Friday, April 26, 2013

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies with Sea Salt - No flour, no sugar, vegan


Ingredients
  • Cooking spray
  • 2 cans (15 oz ea.) chickpeas/garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 cup all natural peanut butter
  • 2/3 cup pure maple syrup 
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips plus 1/4 c 
  • sea salt, for sprinkling
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray 9x13 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  2. In a food processor or good blender (my Ninja rocked this without a problem), add all ingredients except chocolate chips and process until batter is smooth. Add in 2/3 cup of chocolate chips. Have you seen the darker semi-sweet chocolate chips from Costco? Yum!
  3. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan then sprinkle and lightly press 1/4 c chocolate chips on top. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and edges are starting to brown. 
  4. Cool for AT LEAST 20 minutes. Sprinkle with sea salt then cut into squares. Makes 32 blondies which ring in at roughly 120 calories each.

You could actually modify this recipe a bunch of different ways using different nut butters or different sweeteners like agave or honey.  I just wrote the recipe exactly how I made it.  I took some to my hubby at work to share with his team as well as to my mother in law.  I had 3 emails/texts by the end of the day asking if I was going to post the recipe to the blog.  So, I guess that means it's blog-worthy! Ha!  I will admit, I was *pleasantly* surprised by the sweet flavor and texture.  Definitely a good substitute for a fully-loaded treat.  Repeater recipe for sure! Photo credit (first photo) and recipe inspiration from ambitiouskitchen.com

6 comments:

  1. what a great idea...love both this recipe and the dinner club! (my neighbor & I used to cook for each other's family once a week--great help!) Also I have a very tasty chocolate cake recipe with similar no-flour ingredients--most of my family has no idea! Happy Cooking!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have one question. I made these last night and had some issues. I used a Vitamix to blend and should not have had any problems. I just could not get it into a batter form, so I added water until it would blend. The taste is great, but the middle was raw after 45 min in the oven. Any ideas? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You might be trying to get it too thin. My batter was more like hummus consistency.

      Delete
    2. Thank you. I will try it again. Either way, my kids LOVED these, mushiness and all. Only lasted 24 hours!

      Delete
  3. I am making this recipe RIGHT NOW! They smell so good in the oven. Aren't chickpeas fantastic?!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent! Quick Question: has anyone tried freezing/unfreezing these?

    ReplyDelete