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 9x13" 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
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Laura
I used lakanto monkfruit sugar, lakanto maple syrup and Lily sugar free chocolate chips. Before it was baked I was hesitant to taste it due to the knowledge it was garbanzo beans... but it was yummy, like cookie dough. After baking, I wasn't sure about how it tasted, but it actually grew on me after a few bites and find it a good alternative to dessert. I still think I liked it better unbaked. I'm looking forward to trying your other recipes.
Jill
Wow’. Amazing!
Why do they need to be refrigerated?
Angie
I replaced the almond milk with the liquid in the chickpea can and was happy with the results. Since only 1 TBS is required, I’m guessing the almond milk is for consistency more than flavor .
Sarah Goodner
These are amazing! If I hadn't made them myself, I'd never know that the base was chickpeas. They are very soft, so just expect that they are warm, gooey, delicious treats. I tricked my kids into eating "dessert" for dinner!
Stephen Sullivan
HI!
I've loved making your recipes! (I think my family loves it even more... lol)
I'm just curious about the healthiness factor of these recipes... for instance this recipe is 16g of sugar per serving? That seems rather large for a healthy dessert..
Do you just not consume as much sugar through the rest of the day, so this would be a 'splurge' within the limits of your daily sugar intake?
Is the sugar amount wrong?
Just trying to figure it out because I would love to continue to make these consistently.
Thank you so much and God Bless! 🙂
ana
hi i absolutely love these they are delicious i want to make them for my mom but she doesn’t really like chocolate chips what can i substitute chocolate chips with and would it really change the way it taste?
Laura
Yes you can either omit the chocolate chips or use any other kind of add-in you think she would enjoy!
ally
These blondies look great! I don't have honey or maple syrup, could I substitute sugar for this instead?
Laura
If you use sugar you may need to add a few TBS of almond milk for moisture.
Stacey Keenan
Truly great! I didn’t tell my family what was in them until after they ate them. No one could believe it! So moist and yummy! Will definitely make again. Thanks!
Laura
Smart move!!! LOL! 🙂