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’ve made these a few times and loved them, but today I made a few slight changes and they came out absolutely perfect. I blended all of the dry ingredients first, then added the chickpeas and vanilla. I used 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup organic cane sugar instead of all brown sugar. I also added half of a banana that I had left over and used half chocolate chips and half peanut butter chips. They came out AMAZING. Thanks for all of your great recipes!
I’m a breastfeeding mom and am off dairy and soy for my sweet baby who is allergic. I made this recipe using half peanut butter and half soy-earth balance. I opted for oatmeal instead of flax this time. I added pecans and used dairy/soy free chocolatr chips. Results: dude, I’m lucky to have gotten any! My husband and three year old couldn’t keep their grubby hands off them! They’re really delicious. Tastes like toll house chocolate chip cookie dough. I kept them in the fridge to keep them firmer. Thank you, Katie! This deprived mama is very happy. 😉
These were SO good! My almost 2-year old was super excited about them, standing at the oven door watching them cook. The whole time he was saying “brownies yummy”! I distracted him from something that I did not want to do with the promise of a brownie and a glass of milk. Will recommend to friends and family!!
Do the nutrition facts include the chocolate chips as well?
I made these the other day, the peanut butter really did make them taste like a peanut butter cookie/blondie. I think without the peanut flavor it might be a little plain. They were pretty good! My boyfriend ate one and made a weird face haha… he is a junk food connoisseur though! I have been using them as treats for myself, and they have lasted 3 days. They arent stale or anything 🙂
Hi, have a question re flax vs oats. Which do you use use in this recipe. I would imagine you’d end up with a different product with each. Tried the Nutella blondies using Cannelini beans and they came out just too goey even after sitting in the fridge all night. I think the garbanzos would have worked much better. BTW, love this site. Have been a long time low fat-ish vegan.
Made these last night and tried them today, delicious! I’ve been making your black bean brownies for a while, but I might even like these better…it’s the peanut butter, gets me every time. Might try with crunchy peanut butter next time to blend with the texture in case I missed a chickpea or two. 🙂
I’m curious why your nutritional info is for 15 bars. Wouldn’t 16 be easier? I certainly find it easier to cut in equal amounts rather than odd. Maybe that’s because I’m a dumb brunette? 😉
I’ve been blonde my whole life. Starting when I was a kid, if I had a silly moment (just like all little kids do) my relatives would immediately make blonde hair jokes about me. I grew up thinking that I just had to act dumb. Finally, in 9th grade, I got sick of people actually thinking I was dumb. I was a straight-A student already, but every ditzy moment I had was just blown totally out of proportion so I had just been playing the part. Well, I decided no more of this, I want credit for my smarts. I started hanging out with the smartest kids in school, learned a lot of new vocabulary words, and started challenging people when they tried to play the dumb blonde card on me. It worked, I realized dying my hair is the best and easiest way to make people assume you’re not dumb (unfortunately)
There are a bunch of comments, so this might be in there. But if you see new comments (or have time to read them!), I always sub peanut flour for peanut butter. In every recipe. I’m on a lean cut diet, so I try to avoid heavy oils. But peanut flour lightens up recipes while contributing protein and flavor. Sometimes a tad mor liquid is involved in batters, but it doesn’t make a mess of recipes when used as a sub. You are awesome, your recipes are so much fun! Feel free to push peanut flour, it’s a game changer! 🙂
Katie these are beautiful! As a student currently worried about putting on weight with my exam season stuck at my desk, I’ve been looking for healthier treat recipes ( I have the BIGGEST sweet tooth problem, it’s unreal!) It really doesn’t damage my budget, and were SO easy to make! I used a can of white kidney beans instead, 2 dessert spoons of sweetener, and it was sweet enough for me 🙂 The texture is amazing for something made of beans!
I also have a wheat intolerant sister and mum who would adore these, so I’ll definitely be making these when I visit home!
I just love your recipes and their simplicity, thank you! 😀
Hi Katie,
I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but this recipe came out as a gooey mush for me, not what I was expecting. The Black Bean Brownie recipe did the same thing. I am using a food processor and all the ingredients precisely measured, etc… Have you had trouble like this? I’m so frustrated because I was really excited when I found these recipes and I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
Thanks in advance,
Catherine
Sounds like your oven is not calibrated correctly? In any case, just stick the undercooked blondies in the fridge overnight and they will magically firm up without getting dry!
These are DELICIOUS. I used 1/4 cup xylitol plus 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses as my sweetener and it came out perfectly for my level of sweet tooth.
I just made these tonight and they taste AMAZING! Mine didn’t quite firm up enough, even after cooling them off in the fridge. I might try cooking them a bit longer next time. The only thing I changed was using butterscotch chips instead of chocolate.
Even my friend who often complains that anything I make with gluten-free flour has a ‘funky’ taste really liked them. 🙂
I would really love to make these but only have access to a blender. As all your recipes specify that a food processor really is necessary, is there any other additional/extra preparation that could be done (like softening the chickpeas/soaking them) in order to make this possible?
I am taking a 6 hour road trip with my 19 year old son. We are both trying to eat less sugar so I made these for the first time and added pumpkin puree, walnuts and chocolate chips. This will keep us from snacking on candy! I also made healthy oatmeal cookies from your blog for the trip.
I’ve made these a couple times following the recipe to the letter. Yesterday I did a double batch, used Hazelnut Butter (found at Whole Foods) instead of PB, and used mini chocolate chips. With the brown sugar, the dark colored hazelnut butter, and the melted mini chips, these looked and tasted a lot like brownies. I baked the recipe in the same 8 X 8 pan to get a thicker result and it’s delicious and fudgy seeming.