These peanut butter chickpea blondies are gooey, delicious, and made with no refined sugar. They’re nutritious enough to enjoy as a mid-afternoon snack and rich enough for an after-dinner dessert! And these healthy peanut butter blondies happen to be flourless, naturally gluten-free, and vegan, too.
A couple of months ago, I joined my friend, Riley, for a mini staycation while she was housesitting for a family friend. We played with their dogs, went for a long run on the American Tobacco Trail nearby, taste-tested the 3 kinds of mint chocolate chip ice cream in their freezer (they were happy to share their food!), shopped at the outlet mall, and had a fun staycation.
Riley brought these peanut butter chickpea blondies to share and they were soo good. Like usual, I was a bit skeptical of any dessert that’s “healthy,” but I liked these enough to make them myself several more times, and I’ll keep making them in the future!
These peanut butter blondies do have chickpeas in them, but they don’t have a chickpea taste, fortunately. The ingredients (chickpeas, peanut butter, maple syrup) magically turn into a soft, gooey blondie.
It’s just a bonus that these flourless blondies have nutrients like fiber, protein, and healthy fat from the peanut butter.
I don’t think dessert need to be healthy– I eat ice cream a few times per week just because I love it! But I’m always up for trying a healthier dessert as long as it doesn’t have crazy expensive ingredients and it tastes good. (I’d honestly rather just eat fruit rather than eat a healthy dessert that tastes bad.)
They’re good both hot out of the oven and later at room temperature or refrigerated. They don’t taste exactly like traditional blondies and are a bit softer, but I think they’re great for a healthy treat.
You can make the blondie batter in either a food processor or a somewhat powerful blender. I actually made these twice to test how powerful the blender needs to be. The first time was in my family’s Vitamix blender, and that definitely did the job.
The second time was with the much less expensive (but still pretty good) blender in my dorm room. I had to stop the less powerful blender to stir a few times, but it ended up doing the job. You definitely want the blondie batter to be smooth and mixed well!
Since I love to bake and find it really relaxing, I’m always looking for new recipes to try, and it’s nice to have some healthier treat recipes in my arsenal.
Most weeks, I make some kind of healthy baked good/snack like baked oatmeal or energy bites, in addition to making one or two main dish recipes for dinner.
You can read more about how I loosely meal prep here, if you’re interested! I’ll be adding these peanut butter chickpeas to the rotation. 🙂
If you try these healthy peanut butter chickpea blondies, let me know in a comment or take a photo and tag me @livbane on Instagram!
Peanut Butter Chickpea Blondies
Ingredients
- 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 5 Tbsp. pure maple syrup or honey scant
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. natural peanut butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt (add extra 1/8 tsp. if using unsalted peanut butter)
- 1/2 cup semisweet or dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add chickpeas, maple syrup, peanut butter, and vanilla to a powerful blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, and then add salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and blend again. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper and spread cookie dough into an even layer. Sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes, until the top is just beginning to slightly brown or a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean.
Notes
Nutrition
Source: My friend’s recipe was originally from Ambitious Kitchen, and we tweaked it slightly to add more peanut butter and chocolate (and slightly lessen the amount of maple syrup), although I’ve seen chickpea blondies recipes floating around for years, so there are quite a few similar ones out there (ex: here, here).
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The tobacco trail was my favorite place for long runs when I was training for Tobacco Road – love that trail! Helped me clear my mind from grad school craziness. Love that you addd peanut butter in here 🙂
Yes!! I love that trail and the fact that we went to school at the same place!! Go Heels!!
I have never purchased chick peas, but if you can’t taste them in this recipe, I need to try it. Using dark chocolate, it sounds as though the brownies would be wholesome.
Yes! They’re pretty good for you! 🙂
I absolutely love stay cations. We had a little bit of that this month when my dad was gone in Africa. And I LOVE that you baked together. That’s one of my favorite bonding activities. These look insanely DELICIOUS and fudgy.
Yes!! Staycations are so fun- you can turn anywhere into a vacation 🙂
Dropping by to say thank you for sharing this recipe. We tried making this last Saturday and it was delicious. The kids had a great time following the recipe.
Hi, Sheila! Thanks so much for letting me know! I’m so happy that you and your kids enjoyed this recipe 🙂
Just tried these tonight with using natural ground almond butter and unsweetened chocolate chips. Came out fantastic, although a tad salty, but I believe that’s from using unsweetened chocolate. I think I’ll cut the salt in half next time to compensate, but definitely on my desert rotation from now on!
So glad to hear you enjoyed these and thanks for the tip about the unsweetened chocolate!
I followed the recipe exactly and baked them according to directions. They came out much too gooey. There is such a thing as under baked. They are delicious but I think I will add ten more minutes to the baking time. Did anyone else have this problem?
Hi Liv,
I am a long time reader, first time commenter. Your chickpea blondies look amazing. I will have to try them! They would also be good made into chocolate mint brownies – just add cocoa powder and a few drops of mint.
Hi Kimberly! Thanks for reading and for commenting!! Hope you enjoy the chickpea blondies 🙂
I made this today with almond butter. It was good. But, it was little soft. I feel, may be I could have cooked for another 5 min. I would do it again,
I’m glad you enjoyed these! It sounds like they may need a bit longer in the oven (although they are a softer blondie in general)!
Well I’m probably never making cookies or blondies the “real” way again! These were so delicious and easy! I didn’t tell my husband what was in them until after he finished one. He shrugged, got a glass of milk, and helped himself to another. I’m trying it with cocoa powder mixed into the batter right now to see if I can produce a healthy brownie, too!
Haha! So happy to hear that you and your husband enjoyed these. How did they turn out with the cocoa powder added?
I subbed in almond butter because I’m allergic to peanuts and added 2tbs cocoa powder to make them brownies. I also had to bake them for about 30 mins because the almond butter is runny but they came out really good! Still gooey.
Thanks so much for sharing your version! Sounds delicious 🙂
My brand new blender couldn’t blend the mixture as it was so thick. Had to add water. Made soups and pesto with the blender and worked beautifully. Maybe mine just cant handle the peanut butter?!
Just made these with chopped pecans instead of chocolate chips (& only 1/4c maple syrup bc I ran out). SO GOOD!! I would even just eat a bowl of the dough. My kids loved them too.
So glad you and your kids love these blondies, Jane!!
Hey, Liv! How long do you think these will last if I store them in the fridge?
Hi Heather! I’d say they’d be good for over a week! They’d taste fresh for about 1-2 weeks 🙂
Excited to try! Are these better with a Skippy/Jif brand peanut butter or will natural peanut butter work too?
Hey Allison! I use natural peanut butter!
Oh my gosh! I just made these with butter beans rather than chickpeas (as I didn’t have any in the cupboard) and can say that they are just delightful. Excellent recipe, thank you!
I’m so glad to hear it, Tara! Great to know that they’ll work with butter beans, too 🙂
I have been looking for chickpea recipes to recommend to folks that come to a food bank our church has. I noticed that people were leaving the chickpeas because they didn’t know what to do with them. So this month I am taking samples of your blondies, slightly modified so all ingredients would be things on their shelves. (Sugar and water instead of maple syrup) Thanks for a great recipe.
Tried these with all organic ingredients & added shredded coconut 👍🏼👍🏼
Would love to find a replacement for the maple syrup to keep the sugar content even lower.
These were great thanks for sharing! ✌🏼
So glad you enjoyed these blondies!