down to the core: follow this recipe gingerly

To begin this post, I need to start with a little anecdote. A few years ago, when I first got into nutrition and healthy baking, I was feeling ambitious and brave, so I tried a new brownie recipe I had been seeing in all the magazines and cookbooks on healthy baking. One of the ingredients was black beans, which sounded like a terrible idea, but I trusted all of the recipes I saw. My family warned me that the brownies wouldn't come out right, but I didn't care and I went for it. Lo and behold, the brownies were disgusting.

That was a few years ago, though. I have since gotten over my valiant attempt gone wrong, but I am still reminded of it sometimes by my family. I've been saying for a while that I want to give one of those bean brownie recipes another chance, assuming I must of followed it wrong or just used one that wasn't so reliable. I have that recipe to partially thank for my curiosity in the kitchen, because from the time I made those brownies, I've since learned so much more about baking and cooking.

For my birthday, I got a few new cookbooks (my friends know me very well!) and I already have gone through them all and flagged recipes I want to try soon. In "Double Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld, I made ginger cookies last night, and they were amazing. I promise you can't taste the beans, and as far as cookies go, these are pretty healthy.

Here's what you'll need:
yields 4 dozen cookies
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 tsp allspice
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup molasses (or equivalent)
1 cup canned black beans, rinsed and pureed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together flours, spices, salt, and baking soda.

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar, canola oil, pumpkin, egg, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy. Add molasses and beans. Stir well. Slowly add dry ingredients to form a smooth, soft dough.