Photo credit: Pille Nami-Nami
This post is an unashamed copy of Pig in the Kitchen. Hope you don’t mind, Pig; sincere form of flattery, as they say. But you might be able to adapt the recipe to your own needs.
And no, I haven’t eaten that many chocolate brownies this week. 4916 was my finishing position in the Great Edinburgh Run a couple of weeks back. Over 1000 people finished behind me, so it’s not as bad as it sounds, or so I like to think. 6 minutes and c. 900 places slower than last year but I’m not complaining; I was pretty happy just to finish. All right, scrub the pretty (I confess I did take a look at the official photos…). I’m afraid that I didn’t manage to run the whole way as I walked from the 5 km mark to 6 km, up the steady climb through Holyrood Park. I had planned to do this, honest, as I wanted to be sure I had enough left in the tank to finish the route and it’s so much easier to admire the spectacular scenery when you’re walking, isn’t it. Of course I could have run it if I’d tried… well, maybe next year. My ankle might be working properly then and I may have a few more red blood cells. And more muscles. And I might weigh less. Although there will be the weight of those long flowing locks that I’ll have to consider. But I think it could become an obsession, that need to break the 1 hr barrier.
Lots of people sponsored me, and that was a major factor in ensuring that I got round. I really have been overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and my JustGiving site has raised around £1000, including the GiftAid, for the Maggies Centre in Edinburgh. The site will stay open until the beginning of September, so if you thought you might sponsor me but just didn’t get around to it (a syndrome of which I have much personal experience), you still can. The link is on the sidebar.
Which brings me to chocolate brownies. Just what a girl needs after a run. Hmmm. Unfortunately, I can’t generally eat brownies as they have that nasty wheat flour stuff in them. However, I was at a nutrition workshop at the Maggies Centre (you see, you see, there is a link) a few weeks ago and Kelly, the nutritionist, produced these wonderful gluten free brownies and the recipe to go with them. I must give them a try.
Kelly’s Black Bean Brownies
Adapted from a recipe on allrecipes.com
Yes, you read that right – they’ve got black beans in. No flour. Low fat. They taste great.
400g tin black beans, rinsed and drained
3 medium eggs
40ml rapeseed or groundnut oil
20g good cocoa powder (eg Green & Blacks)
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp chocolate extract (optional)
1/2 tsp instant espresso or regular coffee (not optional. Apparently this counteracts teh taste of the beans. Kelly’s words: Don’t ask me how, just trust me.)
75g muscavado sugar
75g agave nectar (nothing to do with cards) OR unrefined granulated sugar
75g plain or dark chocolate, chopped
Preheat oven to 175c. Lightly oil a small square (20.5 x 20.5 cm) or a rectangular (18 x 23 cm) baking tin.
Put everything except the chocolate chips into a blender. Sounds easy so far.
Blend until smooth. It will be runny – like thin custard – but don’t be alarmed. It will set during cooking. You hope.
Add the chopped chocolate and pulse 2 or 3 times.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is dry and the edges are starting to pull away from the sides of the tin.
Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
It is not compulsory to run 10km before eating them – but if you eat too many, it might be a good idea to go for that run soon. Or eat another brownie and prevaricate.
So there you are – it was worth raising £1000 for that recipe, was it not? And there’s a whole bookfull more where that came from.
oh i like a bit of competitive running; what distance was it? And never mind the distance, well done you! And bloody hell, 1,000! that’s fab.
The brownies sound yummy, I was pleased to see a strange ingredient in them, coz i’ve got a brownie recipe with avocado in; you can sneak all sorts of weird stuff into brownies. Not the stuff that is illegal, that wouldn’t be good, altho I caught up on some Desperate Housewives while back in the UK at the weekend, and the one of Lynette high on dope brownies was hilarious! I am not advocating dope brownies.
So flattered that you copied my formula, even down to the random comments in the recipe! Congrats.
Pigx
Great picture I wonder will the garden party have one? Didn’t anyone say to you that the walk in the park is a requirement of the day.
Would that be 1000 spondoolies or 1000 people, Pig? Both fab of course, she says modestly. I had avocado ice cream once; it was very good, if weird. I wonder if perhaps dope brownies would be the ones to eat before the run…
Well yes Lynne, I suppose it was all just a walk in the park! Now you come to mention it.
I’ve been looking for a chocolate avocado brownie recipe. Pigx, would you share?
Chocolate avocado brownies… now why, particularly, do you want that recipe? Although they do sound very, well, interesting. Have you tried posting a comment on Pig’s blog?
Congrats on the run!
Thanks Iota!
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