These peanut butter chickpea blondies are a healthy and high protein treat when your sugar cravings strike. They’re vegan, gluten free and only take about 10 minutes of prep!
Chickpea cookie dough, chickpea cookies, now chickpea blondies! This has been a very highly requested recipe, but I can’t wait for you to try them.
If you’re new to putting chickpeas in desserts, it might seem totally strange and all sorts of wrong, but I promise, it’s gooooood. They make these blondies super rich and and fudgy without the need for any oil or too much added sugar.
These blondies are naturally vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free and only take about 10 minutes of prep. All you need is a food processor or high speed blender and a few simple pantry staple ingredients.
Key Ingredients
Chickpeas. While chickpeas make up the base of this recipe, you can really use any small white bean like navy beans, cannellini etc. Just be sure to rinse them really well so there is no strong bean flavor.
Peanut Butter. I love using peanut butter in these chickpea blondies because it completely masks the flavor of the beans, but any nut or seed butter will work!
Almond Flour. If you need to make these tree nut free, just sub for oat flour!
Tapioca Starch. I prefer the texture of the chickpea blondies when I use tapioca starch, but arrowroot or cornstarch will also work.
Maple Syrup. This adds nice sweetness and even a bit of maple flavor!
Granulated Sugar. I like using regular white sugar so the color isn’t too dark, but brown sugar or coconut sugar will also work.
I do not recommend subbing the granulated sugar for more maple syrup because the liquid to flour ratio will be off.
How to make chickpea blondies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper.
Drain and rinse the chickpeas really well and add to a food processor.
Add all remaining ingredients aside from the chocolate chips and process until smooth.
Pulse in the chocolate chips just to combine, or stir in with a spoon.
Transfer to the lined baking pan and spread until smooth on top. It can be sticky, so it helps to spray a rubber spatula with oil before spreading.
Sprinkle on a few more chocolate chips on top.
Bake for 28-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. if you like a more gooey center, bake for less time.
Let cool completely before slicing or they will crumble easily. I suggest leaving in the pan for about 20 minutes, then lifting them out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
How to store and freeze
I like to store these blondies in the fridge where they will keep for about 5 days, or 3 days at room temperature. Let them cool completely, then store in a container!
You can also freeze them for up to 2 months and let defrost at room temperature when you’re ready to eat.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make these without peanut butter?
You can easily sub the peanut butter for any other nut or seed butter you like. My personal favorites are almond, cashew or sunflower.
If you use sunflower seed butter and tahini and sub the almond flour for oat flour, these will be completely nut free!
Can you taste chickpeas in dessert?
No! I promise, these chickpea blondies don’t actually taste anything like chickpeas. They taste like any other classic blondie made with eggs, butter etc!
The nut butter, maple syrup, vanilla and chocolate chips will completely mask any chickpea flavor.
Why are my blondies dry?
I promise, if you follow the recipe, these chickpea blondies will not be dry! The maple syrup, nut butter and chickpeas add a lot of moisture.
Plus, we aren’t using “regular” flour, just almond flour, which will prevent a dry texture. Just be sure you don’t over bake these if you like a more gooey center.
Other healthy desserts
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Peanut Butter Chickpea Blondies
by: claire cary
Ingredients
- 1 15 ounce can chickpeas
- ⅔ cup creamy natural peanut butter just peanuts + salt
- ⅓ cup almond flour can sub oat flour
- 2 tbsp tapioca starch
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ⅓ cup sugar of choice brown, coconut, white etc
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- optional: 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas really well and add to a food processor.
- Add all remaining ingredients aside from the chocolate chips and process until smooth.
- Pulse in the chocolate chips just to combine, or stir in with a spoon.
- Transfer to the lined baking pan and spread until smooth on top. It can be sticky, so it helps to spray a rubber spatula with oil before spreading.
- Sprinkle on a few more chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 28-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. if you like a more gooey center, bake for less time.
- Let cool completely before slicing or they will crumble easily. I suggest leaving in the pan for about 20 minutes, then lifting them out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
VANESSA says
WOW! Absolutely delicious. I didn’t have almond flour, so I used coc9nut flour, and added apple sauce (saw it somewhere, in another recipe). Outside of that, followed the directions to a T. This is definitely a keeper, I loved it. As soon as I tasted the batter, I knew I couldn’t wait to try them when they were fresh from the oven!
Claire Cary says
Glad it worked with coconut flour, that’s usually not a safe sub! So glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Karagan says
These were awesome! 28 minutes was the perfect time to get them just slightly gooey, which is my favorite. I definitely will make again!
Claire Cary says
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed these.
julia says
my new favorite! i used coconut sugar and corn starch
it turned out perfectly yummy!
Claire Cary says
Perfect! So happy you enjoyed them!
Olivia says
Absolutely delicious! I’m going to add this to our list of healthy treat recipes! I used cornstarch and coconut sugar and it worked beautifully!