Chickpea peanut butter blondies

With my granddaughter coming for an overnight, I was looking for a quick, (healthy) dessert to throw together, and I remembered a recipe for flourless chickpea blondies with sea salt I had saved. As I gathered the ingredients together, I began to realize I hadn't really read through the recipe carefully before deciding to make it. I knew it had chickpeas and peanut butter, but had somehow missed the true meaning of the 'flourless' part. In addition to the two ingredients mentioned, there was a small amount of maple syrup, and the usual incidentals like salt, leavening and vanilla — and, of course, chocolate chips — but no flour. None. I couldn't believe the recipe would work, so I added 1/4 cup GF flour mix just to ease my mind, but I wouldn't do that again because it's probably not necessary.



Before writing this post, I googled 'chickpea peanut butter blondies', and as you might expect, a ton of recipes popped up, some exactly the same as the one I had followed, and many others with only a slight change to one ingredient or another. I looked at recipes dating back to 2009. Only one of the blogs and videos I looked at gave credit either for the recipe, or for inspiration, even though the recipes were essentially the same. (This is something that drives me a more than a little crazy, but it's a topic for another day.) Since the recipe is obviously not a secret, I'm going to mention I found it here, and just go ahead and list the ingredients I used, minus the flour, which I now believe you don't need. My 8-year-old granddaughter, by the way, loved the blondies. She ate one as an appetizer before dinner, one for dessert, and two for breakfast. (Don't be upset about breakfast. She also had blueberries, cereal and almond milk.)

Flourless chickpea peanut butter chocolate chip blondies
 (makes 16)

• oil for the pan
• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup all natural peanut butter
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup or agave nectar (You may need to add more sweetener. You can add up to 1/4 cup natural sugar, or, 15 drops of pure stevia.)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips plus 2 tablespoons
• coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and oil an 8x8-inch pan. 
2. Place chickpeas, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a food processor bowl, and process until the batter is smooth. Taste the batter for sweetness, and if not sweet enough for your taste, add sugar or stevia as suggested in the ingredients list.
3. Fold in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. 
4. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips on top, and gently press partly into the batter.  
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the edges are a bit brown. The batter may look underdone, but that's as it should be.
   Cool the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Sprinkle very lightly with coarse sea salt and cut into 16 squares. 

If you, like me, somehow missed the recipe in the many times it's circled the blogosphere, now is your chance to catch up!