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
I just wanted to take a minute and tell you what a hit these are with my whole family. They are extra special to me because they are one of the first treats I have made for my daughter, who was diagnosed this year with Type 1 diabetes, that I can give her guilt free and know they won’t spike her blood sugar. For that, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU!
Aw Lisa, that just put the biggest smile on my face :).
Dear Katie,
I have made these bars twice and I love them! However, I will be making these for my friends and they don’t like mushy textures. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to make these blondies firmer?
I just made the Blondies and the chocolate chip cookie dough dip and both are so good!! I really didn’t think I would like them. It seems everytime I try a “Healthy Recipe” I think it is disgusting!! These are amazing. I will def. be trying more recipes on you site!!!! Thank you!
Aw so glad you liked them!! 🙂
Hey Katie! I am so making these!! Do you know if anyone has tried subbing banana for the brown sugar? I may try that but wasn’t sure what ratios would work. Thanks so much for another great recipe!!
Sorry, I haven’t tried. Let me know if you experiment!
I tried these with a ripe banana and 1/4 cup of dates (unsoaked). When I tasted the batter though it didn’t seem sweet enough – it actually tasted kind of bad – so I kept adding agave nectar until it tasted good (it ended up being about 3 Tbsp). So next time I think I’d omit the banana and dates and just sub about 1/4 cup agave for the sugar, if agave works for you.
These are truly supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (That’s my favorite word, and the only way to aptly describe these wonderful treats).
Lately, I feel that the more of a foodie I become, the more I should change my middle name to Experiment. My mom gets frustrated when I experiment with secret ingredients (like chickpeas, black beans, sweet potato, etc) and pawn off the product on her. She has gotten into the habit of preceding any bite with “what did you put in this?” or a question of the like. With this recipe, she rolled her eyes at me, but tried it nonetheless. After a few chews, she gave the nod of approval!
The chickpeas gave the blondies a moist consistency and were incredibly easy to use. I also enjoyed making this recipe because it included ingredients that I actually have. Unlike other creative CCK recipes, this didn’t call for anything too bizarre. YAY!
I cannot wait to make the blondies again and surprise more loved ones with a fantastically healthy treat! 🙂
Make these in both a square pan and a mini muffin pan. My 6 year old flipped for them! She saw me put the beans in so she was a skeptic for sure… then she tasted the dough and she was in heaven! I brought them to a work potluck and everyone is just super excited about them!
THANK YOU!
Chickpeas are such the humble superstar! i love blondies! thanks for sharing! can’t wait to try!
I just made these this afternoon for my vegan husband and healthy eater teen son. After getting one taste for myself (these are totally delicious), they devoured more than half the pan in one sitting. My husband couldn’t believe they were vegan! I’ll make a double batch next time!
i just wanted to say that i made these. I think i may have undercooked them, but they were still fantastic! Although i was the only one in my family to like them……o well more for me!!! 🙂
Hi Katie, These are great! I have a question about how and when you cut them for best presentation: Are you cutting while warm? Or waiting until they are cool in the pan? Or other? Thanks!
Hi Di. I usually wait until they are cool. 🙂
Hey CCK! I’ve been following your blog for about a month now, trying to find some recipes that I can satisfy my sweet tooth on, while still sticking to my no-sugar and no-gluten diet. I found these “Blondies” and thought they looked incredibly delicious, so I wanted to try them, but I wanted to check with you about something first: could I use a plain’ole blender instead of a food processor? I don’t own a food processor, you see, so I was just wondering if the recipe would still work without one. Thanks for what you’re doing! You’re recipes are amazing! 🙂
I just made these and added a whole bunch of pb2 (powdered peanutbutter) and used half xyitol and half coconut sugar and OMG these where so delicious i’ve had to put them in the freezer so that I don’t eat them all. AND my sons LOVED them!
I made these using 3/4 c. chickpea flour + 3/4 c. water in place of the chickpeas. and had good results. My enjoy life chocolate chips melted quite a bit, so next time I might refrigerate them ahead of time, other than that I had great results.
Hi Katie,
I searched through the comments to see if anyone had done this but couldn’t find anything. If I want to replace the peanut butter with coconut oil, do you think the ratio would be the same? Normally I would just sub applesauce bc I don’t mind the fat free taste, but I want to share these and I don’t like the taste of PB in baked goods (weird, I know) so I want to sub the fat with a diff fat (love coconut).
Thanks! (and if you haven’t tried it I’ll experiment and report back)
Hi 🙂
Maybe try this recipe instead, and cook it in a square pan for blondies? https://lett-trim.today/2011/09/12/giant-cookie-cake-a-healthy-recipe-makeover/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
How many carbohydrates does this have?
I just made this, and the batter is amazing!! It’s still in the oven, but it looked amazing last time I checked. My food processor made the batter warm, so when I put the chocolate chips in some of them melted, but that’s fine with me. Brunetties!! 😀
I LOVE your site!
That being said, this is the first recipe I’ve actually tried, and so far it hasn’t quite worked out. I used almond butter instead of PB, and added some instant espresso and toffee. The only problem is that they haven’t firmed up at all. I took them out at 30 minutes and they did look undercooked, but as you said, I let them cool. After 20 minutes I cut into them, and they were complete goop. (delicious goop, but not the blondies I had hoped for…) I was wondering if you had any suggestions? I used the ground flax meal instead of the oats. I don’t know!
Anyway, I hope to open up a gluten free bakery in the future and am constantly looking to practice baking with different ingredients. Your site is wonderful for this and I thank you!
Hi Alyssa,
What food processor did you use?
And can you give me any more specifics? Did you drain the beans?