Easy Red Bean Brownies Recipe

These flourless red bean brownies are just like the popular black bean brownies but with Japanese red bean paste. It’s gluten free and packed with protein and fiber, but taste just like normal brownies! Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.

I’ve really been trying to get my kids (and myself and my husband) to eat more beans. They’ve got protein AND fiber, which are the two main nutrients I worry about when I watch my kids neglect their veggies and meat for plain rice or bread. Thankfully, Japanese desserts are full of beans, but they’re usually a little bit more fiddly to make than American desserts.

Naturally, when I saw the popular black bean brownie recipe floating around the internet, I thought I might as well make it with sweet red beans instead, since we are already familiar with that flavor. Turns out, it’s SUPER GOOD and SUPER EASY! They taste just like normal brownies too. Everybody wins!

Red Bean Brownie FAQs

What are Japanese Red Beans?

Japanese red beans are also called azuki or adzuki beans. They’re like smaller dark red kidney beans, and they’re a super common ingredient in Japanese desserts. Typically in these desserts, the beans are cooked into a sweet paste called anko.

Which Red Bean Paste to Buy?

Luckily, you can buy red bean paste premade at an Asian market. There are different kinds depending on what texture you like: koshian is smooth with no chunks of beans, tsubuan is chunky (think like chunky vs. creamy peanut butter), and ogura an is a mix of smooth paste with whole beans.

If you don’t want any noticeable chunks of beans in your brownie texture, choose koshian. OR you can choose a different paste and blend the brownie mixture before baking. I often just throw everything into the food processor, pulse, and pour into my baking pan, so it’s super easy.

Making Red Bean Paste from Scratch

The problem with storebought bean paste is that it always has added sugar. If you’re really trying to control the amount of sugar in your brownie, you’ll need to make your red bean paste from scratch. It’s basically the same as making refried beans, just with sugar added. Cook your beans either the old fashioned way or in a pressure cooker, drain them, add them back to the pot or pan with your desired amount of sugar, and cook/mash them until you get a thick, jammy consistency.

Can I Decrease the Sugar?

If you are using storebought bean paste, you absolutely can decrease or even eliminate the added sugar in this recipe. Obviously sweetness is totally up to your tastes, so you may need to do some experimentation to find your ideal amount.

What Cocoa Powder to Use?

There are many types of cocoa powder, but the two main types are natural and dutch processed. I call for organic cocoa powder in this recipe, which also is much lighter in color. Historical red velvet recipes used cocoa powder like this, since it almost has a naturally red hue. If you wanted, you could consider this a red velvet brownie recipe, although the red bean paste turns quite dark brown when baked. I usually don’t add food dye when I don’t need to, but you could add red dye for a red velvet brownie if you wanted.

If you use regular cocoa powder, that’s totally fine too. However, if you substitute a dutch processed cocoa powder, you’ll need to change the baking soda to 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead, as the baking soda won’t react to the alkaline cocoa powder.

More Gluten Free Dessert Recipes

Lots of Japanese sweets are naturally gluten free! Check these out:

• Easy homemade mochi (chi chi dango)
• Ichigo daifuku (strawberry and red bean stuffed mochi)
• Classic butter mochi