Dutch Oven Bean and Cocoa Pie

While I was working on my upcoming book, which is all about cooking with food storage ingredients, I came across this idea of using beans as the substance for a custard pie. The thought struck me so oddly. “A bean pie? What on earth are they thinking?”

But then, I thought about the recipe that I’d heard of using mashed dark beans in brownies to lessen the oil content. My wife had made them a long time ago, and they were delicious. The “beaniness” didn’t come through, and it had a very smooth feeling on my palate.

So, why not in a pie?

I mean, really, it’s the same idea for a pumpkin pie.  You make a custard with eggs and sugar and use pumpkin puree for the texture. You just use different spices, right? So, I decided to give it a try.

But, as I was making it, I was careful not to tell my family what I was doing. If it flopped, I wanted to preserve plausible deniability!


10” Dutch oven

8-10 coals below
12-14 coals above

For the Crust, see: http://www.marksblackpot.com/2014/12/how-to-make-dutch-oven-pie-crust.html

The Filling:

2 heaping cup mashed, cooked beans

2½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp molasses
3/4 cup butter
3 eggs
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
nutmeg

mint leaves for garnish


I tackled this pie in three steps:  First, the beans, second, the crust, and finally, the rest of the filling.

There are a few ways you could approach the beans. One is to just bust open a couple of cans of refried beans (neutral ones, without any additional flavorings, like garlic, etc...). Another approach would be to open up a couple of cans of beans. If you do this, I would recommend using a couple of different kinds, just to make for a more complete protein.

The third approach is what I did, because, of course, I like more work. Duh. I mixed a half bag of dried black beans and a half bag of dried kidney beans into a bowl with a lot of water and let them soak overnight. Then, using the same 10” Dutch oven, and about 15 coals underneath, I simmered the beans until they were very soft (that took about a couple of hours).

In any case, once you’ve got some soft beans, you have to mash them. I tried this interesting device that looks like a saucepan with a smashing wedge on the inside attached to a crank. It didn’t work. Maybe the holes on the bottom were too small, but it just didn’t do it. So, I pulled all the beans back out, and used a potato masher. If you do this, use one with a flat surface and holes instead of one with wavy heavy wire. It will mash better. You could use a slotted spoon, too.

Or, of course, you could use a blender. But, who wants to do that? That’s too easy!

Then, I made the pie crust in the 10” Dutch oven according to the instructions on that other page, listed above. I didn’t parbake it this time, but next time I probably will.

So, at this point, I had the pie crust ready, the beans smooshed and ready, and some coals were lit and heating up. It was time to make pie!

I started by smooshing the sugar, the molasses, and the butter together, creaming them up.  If you want to, you can just use brown sugar, but I like adding my own molasses, because I can make it darker and richer if I want to. I creamed them all together until it started to get a bit fluffy, as tiny air bubbles started to incorporate into the mixture.

I added the eggs and blended that in as well as the other flavorings. Finally, I folded in the beans. Once they were folded in, I stirred it all pretty aggressively to make sure that it was all incorporated.

I poured the mix into the waiting pie crust in the 10” Dutch oven, and set it on the coals. I baked it, covered, for about 45 minutes or so. I’ve found that I don’t trust the toothpick method when testing the doneness of pies. It works OK for cakes, but there have been times when the toothpick has come up clean and it’s still runny in the middle. I look for jiggle and touch for resistance instead of toothpicking. Make sure, also, that you turn the Dutch oven and rotate the lid every 15 minutes or so of baking, so you don’t have hot spots burning parts of your pie. Also, with a long cook time like that, you’ll want to have a side fire going so you can replenish your coals as needed.

When it was all done, I took it off the coals, and let it cool with the lid off. I like to serve it right out of the Dutch, but if you’re going to lift it, make sure that it has cooled, so the crust is fully set.

I was really pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the pie. My wife said she was amazed, and my kids liked it, too. Who knew beans could be dessert?



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.