Butter Bean Cookies from Shana Burg’s Debut Novel, A Thousand Never Evers
So my husband and I were grocery shopping at a store that we had never shopped at before. We were there for an hour going around the perimeter of the store looking at all the cool foods our other grocery store (which I LOVE) doesn’t carry. It almost felt like a date albeit the two kids in the cart. Anyways, I happened to notice that they carried butter beans! I was so excited because I had never seen them before (lo and behold – I see them at my regular store the next week!). I knew I had to bake butter bean cookies in honor of Shana Burg’s debut novel, A Thousand Never Evers (my book review), a middle grade historical fiction novel that takes place at the height of the civil rights movement in Mississippi. 
A Thousand Never Evers centers around an event that takes place in a community garden that is supposed to be shared by both blacks and whites, but somebody sabotages the garden by overplanting it with butter bean seeds and successfully chocking out everything else. In the note to the readers, Shana mentions that as part of her research for the novel she baked butter bean cookies. As butter beans play a large role in the book, I knew right away that I had to ask her about that, which she graciously did during our author interview.
So here we are baking butter bean cookies! Dang. I’ve got the cutest kids. Here’s my littlest ready to get in on the action. As you can see, he’s already gotten into the flour.
When my husband saw the following photo, he said ewww. Yes, those would be the butter beans which are being substituted for half of the butter in the recipe. More protein and half the butter! Not bad. I wasn’t sure at what point to put in the beans but a quick email to Shana (who was so excited that she eagerly emailed later to see how they turned out) clarified that they are put in straight from the start.
Doesn’t he look so proud of himself.
This was the first time I let my youngest have at the beaters.
Shana recommends putting extra cocoa into the batter to make the cookie not only extra chocolaty but also to help the white bean that we’ll put on top “pop.”
And this is the batter ready to be placed by spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet. You would never know that there are beans in there. They blended in nicely.
And there you go! The finished product!
Halfway through the baking time I slide the cookies out and placed one butter bean on top. My husband begged me to only do this to half of the recipe. So half had beans on top and the other half were plain.
My husband, Taylor, checking it out. He much preferred the cookies without the bean on top. Actually, I think he would have just liked normal chocolate chip cookies (I NEVER make them – my preferred cookie of choice is snickerdoodle). And to tell you the truth, if he hadn’t seen the can of butter beans and seen me make the recipe, he wouldn’t have known that there were any beans in there at all. Visually, I don’t think he could handle it.
My oldest loved the cookies! He did however gag when he bit into the bean on top. That didn’t stop him from eating tons more, he just chose the cookies without the bean and was none the wiser about beans actually being inside the cookie!
This guy just likes cookies no matter what.
I’m so embarrassed to put an out of focus photo on my blog, but these are the happy little guys after filling up on cookies. Very happy.
If you’d like to try something a little different, do check out Shana’s instructions for butter bean cookies. I would love to try it again but use white chocolate chip cookies, they would go nicely with the darker color. And these would be perfect refreshments or activity for a book club. I love how baking these cookies took me into the book in such a fun way!
Links of interest: Butter Bean cookie recipe. Shana Burg’s website and blog. My book review and author interview with Shana Burg.
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Category: Author Recipes, Bookish Musings & Miscellany
Tags: historical fiction, photos of my family, recipes
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What a fun post! Thanks for sharing the photos — that must have been one fun day!
on March 20th, 2009 at 4:54 amYou do have really cute kids! I’m probably with your husband on the beans on top of the cookies, but if I didn’t know any better…
on March 20th, 2009 at 6:17 amButter beans are a staple here in the South, so every grocery store has them. I must admit I’d never heard of them in a cookie until your interview with Shana Burg. They look good to me.
on March 20th, 2009 at 6:19 amYour boys are so adorable! I’ve never heard of butter beans before this, but I’m intrigued. I love when you make authors’ recipes.
on March 20th, 2009 at 9:04 amI don’t know what a butter bean is but they look good!
on March 20th, 2009 at 9:10 amGreat post. You’re right-you do have the cutest kids! Awesome pictures. This could make anyone smile.
on March 20th, 2009 at 9:26 amThe cookies look good and the photos once again are just too much fun
on March 20th, 2009 at 11:02 amOh cool, I love snickerdoodles as well! I have to say, your hubby has an awesome shirt on in that picture. I am a big Star Wars fan.
My friend and I want to try making these cookies. I’ll do anything to get my son to eat more protein.
on March 20th, 2009 at 11:06 amThose look remarkably good. Wonder if I can find butter beans in Kansas? (I should have made those back when I lived in the south, and had ample access to them!)
on March 20th, 2009 at 11:08 amI’ve never liked butter beans but I am to curious to know what the cookies would taste like!
on March 20th, 2009 at 12:15 pmI’m really glad those butter beans blended well, because they looked pretty nasty just sitting there on that plate!
I wonder if you can make cookies out of lima beans (or refried beans, ick).
The boyz are adorable, as usual!
on March 20th, 2009 at 2:35 pmBeans in cookies? That just sounds… weird to me. But I trust your kids’ enthusiasm- would could doubt they taste good after seeing those cute happy faces full of cookies? If I make this recipe I’ll have to leave out the bean on top, I know my husband would never eat a cookie if he knew it had a bean in it!
on March 20th, 2009 at 6:16 pmI love butter beans! But then again I lived in the south for 8 years. Beans in cookies does sound a little odd, but I love hiding good-for-you foods in other stuff. My kids are none-the-wiser. I blend veggies and fruit into everything I bake. I regularly hide broccoli and zucchini and carrots in cookies and muffins. I bake a lot for kids. My kids eat veggies, but a lot of kids I watch won’t.
Another good one is using applesauce in your cake instead of oil. Just substitute it equally. I tried this on brownies and it worked really well. I thought it wouldn’t because brownies are so dense, but they were good.
In some recipies you can use unsweetened soy milk instead of regular milk for less calories and more protein ( I think ).
on March 20th, 2009 at 8:52 pmI have to admit that my first reaction to this was exactly the same as your husband’s. I actually said “Ew!” out loud.
I’m glad they turned out ok.
on March 21st, 2009 at 12:41 amI’m not sure I could get past the idea of beans in the cookies, no matter how good they tasted!
on March 21st, 2009 at 12:25 pmWhat cute pictures and so much fun, though I’m not sure what I think about beans on cookies.
on March 22nd, 2009 at 1:01 amYou really do have cute kids, but I think I’m with your husband on the beans.
on March 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 pmThose look delicious, and your kids are GORGEOUS!
on March 23rd, 2009 at 4:45 amSeriously, you can’t taste the beans! Try it. Just once. I dare ya.
on March 24th, 2009 at 10:36 pm