I have a sweet tooth, but I always try to be mindful of what I eat and find healthy alternatives, so these secret ingredient blondies are perfect. I also have friends who are gluten free, so when I heard that there was a secret ingredient that could replace the flour in blondies I was all over it. I first heard about using garbanzo beans in a blondie recipe on food network’s The Kitchen, but they didn’t give a recipe, so I was on my own. Low and behold, I searched the internet and found a lot of recipes! I drew inspiration from the one I liked best and came up with this recipe for these secret ingredient blondies.
You’d never guess these were completely gluten free and healthy! My boyfriend had no idea they were packed with fiber and protein from garbanzo beans until I told him! If I can fool him, you can fool anyone! Side note, these are almost vegan and can very easily be made vegan friendly without the butter and with coco nibs instead of chocolate chips! So sit back, indulge, and enjoy this completely guilt free recipe!
Secret Ingredient Blondies’ Ingredients:
- 1 (15 oz.) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I used salted chunky)
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 tbs room temperature salted butter
In a food processor, add all ingredients except chocolate chips. Process until batter is smooth. It’s honestly like a sweet hummus at this point! It sounds gross but it’s pretty good. If you did want to eat this batter totally raw, take out the baking powder and baking soda.
Mix in the softened butter, then fold in the chocolate chips until fully combine. Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. I always use Trader Joe’s coconut oil spray, but you can use whatever you have on hand! Once you’ve poured the batter in the baking dish, shake the pan around a little to even out the distribution. Because these don’t have a lot of oil and no eggs, they don’t spread and even themselves out in the oven.
Bake for 25-28 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick comes out clean and edges are very light brown.
Let cool completely on a wire rack and then cut into bars. NOTE** You may want to dig into these secret ingredient blondies immediately, but if you do it will be very messy and hard to eat. Because there is no gluten in this recipe, they need to cool completely before they hold together. Store these in the fridge, and enjoy!