Bean desserts, cakes and cookies made from black beans, navy beans, and chickpeas have taken over the healthy eating bloggosphere. The problem with most of those recipes is that, while they are gluten free and grain free, they tend to be with eggs, and as someone who gets sick from eating eggs, they simply don't work for me.I've found a few recipes without eggs, but they often have white sugar in them. And white sugar is another thing I avoid- also for health reasons, and also because lately I've discovered that it makes me nauseous. So it's not worth it to even think about cheating.
But then I found this recipe for chickpea blondies which I adapted a drop to suit my tastes, and was very excited about it. It tasted awesome! It was best fresh, but even a day or two later, it was still delicious! My kids devoured it, not knowing how healthy they really were, how much protein was in it, and that it was refined sugar free.
If you're gluten free but don't want to spend lots of money on gluten free flours for dessert, this is a good option, especially if you cook your own chickpeas instead of using canned stuff. It's also great if you're hosting a gluten free family and don't want to need to stock up on gluten free staples.
The original recipe called for chocolate chips, but I don't eat them because I haven't found sugar free ones, so I ended up dividing the batch into two, and mixing chocolate chips into only one of them, which my kids ate. (Sorry, pic is without the choc chips.)
This makes two 8x8 pans of blondies.
Flourless Chickpea Blondies Recipe- Egg Free, Refined Sugar Free
Ingredients:4 cups cooked and rinsed chickpeas
1 cup peanut butter (or almond butter, or sunflower seed butter)
2/3 cup honey or maple syrup (or 1 cup of some sort of granulated sugar, whichever kind you prefer)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)
(1/4 cup water if using sugar)
Instructions:
1. Stick everything other than the chocolate chips in a food processor. Blend until smooth.
2. Add the chocolate chips if using, and mix well.
3. Spread thinly into two 8x8 pans, and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until completely solid.
4. Let cool, then cut up into squares.
Enjoy!
Have you ever made any chickpea or other bean based desserts? Did you like them? Does this look like a recipe you'd try/enjoy?
Tags
beans
dairy free
desserts
egg free
frugal recipes
gluten free
grain free
legumes
proteins
recipes
refined sugar free
treats
vegan
vegetarian
i love chickpea based cake. i was first introduced to the concept by the 'chocolate covered katie' blog i'll have to try your version too :) delicious and guilt free
ReplyDeleteThis site has an awesome homemade egg replacer that works well in baked goods. They are ever so slightly more dense but I'm unsure if it's the gluten free flour substitution and or the egg replacer that does it. Anyhow egg replacers open a whole world of recipes to an egg free household.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=104
I tried baking these last night. I don't know why, but mine tasted revolting. I got nauseas from the conflicting tastes of beans and maple syrup. This is the first I had heard of desserts with chic peas though. And I am determined to find a recipe that I like now.
ReplyDeleteMy father has diabetes AND chorosis of the liver so a protein/fiber balanced dessert that's low fat would be a great help. Thanks for opening up the bean dessert topic! I have enormous stashes of dried beans in my house because they're almost our only source of protein because they are a healthy and affordable alternative to the only meat we can afford, which is canned meat.
I'm hoping to find a pumpkin/chicpea blondie for thanksgiving. Hopefully if I had enough strong spices it will cover up the bean taste.
Using chickpeas instead of flour seems like an interesting modification to blondies. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDelete