Loading ...
Not Your Usual Chocolate Cupcakes!
December 30th, 2008 Madhuram Posted in Food Blog Events, Muffins/Cupcakes, Vegan Baking | 
Print This Recipe
| 27 Comments »
Yes, unlike the usual chocolate cupcakes these cupcakes are rich in fiber and protein. 18gms protein and 21gms fiber in total! Wondering how? One and half cups of pureed black beans is mixed with the batter and the beauty is, you wouldn’t taste the black beans or anything different! You can make these cupcakes even more healthy by using whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour. I adapted this black bean chocolate cupcakes recipe from the book Vegetarian Times Fast and Easy. I made a couple of changes to make it vegan.
Like the other healthy cupcake which I baked earlier, these chocolate cupcakes taste very good the day after baking. I baked these yesterday and I when I tasted soon after it cooled I felt that something was missing, maybe sweetness. But today the flavors were complete, it had the perfect amount of sweetness and tasted like any other ordinary cupcake.
1 and 1/2 cups of cooked beans)
Yield: 12 regular size cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes. (or 16 regular size cupcakes)
2 Drain the black beans from the can, rinse it well under running water and puree it in a food processor/blender using approximately 1/4 cup of water. The puree should be very smooth without any lumps.
3 To this also add the sugar, prune puree, 2 tablespoons of water, canola oil and vanilla extract. Process/blend it again for another 2-3 minutes. Transfer it to a large bowl.
4 In a small bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
5 Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in 3 parts. That is, first add 1/3rd of the flour mixture to the bean and prune puree, mix it well. Then add another 1/3rd and then the last 1/3rd of the flour mixture. Having some lumps is fine. I found that using a wire whisk to mix the batter worked well than using a spatula. The batter was in the consistency of pancake batter. Initially I felt that the quantity of the wet ingredients was way too much, but once I started mixing it to the flour I was relieved to find out that the proportions were getting right.
6 Fill the muffin wells 2/3rds full, around 3 tablespoons of the batter. For the mini muffin tin, just use 1 tablespoon. I placed both the muffin tins in the same rack. The mini muffins were done by 9 minutes and the regular size muffins around 14 minutes. Oven temperatures may vary so check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center and it should come out clean.
7 Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Slide a knife around the edges of the cupcake and invert the tin slowly. The cupcakes will fall down, cool them on a rack. Frosting is optional.
2 Melted butter or any vegan butter substitute can be used in place of the canola oil. The original recipe called for soy margarine.
3 I didn’t have cupcake liners at home, so I used vegetable shortening to grease the pans instead of coating it with non-stick cooking spray. I have noticed in the past that while using the latter, pans get grease stains which are very difficult to clean.
4 I recently have found out that using 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for each egg replaced gives the light and airy texture to the baked product. In this recipe I used 1/2 cup of prune puree to substitute 2 eggs, so I used 1/2 teaspoon baking soda in total. The result was eggless chocolate cupcakes with the spongy texture of the usual cupcakes.
5 We can also control the sodium in the recipe by using low-sodium or no salt added canned beans. Or better soak dried beans and cook it ourselves without salt and add a pinch of salt to the flour mix, because salt enhances the flavor of any sweet dish.
These vegan chocolate cupcakes goes to:
1. Egg Replacement Event – Pureed Fruit hosted by me.
2. Baking for Beginners hosted by Vandana.
3. Santa’s Holiday Challenge hosted by JZ.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Cakes look perfect.. Never in my life, I would have thought of using black beans in a cake. Thanks for trying it out and posting it here.
Wishing you and your family a fabulous New Year.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
wooooooow black beans in cupcake superb looks awesome Madhuram
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY
December 30th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Looks wonderful! Have to try it. The only reason I might not make this all the time, is because my son loved black beans themselves…!
Gosh, I’d love to be a dinner guest at your home some day, Madhu! –Deepa
Sure Deepa, I’d love to have you as a dinner guest.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Happy New year To u & Family!
My daughter saw this cupcake and she said ” wow I smell chocolate” …:-) What a recipe!
December 30th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Holy cow, or maybe I should say holy beans.
Never in million years I would have thought that you can sneak in back beans in a cup cake and make it taste delicious.
Happy New Year to you and your family Madhuram.
Like others who have commented I’ve seen black bean brownies, so I wanted to try this cupcake recipe too. Not only me, my son liked it too. Happy New Year to you too RC.
December 30th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
wish you and your family a wonderful 2009, dear madhuram.
Happy New Year to you too Bee.
December 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
black beans in cakes?!?!!!?!?!?
sounds interestng!!! your cupcakes look just perfect 
It tastes good too Ramya.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Love it, it looks just delicious and loved the use of black bean in this…perfect
Thanks Usha.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Madhuram,I too had bookmarked black bean brownies from 101 cookbooks.This looks scrumptious and perfect and too good .Nobody will be able to guess that black beans is one of the contents.The texture is too perfect.Love it.Hope your son enjoyed it.
I too saw that recipe Usha. My son ate it happily. Thank you for reminding me about that, I forgot to mention it in the post. Will update it.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Hey! I too am making these during the weekend – saw a few black bean brownie recipes last week! I was really surprised that beans could be used in cakes – glad to see you vouch it too! Your cupcakes speak for the texture – great! HAPPY NEW YEAR
Go ahead and try it SM. It was approved by my son too.