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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What chocolate chips/chunks do you use to make this dairy free?
I use Enjoy Life mini-chocolate chips and/or chunks. They are dairy, soy and nut free.
Made it today and I loved it!! Thank you Laura
Hi Laura! Can’t wait to try these!! I was just wondering I have a 15 oz can of chickpeas but when I weighed them out after draining the water it came to 8.5 oz. Do you use one can or two?
Thank you, Kristy
One can of chickpeas!
These were really nice. I left out the sugar and used honey.
To make this dairy-free, should I find dairy-free chocolate chips? Can I find that in a regular grocery store? Can’t wait to try these
Hey Valarie! YES! Many brands of chocolate chips are dairy free! Be sure to stick with dark chocolate varieties (e.g avoid *milk* chocolate) 😉 Guittard, Ghirardelli, Enjoy Life foods, Kirkland semi-sweet chocolate chips (Costco), etc.! Be sure to read the ingredient list and remember cocoa butter is dairy free!
Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips are dairy free.
How did you get these to rise so much? like mine rose a little but aren’t nice and gooey looking 🙁 i had to use just white sugar could that be it? or maybe just bad baking soda? i had this problem when i tried to make these from a conpletely different recipe. is it just me lol
I never review recipies and felt compelled to do so in this case. These were amazing! It was the 1st time baking with garbanzo beans (have used black beans) and I seriously could have eaten the whole pan!! We subbed almond butter for the peanut butter due to allergies and had no issues. Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe!! 🙂
Could almond butter be used instead of peanut butter. I am sensitive to peanut butter. Thanks!
Hello Alicia! Yes! Almond butter should work great in this recipe!
Have you ever tried this with PB2? Just wondering if it would turn out…..
I don’t have a Vitamix. Would an immersion blender stick work?