PB Blondies
Photo via The Comfort of Cooking
So these little gems have been all.the.rage this week after K&K’s member email this week. But they’ve actually been floating around Pinterest & other clean eating & vegan blogs for the last few years…Can I just say I fell in LOVE with this snack/dessert after one of the lovely #TIUSanDiego beach babes brought these to our Halloween potluck!! Seriously, they are SO GOOD. I’ve made them twice since then, and have to freeze some or I eat the whole pan in like two days. I posted these on my Instagram a few weeks ago, and had a blog post pending, but K&K’s blast beat mine to the punch! It’s actually the exact recipe I used off Pinterest, so I’m sharing Ambitious Kitchen‘s recipe, to stay loyal to the original blog I followed to make these. Have to give them the original credit on this one, as they posted it back in April!
With that, you can see you definitely don’t have to be a member of the TIU plan to find this recipe…if you literally type “peanut butter garbanzo bean cookies” or “peanut butter garbanzo bean blondies” into google here are your results –
Yep, you’re seeing that right, 164,000 results in .31 seconds! Now THAT is a recipe that’s clearly a hit. I’m actually a little sad for the original baker of this recipe, because clearly it’s been ripped off and recreated thousands of times. But, amen to whoever you are because these are AMAZE and I never in a million years would have thought garbanzo beans + peanut butter would make such delicious blondies. Also, whoever you are, thank you, again, because you’ve made me realize I can use garbanzo bean flour ($2.99 compared to $17.99 quinoa flour) as a flour substitute in all my baking recipes! I’m not sure if you were Ambitious Kitchen or not, but that’s where I first found this clean, clever recipe, so my love in this post is to you, Monique!!
The best part about these PB blondies is they have like 5 ingredients and are clean, healthy, AND delish. There are a ton of variations in baking techniques, but when I make them I use a square pan and bake them like brownies. You can also roll them up as cookies or bake as muffins, too!
Photo via Ambitious Kitchen
Sooo, without further ado, this vegan, gluten-free & healthy PB Blondies recipe from Ambitious Kitchen titled “Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies with Sea Salt“ is the one I’ve been using for a while, I just leave off 1/2 the salt in the dough, and leave off the sea salt on top, because I find PB salty enough…
- Cooking Spray (I use coconut oil)
- 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup all natural almond butter or peanut butter
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or agave nectar (you can also use honey if you’re not vegan)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup vegan (or regular) chocolate chips plus 2 tablespoons
- sea salt, for sprinkling (I leave off, as I think they are salty enough)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray 8×8 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a food processor, add all ingredients except chocolate chips and process until batter is smooth. Fold in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips, I like to use dark chocolate because it has less sugar but it’s up to you. Note: Batter will be thick and super delicious, so you could actually just eat it on it’s own!
- Spread batter evenly in prepared pan then sprinkle 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips on top. (The batter may stick to your spatula, so I like to spray my spatula with nonstick cooking spray first.) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and edges are a tiny bit brown. The batter may look underdone, but you don’t want them to dry out!
- Cool pan for 20 minutes on wire rack. Sprinkle with sea salt then cut into squares. Makes 16 blondies.
- Adding an egg to the batter will make it more cake-like, but not vegan.
- You can use your favorite nut butter, just make sure it’s all natural.
- Feel free to add in other things according to your dietary needs like nuts, dried fruit, or other types of chocolate (I LOVE using M&Ms!)
salty sweet seasons 
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