It’s a Beaniful Christmas!
It doesn’t feel like Christmas until the music coming from my iPod is Bing Crosby’s White Christmas and every space on my kitchen counters are full of baking ingredients.
When I was growing up my mother made a cake, pie or batch of cookies from scratch everyday. I learned to bake attentively watching and helping her.
At Christmas she would assemble festive and beautiful plates full of candy cane cookies, sugar cookies, toffee and other goodies and deliver them to her friends. In fact, at age 92 she still bakes and makes the rounds!
I learned from a young age that giving someone home baked goods always puts a smile on their face. I have found that children love to be in the kitchen helping out and if they have a hand in making what they eat, chances are that they will be more adventurous eaters.
Beans are a wonderful addition to dessert baking, including during the holidays. I would venture to guess that you would never taste the secret bean ingredient in any of the recipes listed below. If you have never baked with beans, I would highly recommend taking the plunge! And, as always, remember…. the most important ingredient you use is love.
These first two recipes are from the cookbook Spilling the Beans by Julie Van Rosendaal and Sue Duncan. This is one of my favorites and if you are looking for a good bean cookbook this one is great!
This is a very flavorful dessert! One idea for gift giving would be to swing by a thrift store and buy a unique, pretty plate to put it on to make it special.
Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread
from Spilling the Beans cookbook.
Serves 6
Topping:
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 or 2 firm but ripe pears, peeled and sliced thinly
Gingerbread:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup dry baby lima beans, cooked
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-9 inch round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.
To make the topping: Combine the butter, honey and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until smooth. Spread evenly over the bottom of the cake pan, then lay the pear slices overtop, keeping them tight together or even very slightly overlapping. Set aside.
To make the gingerbread: Beat the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl until smooth and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well again. Process the buttermilk, beans and molasses in a food processor until smooth and stir into the butter mixture. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir gently until just combined; be careful not to over mix. Smooth the batter over the sliced pears.
Bake the gingerbread for 35 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes or so, then invert a serving plate over the cake pan.
Quickly but carefully flip both upside down, and let the cake pan rest on top of the plate for a moment or two. Remove the cake pan. If you have any pear slices stuck in the pan, just peel them off and place them on the cake where you’ll see where they belong.
These cookies are thin and chewy and have a 
great ginger flavor.
GingerChews
from
Spilling the Beans cookbook.
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
¼ cup butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup cooked white beans
1 Tablespoon molasses
¼ cup flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (you’ll be putting everything into it soon enough) and let cool briefly. Pour the butter into the bowl of a food processor; add the sugar and beans and process until very smooth, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Pour the contents back into the unwashed saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture boils.
You’ll want to stay attentive and stir constantly.
The mixture will start to thicken and darken slightly, and in about 5 to 6 minutes from the time it’s boiled it will be sticky and reduced in volume, and almost gelatinous in texture. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the molasses and allow to cool until just warm, about 20 minutes (quicker in the refrigerator, but watch the glass shelves!)
Note: Don’t panic if the mixture hardens. Use a fork to break the mixture up before the next step.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and set racks in the upper and lower thirds. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Once the sugar and bean mixture has cooled, add the egg white to the pot and stir until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the pot and stir until just combined; the consistency will be more like cake batter than cookie dough. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto 2 baking sheets that have been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, allowing 2 inches between cookies.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges and just set in the middle. Let cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Yummy chickpea (garbanzo) candies
These garbanzo candies are healthy and decadent! I found the recipe at myhappydessert.com. It’s a very easy candy to make. I went one step further and dipped the candies in melted chocolate for even more decadence.
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cup cooked chickpeas (garbanzos)
¼ cup walnut pieces
5 dates, pitted
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 Tablespoon rum
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon vegetable shortening
Mix chickpeas, walnuts, dates, cinnamon and rum in a food processor until smooth. Roll into small balls and if you are rolling them in cocoa you can do that now. Refrigerate.
Note: If you want to dip them melt the chips and shortening together in a small saucepan until smooth. Cool slightly. Take the chickpea balls out of the refrigerator and dip one at a time in the chocolate. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet to harden. If you want to add chopped nuts on top do it right after you dip the ball into the chocolate.
Black Bean Fudge
Do you love fudge? Want to make it almost guilt free? Add beans!
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups cooked black beans
1 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 cups powdered sugar
2 cups chopped walnuts
Puree beans in a food processor with the melted butter until mixture is smooth. Transfer to bowl of mixer. Add vanilla to mixture. Slowly add cocoa powder and powdered sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed. Stir in nuts. Spread mixture evenly in a 9×13 inch buttered pan. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
Bean and Banana Bread
This bean banana bread is moist and so yummy! The original recipe used white beans, but since it’s Christmas I used cranberry beans (not to be mistaken for the other cranberries!) This recipe is from the blog mommykitchen.net.
Makes 4 mini loaves
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup peeled ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cranberry beans, cooked and pureed
½ cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In mixer bowl cream shortening and sugar together. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and blend well. Mix beans and banana together. Add flour mixture alternately with the bean banana mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in nuts. Pour into greased mini loaf pans. Add extra pecans on top.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean and the bread is golden brown. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes then remove to a baking rack to cool completely.
I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season filled with lots of love,
laughter and of course food!
Enjoy!
Marilyn
Check out this video of Julie Van Rosendaal, and Sue Duncan talking about their cookbook Spilling the Beans.
