays, Try a New Recipe Tuesdays, Eco Kids Tuesday and Simple Meals Friday.
This my friend is some serious YUM!
Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest!
Thanks for linking back to the Gluten Free Fridays post!
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Thanks
Hey girl! Just so you know this was the most popular recipe on HVF this week. Awesome!! Hope to see you back again!
Awesome! I’m very pleased to hear that
I’ll definitely be back!
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Just saw your post on healthy vegan friends! I love the idea of this and it looks delicious! YUM!
Thanks!
Definitely, definitely making these soon. Thanks so much for sharing!
Glad to hear! I hope you like them as much as I do!
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Must. Make. Today!
Love that these are grain free
And, If I double the size of the serving, it’s still just over 200 cals. Double win!
Thanks! I definitely eat more than one serving when I make them. So delicious
I made them tonight
What could I use in place of dates? As much as I love the sticky little things, I have an allergy to them an unfortunately cannot have them.
Hi Jimi, you could use any liquid sweetener in the same amount. I would opt for maple syrup (for no other reason than I love it) but agave or coconut nectar should also work. Let me know how it goes!
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back tomorrow when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts!
Thanks, I definitely will
This looks awesome, thanks for giving me a reason to buy navy beans
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I had been looking for a recipe just like this; definitely making these soon, thanks for sharing. Congrats on being the most popular contribution on Healthy Vegan Fridays!
Thanks! I hope you like them as much as I do
Hey! These look awesome! I’m planning on making them today, actually. But I have a quick and maybe kind of silly question. For measuring out the navy beans, do you mash them and then measure, or just measure the whole beans and then mash them? I would guess that there’d be at least a slight difference in the measurements based on whether you mash them before or after, so I just want to make sure I get it just right. Thanks!
Good question! Measure the 1/2 cup of whole navy beans and then mash them. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do
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A person essentially aid to make seriously articles I would state. This is the very first time I frequented your internet site page and thus far? I surprised with the research you created to make this particular publish incredible. Fantastic job!
Serious YUM!!!! I swapped out agave syrup for the dates so I would have a lower GI. Dates make me spike, but YUM! Love the pb and chocolate together!!!
What beautiful brownies, they look delicious. Hope you are having a great weekend and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
Does anyone know how I could substitute the peanut butter for PB2? Do I need to add additional liquid?
I’ve never worked with PB2 before, but I’m presuming based on your comment that it’s more dry than peanut butter? I would suggest doing a direct substitution and then if the batter looks too dry, start adding extra non-dairy milk (1 tbsp at a time). Good luck!
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I will have to try these with some sunflower butter subbed in. Thanks for sharing on Tuesday Greens!
This looks AMAZING!!
I almost did a double take and thought I’d already entered a link at Tried and True Recipes link party (http://rediscovermom.blogspot.com/). I have a recipe that looks almost EXACTLY like that…
http://akitchenhoor.blogspot.com/2013/03/pb-cheesecake-brownie.html
BEANS? Who knew! These look great! Thanks for linking up on Tried and True Recipes: http://rediscovermom.blogspot.com/2013/04/tried-and-true-recipes-8.html
So I tried these today, they look great on the outside and taste good but are runny inside. I baked them for 1.5 hours so am not sure what the problem is, Thanks
Hmm, I’m not sure what the problem is either…the raw batter itself should be some what thick, so I don’t know how the baked version could be runny. I wonder if we used different amounts of water to cover the dates? It should take about 2 tbsp of water.
Oh my goodness! These look gorgeous and delicious! My son has already copied down the recipe and told me he wants to make them!
Thanks for linking up with “Try a New Recipe Tuesday!” I hope you will be able to join us again this week.
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Looks like a great recipe! Thanks for sharing with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday! Hope you stop by again! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/05/eco-kids-tuesday_21.html