Red beans brownie with yoghurt cheesecake and strawberry compote

One of the things I like the most about cooking is trying out recipes with surprising ingredients. I’ve added couple of times something unusual to food I was preparing and so far the worst result ever occurred in case of beetroot red velvet muffins. Beets dominated taste even though I’ve added double portion of vanilla extract. In case of this cake I was positively surprised. There are two reasons. First one – I never used beans for baking before. Even for brownie. And it’s fantastic ingredient which gives moist and soft texture. Beans have a neutral taste so you don’t need to worry batter will end up with strange flavor. It’s also much healthier alternative for wheat flour.

Second one- I couldn’t help myself. I just had to put my two cents in. In case of this recipe it was adding cheesecake batter to red beans brownie and serving it with strawberry compote. Result turn out better than expected. Definitely I would recommend serving this cake next day. It’s old wisdom - cakes with chocolate taste better at least 12 hours after baking. 

I.   Red beans brownie layer 

1 can of red beans rinsed well strained

4 eggs

3 tbsp. of cooking oil

1 cup of almond flour or ground almonds (I used food processor which gave a little bit chunky texture)

1 cup of processed baking chocolate

3 tbsp. of cocoa powder

1 tbsp. of baking powder

1 cup of brown sugar

2 tsp. of vanilla extract

You will also need blender

Place beans, eggs, cooking oil, vanilla extract (wet ingredients) in blender and pulse it for 1 minute then add remaining ingredients and pulse it together for another minute.

II.                  Cheesecake layer

1 container of vanilla Greek yoghurt (500 g)

3 beaten eggs (first beat whites to stiff peaks then mix them with yolks)

1 tsp. of baking powder

3 spoons of tapioca or corn starch

Combine all ingredients to smooth consistence.

Preheat oven to 180C. Place alternately layers of brownie and cheesecake into 1 large tin (basic large size: 25x36 cm) or two smaller (I’ve used 2 round with diameter of 20cm) until both batters has been used. Bake for 1 hour on the middle rack.

 

Strawberry compote

2 cups of strawberries cut into small pieces

2 tbsp. of lemon juice

1 spoon of brown sugar

1 tbsp. of tapioca or corn starch

3 tbsp. of cold water

Place strawberries with sugar and lemon juice into saucepan and bring to boil on medium heat. Cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Add starch combined with water and stir well until gets thicker honey-like consistence. You can store it for few days in fridge and warm up before serving as a cake topping.

Cheesecake swirls

Perfect recipe for everyone who likes freshly baked pastries but doesn’t like spending too much time in the kitchen and doesn’t like “playing” with flour. To be honest I’ve never tried to make my own puff pastry. It was easier and cheaper to buy frozen ready to bake option.

 This delicious recipe I found on http://czytaczka.pinger.pl/- Polish blog with many inspiring cooking ideas. Unfortunately it was really hard to buy homogenized vanilla cheese that was used in original recipe so I replaced it with vanilla Greek yoghurt (similar  texture and flavour).

Ingredients:

2 sheets of ready to bake puff pastry (those I bought in my local store were around 30 cm x 40 cm each)

250 ml of vanilla Greek yoghurt

2 eggs beaten

Handful of raisins

1. Preheat oven to 180 C
2. Roll out sheet pastry on flat surface
3. Take 1 beaten egg and mix it well with yoghurt and raisins
4. Spread half of yoghurt mixture all over pastry sheet
5. Carefully roll up the pastry. Hide the edge on the end of roll underneath to prevent unrolling
6. Use sharp knife to cut 2 cm sections along the roll and place them with cut surface exposed into baking tray covered with baking paper. Position them 2-3 cm apart to prevent sticking (pastry rises while baking).
7. Use remaining pastry and yoghurt mixture to make more swirls
8. Glaze all swirls them with beaten egg
9. Place them into oven until golden brown and double in size (around 20 minutes)
10.  Allow them to cool down before eating.

Important!

Don’t worry that raw swirls don’t have perfect round shape. That will change while baking.

Husband Rate: 9/10 (He loves it!)