Chocolate and orange is such a classic combination.

For this recipe we’ve used Free’ist’s chocolate and orange bar and taken it to the next level in these soft and squidgy brownies. Rather than traditional white flour these brownies are made with nutritious black beans, sweetened with a little maple syrup and given an extra citrus zing with some orange zest.

If you like your brownies with an extra bite add chopped almonds to the mix.Flourless Chocolate Orange BrowniesSERVES: Makes 12-14 brownies
PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOK TIME: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tin black beans and juice
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 3 tbsp cacao powder
• Zest of 2 oranges
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 150g chopped almonds (optional)
• 150g Free’ist orange chocolate – melted

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Melt the chocolate by placing broken chocolate pieces into a small bowl and putting the bowl into a saucepan of water over a medium heat. The hot water should heat the bowl and melt the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is a liquid consistency. Remove from the heat.
2. In a food processor or nutribullet blend up the black beans together with their juice until smooth.
3. Place the bean mixture into a large bowl and stir in the cacao powder, orange zest, maple syrup, melted chocolate and baking powder and stir to combine. You’ll have a really runny mixture. Lastly, fold in the chopped almonds if you’re using them.
4. Spoon this mix into a lined brownie tin – ideal size would be a 6 x 6 small tin. Bake for 25 minutes until crisp and firm on top. Don’t worry if they don’t seem totally set when you remove from the oven, the brownies will get firmer as they cool.
5. Allow to cool before cutting.