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.