Skinny and Delicious: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies

I have alternate Fridays off for the summer and decided to use the day to try the latest skinny treat craze: chickpea blondies. Chickpeas in dessert sounds completely crazy to me, but all the instagram and pinterest pics (check out these from @missk_j6) looked so good that I decided to give it a go.

I based my recipe on this great post from Ambitious Kitchen, with a few modifications since I didn't need it to be vegan (plus I was been missing some ingredients and MAY have been too lazy to go to the store).

Recipe:

Calories: 119 | Fat: 6.7 g | Cholest: 12.2 mg | Sodium: 223 | Carbs: 11.3 g | Fiber: 1.8 g | Sugars: 7 g | Protein: 3.4 g

1 15 oz can chickpeas

1 egg

1/2 cup peanut butter

3 tbsp honey

2 1/3 tbsp applesauce

1 tsp maple syrup

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp dark chocolate chips

sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a brownie pan. I used a 8x6 pan but 8x8 is probably better.

Mix all ingredients except for the chocolate chips and sea salt in a food processor and blend until smooth. Mine is small so I had to do it in two batches. At this point I tasted the batter and it was a little bean-y tasting but not horrible. So far so good.

Mix 1/3 cup of the chocolate chips into your batter and then spread it evenly into your greased pan. Next, sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over top of the batter. The batter is very sticky so this step was a little messy.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. Figuring out when the blondies were done was the hardest part of the recipe for me since baking them too long reportedly turns them hard. When I pulled mine out the center was still fairly squishy, but didn't feel like it was still liquid.

Let cool for at least 20 minutes, sprinkle with sea salt, slice into 16 squares, and enjoy!

The Verdict

Despite being a predominately chickpea-based dessert, these are pretty tasty! The chickpeas aren't overwhelming, the texture is good, and I don't miss the flour. They are, however, a little salty for my taste. Next time I might skip the sea salt all together and would probably add more honey instead of applesauce to up the sweetness. But overall, definitely a pretty tasty treat that won't derail your fitness goals at only 120 calories a piece. 

Q: Have you gotten on the chickpea blondies bandwagon? What's the craziest ingredient you've ever used in a dessert?