Welcome back to Sunday Scratchups — AKA: Grocery matchups cooking from scratch. This week, avocados are 3/$1.00 at Ultra Foods through today, and cans of Ortega black beans were $.39 after coupon and price cut at Target through yesterday.

So, it seemed like a good week to try my hand at making gluten free, dairy free, black bean avocado brownies! (You could also easily make these vegan by substituting a flax egg for each egg in the recipe.) I looked at a whole bunch of recipes online and took a bit from here, a bit from there, to come up with the below.

Gluten free, dairy free, black bean avocado brownies

Ingredients

1 15.5 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
1 small ripe avocado
1/3 C + 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C white sugar
1/2 C (or so, I didn’t measure) of dairy free chocolate chips for the top (optional)
1/2 C brewed coffee, cooled

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 10×7 baking dish (I used Pam). Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips in food processor and blend til smooth. Pour into baking dish and top with chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life mini chips, because that’s what we had). Bake 30 minutes or until top starts to crack and knife inserted in the middle comes out fairly clean. Let cool, then cut. Chill in refrigerator for best results.

Some visuals

Here’s what the batter looks like blended. You want to be sure to get it really smooth, because who wants to be chewing on little pieces of black beans?

Here’s what it looks like before you bake — in retrospect, you might want more chocolate chips. Or top with peanut butter chips, or mash it up according to what your own family likes!

See how the top kind of cracks up when it’s done? In my oven it took 30 minutes, and then the knife came out pretty clean.

Then let it cool enough to cut — as it cools, the center sinks in a bit and the edges pull away from the sides of the pan.

And then, you’re left with something that looks remarkably like a “regular” brownie! lol These are more of a chewy fudge-like brownie than a cake-like brownie.

But how did they taste?

These are decent at room temperature — they are much better chilled! I highly recommend refrigerating them at least a couple of hours and then giving them a try. They do not taste like black beans, which is fascinating. They also taste a lot better than a lot of the gluten free mixes, not to mention a heck of a lot cheaper. (And, they’re also easier than making your own gluten free, dairy free baked goods from scratch with specialty flours and xanthan gum!)

My two tiny taste testers each gave these two thumbs up! And the whole family is looking forward to dessert tonight.

Want more affordable and easy recipes?

• That’s the only kind I post! Check out more recipes and Sunday Scratchups here.

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