These shockingly rich and gooey chocolate chip chickpea blondies are one of the most popular recipes I’ve ever posted!
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Even readers who don’t normally like healthy desserts LOVE these blondies!
Have you tried them yet???
In the years since first coming up with the recipe, I’ve served it probably over a hundred times to both strangers and friends, always with rave reviews.
No one can ever believe the ingredients or resist the charms of the moist and fudgy secretly healthy blondies.
Also try these Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
No dairy
No butter
No eggs!
White Bean Blondies
The recipe works with either chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or white beans like cannellini (white kidney beans) or great northern beans.
I like both versions equally, but many readers say they prefer using white beans because the resulting batter is smoother.
*Sugar note: You can use regular sugar, coconut sugar or date sugar, brown sugar, evaporated cane juice, or xylitol or granulated erythritol for sugar free blondies.
I once made a batch using stevia, which I thought were delicious. But my friends informed me they tasted like bars of soap. So make that substitution at your own risk!
For refined-sugar-free blondies, try these Sweet Potato Blondies
Above, watch the chickpea blondie recipe video
How to make chickpea blondies
Start by gathering all of the required ingredients.
If using canned beans instead of cooked, be sure to rinse and drain them very well.
(The drained liquid can actually be used to make Vegan Marshmallow Fluff!)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Blend everything together except the chocolate chips until it resembles cookie dough.
I use and recommend a food processor for smoothest blending and best texture, but some readers say they’ve used a blender (making sure to stop the machine and stir the contents occasionally) with good results.
Stir the chocolate chips into the batter, and smooth into a greased or parchment-lined 8-inch pan. Add a few chocolate chips to the top if desired.
Bake 30 minutes on the oven’s center rack, then remove while they’re still a bit gooey, because they will firm up as they cool.
Chickpea Blondies
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas or white beans, or 1 1/2 cups cooked
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp each: salt and baking soda
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar of choice (Substitutions are listed above)
- 1/3 cup flour (white, oat, spelt, sorghum, or 1/2 cup almond flour)
- 1/4 cup applesauce, mashed banana, or yogurt
- 3 tbsp oil or 1/4 cup nut butter
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips, or more if desired
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain and rinse beans very well. Blend all ingredients (except chips) until very smooth in a good food processor (see not above about using a blender). Mix in chips, and scoop into a greased or parchment-lined 8×8 pan. Optional: you can stick some chocolate chips on top of the batter as well. Bake for 30 minutes. They'll look a little undercooked when you take them out, but they firm up as they cool.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Healthy Chickpea Desserts
Flourless Banana Blender Muffins
Such a fan, Katie! I’d buy up a cookbook of yours in a heartbeat. This is my first comment on any recipe blog, which I discovered the wonders of thanks to foodgawker, and I just wanted to say these are divine! I’m also eating one of your fudgsicles while I type 🙂
My poor blender couldn’t handle the beans so an egg beater and a little determination got the job done. No way I was quitting on these delicious things lol. I also used 30g of wholemeal flour instead of flax seed meal and they turned out perfectly delicious. Every night I make some healthy dessert, usually from CCK, and get to shock my family with the secret ingredients hahaha. (“Chick peas? In these? That’s so gross… pass me another one!”)
Wow, Laurel, that pretty much is one of the most meaningful comments ever! The fact that you’ve never commented on a blog before, but took the time to do so here, means SO much to me. I can’t even tell you how much! Thank you :).
Hi Katie, I have been making your fudge babies and absolutely love them. Im now off to make some more of your delish recipes. My only question is are there any plans on providing the nutritional content for these recipes? I know they are all natural and fab ingredients but one who is watching her waist line (and suger levels) wants to know HOW much of a good thing I can have..hehe Also In some recipeswhere you have suger can one substitute dates for them? Thanks so much Im loving your blog.
I’m confused… most of my recipes (especially the more-recent ones) already have the nutritional info listed.
I’m sure you can substitute dates for sugar in some recipes. I think it depends on the recipe, and you’ll have to experiment.
Hey Katie,
You’ve seriously just saved my morning! I’m procrastinating studying for an exam tomorrow, it’s only 9.40am and I’ve already cooked and eaten 1/4 of these blondies. So good! I’d never have thought of using chickpeas as a base, you’re a fricken genius.
Jess
LOL! Eating baked goods is seriously my favorite form of procrastination too! Procrastination from writing, from running, even from writing posts!
I made this recipe, and I don’t know what kind of taste buds you guys have, but obviously mine aren’t cut out for “hummus blondies.” They literally smelled and tasted like garbanzo beans, which I normally love outside of dessert.
These are the BEST THINGS I have EVER made!!!!! I cannot believe they are not filled with butter and cream and eggs! Katie, you are a GENIUS! My entire family gobbled these things up almost as quickly as I put them on the table, and no one even believed me when I said they were vegan and healthier than normal blondies. And my dad, who HATES beans, had three of them! Thank you so much for what is now my family’s FAVORITE dessert!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! 🙂
I just made these, and WOW. That’s all I can think to say. WOW.
And WOW a few more times.
Now I just have to find a good hiding spot so no one else will discover them and eat them all!
I love to bake and am trying to transition to gluten-free/vegan ways — substituted white beans (as mentioned in the snickerdoodle reviews, I think) and used 1/2 pb, 1/2 applesauce — doubled the recipe and added extra choc chips — and they turned out just AWFUL!! I love the black bean brownies, but these bars tasted just like beans — I cooked them a lot longer than the directions indicated, and still they were really gooey (I love a gooey bar, but these were beyond gooey — and beany…). I will try the recipe as written next time, but any thoughts as to why these turned out so horribly wrong?!?
Hi Sharon,
Unfortunately, as I cautioned in my lower-calorie notes, I only think the blondies will be good with all the fat. I wouldn’t sub 1/2 with applesauce. You need a little fat for flavor, and also the pb will make them much drier (less gooey) than if you sub extra applesauce. Hopefully that’ll fix the problem! 🙂 (If not, maybe the recipe is just not your thing… that’s ok too!)
hi- quick q.
1 1/2 cup of beans is 12oz= 340g u wrote “250g”
which is it?
If you measure out a 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans (drained), it will weigh around 80 grams. So 1 and 1/2 cups will weigh around 240 grams.
Ahem… Hello again 😀
My other brother… I have 4 brothers by the way. Came by last night as a surprise for me from Costa Rica with his newborn baby and fiance. They are moving to New Mexico this Wed and I’ve been wanting to make these blondies or the deep dish cookie pie when everyone is here and this is so the last minute and Im going to make them tomorrow! So, I was wondering If I could just mush them with a large spoon or the smasher -the ones you use to mush potatoes and such?- :p or does it have to be with a processor? I have a processor, i’m just too lazy to clean it up. LOL But If I have to use it, then I will because I REALLY want to FINALLY try these guys. Also, do you think wheat germ might work well instead of flax? Only because I dont have any in hand besides old fashioned oat which i can process into flour but then my mother and I wont have anything for breakfast If i keep using the oats that way lol…
Hmmm… I think they’d be pretty chunky without a food processor, and maybe weird… but you can try it if you want. And lol let me know how it goes!
As for the flax, you can definitely sub wheat germ! 🙂
I have a pan of these in the oven right now, and oh my word, if they taste as good cooked as the batter does, then I’m going to struggle resisting eating all of them right away! I’m on a diet and bless you for inventing nummy treats I don’t have to feel guilty about!
Eeeeee I hope you like them! Hehe I sometimes just eat the filling. Forget cooking them ;).
Hi Katie, just wanted to let you know that I used oat bran instead of flax seeds and they came out great. I have found that these taste better when cold! I also think these are great for breakfast, they are filling with all that healthy protein, and though it does have added sugar, so does whole wheat bread (I usually eat peanut butter toast in the morning.)
Thanks!
I love oat bran… why do I never remember to cook with it?! Your oat bran idea sounds delicious!
haha thanks Katie, but it was your idea! You had said that you thought it would work, but hadn´t tried it. So thank you for the idea! I would recomend it, oat bran is so good for us!
Katie (I know you get this a lot), but I LOVE your recipes. I’m a long distance runner, and I made these for my team as a snack after a 12 mile run. 🙂 NOBODY guessed that they were made out of beans.
Thank you!! And I’m always inspired by long-distance runners… lol 8 miles is a long run for me!
I just discovered your site this week! I am always looking for healthy recipes. I made these, they are superb! My husband and 4-year-old son gobbled them up, I kept the chickpeas a secret…I’m going to try the PB and J ones next maybe, and Fudge Babies I think. Thank you!
Aw, thank YOU for trying them! I am so glad you found my site! 🙂
Epic fail times two.
First batch? I ate raw. the entire bowl. It never made it into the baking pan. Ok, not so much of a fail really, but not quite the baked yummy I was intending.
Second batch? I use Better Butter which is made from defatted peanuts. So I added about a tablespoon of coconut oil for the fat. After an hour in the oven they were still *boiling* so I pulled them out. Still not a total fail as I made some gooey delight that resembles a hybrid between the filling in truffles and taffy…
Third time is a charm. It has to be. Going to Trader Joes tomorrow to find some real peanut butter!
Hi Katie! I just got into your blog and omg you are a freakin mastermind! These are the best blondies I’ve ever made! The best part is that they’re vegan! The only thing I had trouble with was blending everything together. Whew! But worth it. Thanks alot for the recipe!