Blondies – easy, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and very yummy!
My kids and I love the blondies from Simple Pleasures bakery which is inside a gluten-free Indian buffet restaurant that we love, Earthen Jar, here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Out of love of their blondies, I started experimenting with making my own blondies at home.
These are very easy to make, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and delicious! And they mix up really, really quickly!
They are very gooey and dough-like when they first come out of the oven. Later on in the refrigerator they firm up a bit.
I haven’t tried making a nut-free version, but you should be able to replace the nuts with soybutter or Wowbutter. If you do that, please post here about how it worked! Sometimes nut-free nut-butters turn baked goods green (!!) , so you would want to try baking this first for people who don’t mind unexpectedly green food. Or bake it for Halloween or Saint Patrick’s Day. :)
You can use other beans in this recipe instead of the white beans. Darker beans taste fine, but they visually look chocolatey, and if your eaters think that these look like chocolate but actually they aren’t, that sets them up to be disappointed. Chickpeas in this recipe taste a bit like hummus, and, while I love hummus, it is decidedly strange in blondies, so I don’t recommend using them here. So my suggestion is to use white beans, but it’s definitely okay to experiment.
This recipe is loosely based on Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies with Sea Salt from Ambitious Kitchen. I’ve changed which type of beans to use, removed salt, added ground flaxseed to make the blondies more cohesive, and removed baking soda and baking powder. Whew!
Yum!!!
On another topic: If you do a web search for “Valerie’s Recipes,” Google can’t find it. I think the problem is that too many websites have similar names. So I am thinking about renaming this blog to have a more unique name that Google might find. Maybe “The Painted Lentil” — or “The Lentil Rainbow” — or “The Rainbow Lentil”? What do you think?
Blondies - easy, healthy, vegan, and gluten-free!
Ingredients
- 1 15- ounce can white beans such as cannellini, great northern, or navy beans (or 1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled white beans -- cooled because you don't want the batter to melt the chocolate chips) (don't use chickpeas unless you want your blondies to taste like hummus)
- 1/2 cup of pecans or other nuts, or nut butter such as almond butter or peanut butter
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup or agave nectar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds optional - helps keep the blondies from falling apart
- a few drops of oil or some gluten-free cooking spray
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips such as Equal Exchange which are fair trade and organic
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spread a few drops of oil around in an 8x8 inch pan (I like to use a silicone pastry brush for this) or spray on some gluten-free oil.
- In a food processor or blender, mix all ingredients except for the chocolate chips.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Variation: Make mini-muffins by putting pieces of dough the size of ping-pong balls into an oiled mini-muffin tin, and bake for 14 minutes.
- Serve warm (which is super yummy, but they will fall apart) or after refrigeration (also good, and much more cohesive).
I like the Rainbow Lentil. :)
The blondies look good. Wonder of boys would try it if I make them??