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These Black Bean Gingerbread Bars are soft and cake-like, with a sneaky serving of fiber and plant-based protein. You can’t taste that there are beans inside at all!
Prior to this year, I had never once added a bean to a dessert recipe. Now, I’ve done it three times! First, with these Vegan Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies, then with my Maple Pecan White Bean Blondies (yum!), and now with these Black Bean Gingerbread Bars.
I have since fallen in love with adding protein-rich beans to my desserts, because they are loaded with fiber, potassium, and folate, all of which may help to support heart health.
Why Add Black Beans?
Black beans make an excellent, and affordable, egg substitute in vegan and gluten-free recipes like this one. In this case, the black beans add moisture and act as a binder, without adding an overwhelmingly “bean-y” taste.
In fact, I can’t taste a hint of beans in these Black Bean Gingerbread Bars at all.
What I do taste in these soft, cake-like bars is a perfect blend of holiday spices, including ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and a touch of blackstrap molasses. Did you know that blackstrap molasses contains significant amounts of minerals, including calcium, iron, and magnesium?
If you ask me, that’s even more reason to dig into these fiber-rich bars. When paired with warming ginger, they’re a delicious winter treat!
Of course, they’re a bit healthier if you avoid letting your toddler be in charge of the topping. He might have gone a little sugar-crazy. (But, gosh he’s cute.)
Whether you decide to top these bars with an extra sprinkling of sugar or not, I hope you’ll enjoy them in the near future.
These bars will keep well at room temperature for up to 48 hours tightly covered, but for best shelf life keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans , or 1 (15 oz.) can drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon coarse granulated sugar , for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper. In the bowl of a large food processor fitted with an "S" blade, combine the black beans, flour, oil, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, baking soda, vanilla, molasses, and vinegar. Process until a smooth batter is formed.
- Pour the batter into the lined baking dish and sprinkle the top with the tablespoon of coarse sugar, if desired. Bake until the top feels firm to a light touch, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely before removing the bars from the pan and slicing.
- These bars will keep well at room temperature for up to 48 hours tightly covered, but for best shelf life keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Nutrition
Note: I haven’t tried this recipe using other beans and flours, so please let us all know in the comments below if you try something new and how it works for you!
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Reader Feedback: Have you ever added beans, or another type of pulse, to a dessert? Let me know your favorites!
Disclosure: This post was originally sponsored by USA Pulses and Pulse Canada as part of my ongoing partnership to help promote the 2016 International Year of Pulses, but has since been updated.
WOW! These are incredible. This is my new favorite dessert recipe (made with half a cup of sugar), and I’ll be making it for my birthday. Thanks for sharing!
I have made these several times this winter as I’m trying to use up a jar of molasses. I made them in a muffin tin instead of a cake pan but otherwise stuck to the recipe. They’re a bit intense to eat plain but I’ve enjoyed them with either homemade cranberry sauce or applesauce.
These look great! Unfortunately, I can’t have oats (or oat flour). Is there another grain-free flour that would work instead? Thanks.
These are sooo good! Brownie texture with awesome gingerbread flavour. No bean taste at all. I think they would be just fine with a bit less sugar. Yum! My new favourite recipe, (I may have eatena good half of the pan myself)
I used GF flour and honey in place of coconut sugar. They were okay but nothing I’ll make again. Not sure switching ingredients changed the taste?
I am loving all of your bean-filled sweet treats! Yours are the best I’ve found online. I adapted this one into a lemon cake by replacing all of the spices, except ginger, with lemon zest and using honey in place of molasses. I had to force myself to put it in the oven because the batter was so tasty. Keep up the incredible work!
Are you saying that you made black bean lemon bars?? Like the taste says yellow, but the color is black? 🤔
Made the recipe as written (except i added chopped walnuts for texture) and it is so good. I am very happy to find a dessert without wheat, dairy, or caffeine (like cocoa or chocolate).
Forgot to mention: I don’t have a stand up mixer so i used a hand blender to “cream” and break down the beans. Worked perfectly I would say.
I made the quarantine version of these- meaning, I am working through a 25 lb of black beans. I used sunflower oil in lieu of coconut, 3/4 cup honey powder + unknown amount of brown sugar in lieu of coconut sugar. They were strange and bubbly when I removed them from the oven but now amazing! My whole family <3s these. Thank you!!
It was pretty decent. It probably would have been a lot better had I followed the exact recipe. I tend to prefer spicier gingerbread and I may have put too much ginger and cinnamon in. I also put extra molasses. I suggest trying the exact recipe first, before choosing to Tinker with it. I will try it again but next time I’m going to follow the instructions 🤪🤣
I think this is the only black bean bar recipe like it’s kind on the internet (all the others are chocolate based) and it’s AMAZING! I make this recipe in the Vitamix, and the dough doesn’t turn out as smooth (the poor blender is working hard) but it’s still absolutely amazing. My only modifications: coconut syrup instead of molasses (because that’s in the pantry…), less coconut sugar, and more ginger.
Delicious! Thank you!
I made these today using powdered Swerve instead of sugar. My beans were previously frozen (used your IP method to cook) and I think they were a little old. I suspect the texture was a little off as a result, but they tasted great. I frosted them with a cream cheese/greek yogurt frosting and they were a real treat. Thanks for the recipe.