Refried Bean Bread

This recipe comes from Dec/Jan 2009 issue of Healthy Cooking mag. It's a TOH spin off.

I'm not a bean fan. As a matter of fact, I only eat one kind of bean, the green bean. I don't even like jelly beans! When I read the recipe, I thought, no way can you use an entire can of refried beans in a bread and not have a bean flavor. Well, yes you can!

Southwest Surprise Bread

2 pkgs active dry yeast

2 cups warm 2% milk (110 to 115 degrees)

1 can (16 oz) fat free refried beans

2 TBS sugar

2 TBS butter, melted

2 tsp salt

5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour (I did half white, half wheat)

1. Dissolve yeast into milk. Add beans, sugar, butter & salt. Mix well. Add 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add in rest of flour to form a firm dough. (Well, mine wasn't firm, but I didn't want to overflour it either.)

2. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth & elastic - 6 to 8 min. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.

With our cooler indoor temps, the warmest spot in the house is in the slightly preheated oven.

3. Punch dough down. Divide in half. Shape into loaves. Place into oiled loaf pans. Let rise 2nd time, about 30 min.

5. Bake at 350* for 40-45 min until golden brown. Remove from wire racks to cool.

It does make a softer bread and while there are bits of beans in it, there really isn't a bean taste to it. Yeah! I do like the fiber though - 1 slice is 104 calories, 1 g fat, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein. That's if each loaf is 16 slices each.