Monday, July 18, 2011

Red Velvet Chocolate Squares Recipe

I have a real treat for you this week. Red Velvet Chocolate Squares is the yummy dessert I made for my birthday back in April. I taunted my Facebook friends with pictures and then promised to post the recipe. The time has come!

You will be amazed at how healthy this recipe is and so simple to make. I promise, you will love it! Now don't switch off when I tell you the main ingredients are beans and beets. You will not be disappointed.


Prepare the baking dish by spraying with olive oil or add a bit of mild-flavored olive oil to a paper towel to oil the baking dish.

For the beans, I used half a can of organic black beans from Trader Joe's—saving the rest for a veggie salad. You can also use kidney beans. For the beets, I used Trader Joe's cooked baby beets—you can find them in the fresh vegetable refrigerated section. Cooked fresh beets or canned beets can also be used.

Maple sugar is the sweetener I used for this recipe, but agave syrup or palm sugar, both lower on the glycemic index than maple syrup, can be substituted.

Coconut oil is one of the ingredients I changed from the original recipe which called for butter. Using coconut oil you avoid cholesterol and I think it's key to the fantastic flavor you'll taste.

Red Velvet Chocolate Squares

From Adapted from Rocco DiSpirito, Now Eat This! Diet
Yield 12 squares

Category Dessert
Cuisine Sugar-free

Ingredients
Olive oil cooking spray
1/2 C chopped cooked beets
1 C of cooked black beans (or kidney beans), drained and rinsed
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs beaten
3 Tbsp whole-wheat pastry flour
3/4 C pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Combine the beets, beans, cocoa powder, eggs and flour in the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl halfway through.
3. Add the maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla and almond extracts. Process until all the ingredients are combined, about 1 minute.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 20 minutes, turning the dish halfway through the baking time.
5. Insert toothpick in the center. If it comes out a bit moist, it is done.
6. Let cake cool completely in the baking dish on a wire rack. Then put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours. When it's cold, cut into 12 squares and serve.

You can quickly whip up this delicious dessert. I've even made a half batch, which makes more sense for the two of us. It takes quite a while for us to finish off the full-size batch.

How often do you have dessert? Scroll down and leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. I love Red Velvet Cake and I think I could easily convert this to gluten-free. I've had lots of success baking with black beans and white beans. Did you use black beans or red beans? Before the recipe you wrote that you used black beans but the recipe calls for red.

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  2. Thanks for the question, Lauren. You can use whatever dark bean you have on hand. I happened to have only black beans when I made this. I will edit the recipe to say so.

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