Healthy Peanut Butter Blondies (Chickpea Blondies)
Posted Feb 23, 2018, Updated Oct 05, 2021
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These healthy peanut butter blondies are gluten-free, dairy-free, refined-sugar free and vegan friendly! Made with chickpeas but you’d never know it! A delicious healthy dessert recipe.
These healthy peanut butter blondies are one of my all-time favorite dessert recipes that I’ve been baking for 15 years!
I have this habit that I can’t don’t want to kick, of sitting down and having a legit dessert every night after dinner. However, I would like to live past 45, so I love making treats that taste indulgent but are actually good for you, like these chickpea blondies. One of my favorite ways to achieve this goal is by using beans in place of flour in baked goods.
Chickpea Blondies?
These healthy peanut butter blondies use chickpeas instead of flour and peanut butter in place of butter or oil. I know what you’re thinking, do they really taste good? Yes, I promise you that they do!
I really love the combination of honey and coconut sugar as the sweetener, and the addition of 1 tablespoon of almond milk really made the texture perfect. This recipe ended my search for a delicious, healthy, peanut butter cookie that’s high in protein and fiber.
These healthy peanut butter blondies are also vegan-friendly (no eggs)! So you can eat the batter too. I love adding a touch of sea salt to the top of these before baking them, you can’t go wrong with sweet and salty!
How to Make Chickpea Blondies
This vegan blondies recipe is easy to make. Just put all the ingredients (except the chocolate chips) into the container of your Vitamix (or other high-powered blender or food processor) and blend.
It takes 5 minutes to put together and 30 minutes to bake. Which means that you can have a delicious dessert ready to go in no time.
Room temperature. One thing to note is that these blondies blend the easiest when all the ingredients are at room temperature.
If you’re using a solid peanut butter, I recommend melting it a touch before putting it in your blender. Rinse the chickpeas with warm water, and let the almond milk warm up a bit at room temperature too.
Store/freeze
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Reheat in the microwave or oven or enjoy them cold (they are delicious cold too).
Reipe FAQs
Yes, double it and bake it in a 9×13″ pan.
No, you can omit the chocolate chips or use a different add -in like dried fruit, nuts, etc.
Healthy Peanut Butter Blondies: Substitutions
I recommend making this recipe exactly as written. However, if you must, here are a few possible substitutions!
- Chickpeas. Great Northern Beans (white beans, Cannellini beans) also work well in this recipe! However, chickpeas (garbanzo beans} are my favorites!
- Peanut butter. Any nut or seed butter works well in place of peanut butter.
- Honey. Use pure maple syrup for a vegan variety.
- Coconut sugar. Any granulated sugar works well in this recipe. I prefer coconut sugar because it is unrefined.
- Almond milk. Any non-dairy or regular dairy-full milk can be used in this recipe. I have also used non-dairy creamer.
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Healthy Peanut Butter Blondies (Chickpea Blondies)
Ingredients
- 15 oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) rinsed and drained (or 1 ¼ cups cooked chickpeas)
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup honey (maple syrup for vegan)
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 TBS almond milk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- extra sea salt & chocolate chips for the top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8″ or 9″ glass baking pan and set aside.
- Put all ingredients except for chocolate chips into your blender (Vitamix) or food processor. I highly recommend a great blender like the Vitamix so you get a perfectly smooth consistency.
- Blend until creamy and smooth.
- Once smooth, add chocolate chips and mix by hand.
- Pour mixture into your prepared pan and spread out evenly.
- Sprinkle a few more chocolate chips and sea salt on top.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 20-30 mintues until the edges just pull away from the pan, the top is set and slightly golden brown.
- Let cool for at least 15 minutes, then enjoy!
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You can eat them cold or warm in the microwave for 15 seconds to regain the fresh-from-the-oven deliciousness!
Video
Notes
Ingredient Substitutions
- Chickpeas. Great Northern Beans (white beans, Cannellini beans) also work well in this recipe! However, chickpeas (garbanzo beans} are my favorites!
- Peanut butter. Any nut or seed butter works well in place of peanut butter.
- Honey. Use pure maple syrup for a vegan variety.
- Coconut sugar. Any granulated sugar works well in this recipe. I prefer coconut sugar because it is unrefined.
- Almond milk. Any non-dairy or regular dairy-full milk can be used in this recipe. I have also used non-dairy creamer.
Store/freeze
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Reheat in the microwave or oven or enjoy them cold (they are delicious cold too).Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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wow yummy!! I love that you did these in a blender too. What a great shortcut to doing baking! and they are healthy too = bonus! Thanks for linking #YumTum
Well, these were awesome! They were my first baking endeavour with chickpeas (very odd at first I thought to try), but they were great. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks so much Steven! I’m so SO glad that you enjoyed them! Thank you for taking the time to let me know how this recipe went for you…it truly means so much! Chickpeas…who knew right?! 🙂
I saw healthy and had to take a double look at the picture cause these look to0 good to be healthy. I am going to have to make these!
Thank you Tasha!! I love making healthy food FUN! 🙂
Girl! I’m right there with you on dessert after dinner. UGH I can’t stop.
I won’t stop.
xx
These look delicious – hopefully they solve all life’s problems.
LOL Liz! Don’t stop…eat it eat it.
Wow! I am so impressed! These look amazing and I had no idea that they had beans in them till I read the second paragraph! I am a fan of dessert everyday, I will have to try these out!
Thanks so much Kristen! A day isn’t complete without dessert! 🙂 The best part is you would never know there are beans in them…they taste like peanut butter cookie dough! 🙂
I’ve made a lot of those chickpea blondies too- but I am excited to try this tweaked version! They look yummy!
Thank you Emma! I’ve tried so many recipes that I’ve liked…but I love these!!! 🙂 I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 🙂
I love blondies of every sort – these look lovely and naturally healthier is cool!
Blondies are awesome!! 🙂 Thank you!
HOLY MOLY DO THESE LOOK GOOD! you can never go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate chunks! I love the use of chickpeas!
Thank you so much and amen!!! 🙂 There really isn’t a better combination (in my opinion)! 😉
These look phenomenal! I’ve tried baking with chickpeas before with little success so I’m super excited to try these. Thanks for posting!
Thank you Jess! 🙂 Don’t give up on chickpeas! 😉 If you give them a try I’d love to hear how they turned out for you!
Hi could this recipe work if i used pumpkin purre instead of the chickpeas?
Hello! I actually tried that and it was NOT good! 😉 So no, I do not recommend using pumpkin puree!
What if I used chickpea flour, how much should I use? Same weight?
Hey Kim! I have not tried using chickpea flour so I couldn’t say for certain it would be an acceptable substitution for the real thing!
Dropping by from Thursday Favorite Things~
Your blondies look delicious!
Thank you Lynn! 🙂