Greetings! As Charlie mentioned in the exceedingly cute robot post, I am Elizabeth Bear, and I will be helping keep this space active while he's visiting my native New England. I told him I was going to blog on publishing and futurism and futuristic publishing...
<.< **looks shifty** >.>
...but by now he's safely over the North Atlantic, and we can party.
Just remember the kick the empties under the couch before he lands.
...Okay, no, I really am going to behave. But the publishing post is going to come in a bit, after I tell you how virtuous I am, because I come bearing... chocolate. 
I am so virtuous that I spent the morning making "brownies" out of black beans, good chocolate, agave nectar, and ground-up walnuts, because I am on this refined-carb restriction and woman does not live by brown rice alone. They're actually pretty good--not vegan, but safe-ish for diabetics and celiac sufferers. The base recipe is here, but I don't mess around with all the fussiness--I just melt the chocolate and butter, puree the beans and walnuts in the food processor, and then add the other ingredients one at a time until it makes a smooth paste, which I then panify and bake.
I sub in black cocoa powder for the espresso, and use about twice as much vanilla extract as the recipe calls for. And a good shot of chocolate liqueur. Ahem. What? It cooks out. Mostly....
Tasty and high-protein, which is what I'm after. They make good energy bars for caving, climbing, and long hikes, though they do smush.
So... in the future publishers will all be baking brownies?
Sounds tasty. Would the flavor suffer if one subbed in another nut like pecans?
New Amazon sales model. Free brownie with every ebook.
John:
It might alter, but I bet it would still be pretty good.
Part of the trick is REALLY GOOD chocolate.
You know, that looks like mämmi.
I like to read and write about food and cooking, but I didn't expect it here. Thanks for the "treat." And I have also now committed the verb "panify" to my frequent-access vocabulary list.
I feel like I am being bribed.
And as an honest man, I have one question.
What's my end of the bargain? I'd hate to renegue on the deal after accepting chocolate.
Oooh... hey thanks for that recipe. My wife and I both Love Brownies and are trying to lose a little weight, so some high protein high fiber brownies won't hurt. :)
I hope.
That's got to be the gooiest brownie I've ever seen. Nut replacement sounds interesting, I'm being hazelnut freak and they always go well with chocolate.
RIP the lovely Kage Baker. Perhaps I have found my new theobromophilic sf author to follow? I know some of your short stories, love them and have been considering a plunge into something longer.
I usually just melt chocolate (85%, vegan, fairtrade, organic, made by the Co-Op) and mix things in. Nuts, fruit, popcorn, whatever comes to hand.
Hey Elizabeth! I have the opposite problem: I can only have 50gr protein a day. I make things with lots of carbs.
Ooh, that looks yummy.
I have to disagree when you claim it's safer for diabetics, though. It's not "nectar" at all. It's syrup by any standard. Like HFCS, it's refined from the starchy bodies of the plant in question (kernels for corn, roots for agave). The glycemic load of agave nectar is higher than high-fructose corn syrup, and HFCS itself was initially marketed as good for diabetics for the exact same reason (high in fructose but little glucose -- biochemistry does not work that way). Eating this stuff in any significant quantity has worse effects than using high-fructose corn syrup.
We diabetics are better off with sugar than this stuff.
Pazi: Interesting--I had heard the opposite: that agave nectar (which is, yes, a syrup, like maple syrup, cane syrup, corn syrup, etc.) had a lower glycemic response than cane sugar. Conflicting sources! More research needed!
Pat: I'm a hardcore food junkie, and I love to cook.
Antti-Juhani, I am off to google mämmi now.
If the agave syrup has been heated, then the carbohydrates are reduced to fructose, suggesting that it is no different from other forms of fructose. I could only find one scientific paper on agave syrup effects on metabolism, and it looks a lot like other forms of fructose.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19815021?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1
There may be subtle forms of differences from different suger cocktails, but if you want a brownie, make one that you can really enjoy. Preferably one that connects to the internets or has multimedia features that allow fan input.
Hmmmm...chocolate.
Ok, that's me sold. I was looking for some new books to buy...and anyone that brings me chocolate has to be good!
:)
Never say that I'm easy!
According to the recipe you linked to, it has 4g od protein. Why would you call that a high protein content? High in comparison to usuall brownie or...what?
High in comparison to yer usual brownie, yes, which has 1g of protein. (The beans and walnuts and eggs all provide protein in this recipe.)
The thing they are missing is chewiness. Because there's no gluten, they have more of a fudge texture. But the flavor is actually quite good.
Far, far better than a Clif bar!
Smush is a feature, not a bug.
Hi, Elizabeth! Oh, I'm late to the party. Any chocolate left?