I hadn't been planning to do a dessert recipe this weekend, but my mom invited us over for dinner yesterday, so I decided to make something to bring to her house. I figured it would be a good opportunity for other people to taste a recipe and give their opinions, too!
After looking through vegan dessert recipes on Pinterest, I ended up settling on Chickpea Blondies from Nora Cooks. I know I've made one of her recipes before (for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was) and I liked it, so I hoped the blondies would be just as good. The ingredients are very similar to Vegan Cookie Dough Dip, which is SO delicious, so I figured it would be something like that, just in bar-form.
I had the ingredients for these with the exception of almond flour. I've never had a need for almond flour, and even though Nora wrote that you can substitute regular flour, I wanted to make it as-written with the almond flour. Apparently, it makes the blondies more moist.
The recipe couldn't be any easier--just put a bunch of ingredients in the food processor and let 'er rip until it's as smooth as it's going to get, stir in chocolate chips, then pour into a pan and bake.
The ingredients: chickpeas, brown sugar, peanut butter, vanilla extract, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vegan chocolate chips. (You can get the full recipe here on Nora Cooks. I'll link to it again at the end of the this post.)
The recipe didn't say to peel the chickpeas so I'm under the impression that you don't peel them; however, since several vegan-skeptical people would be tasting these, I went ahead and peeled them (not because of taste, but because I wasn't sure what it would do to the texture).
Not pictured: baking soda |
You just measure everything out and put it in the food processor.
I put it on the purée setting for a minute or so and it was super thick--not really moving around. I scraped the sides down, puréed again, and repeat. Finally, it started smoothing out and I let it go for a few minutes until it looked like this:
Note: I really like this texture (it reminds me of Smuckers Natural peanut butter). However, I've read from other chickpea dessert recipes that you can use Great Northern beans (a soft white bean) instead, which will give a smoother texture. I may try that next time, just to compare.
Also, the batter tasted delicious!
I prepped the baking dish, laying the paper crosswise instead of trying to line the whole thing with one piece like I usually do. Spoiler: this worked really well. Thank you for suggesting it!
At this point, I poured it into the pan and smoothed it all out. Then I realized I forgot to add the chocolate chips! So I put it all back in the bowl and stirred in the chocolate chips. Then I had to prep the pan again. And finally, I sprinkled the rest of the chocolate chips on top and it was ready for the oven.
The recipe said to bake for 25-30 minutes, so I figured I would do 25 and see what they looked like, then maybe bake for longer. I started cleaning up the dishes and then I realized that I forgot to set the timer. I'm notorious for doing that! I was trying to think how long they'd been in there when I realized I could check the timestamp of my last photo--six minutes ago. So I set the timer for 19 minutes.
I didn't want to risk having them totally fall apart by cutting into them too soon (even though the recipe says you can cut them after just 10 minutes) so I let them cool on the counter for about an hour, then in the fridge for a couple of hours before cutting. I even sharped my knife so I could cut them cleanly; I wanted them to look good when I brought them to my parents' house!
The texture looked exactly how I like brownies/cookies/blondies: dense and moist, looking slightly underbaked.
Noah: "They're good." I asked him to please tell me what he liked or disliked--he just said, "They're good! I would make these."
Luke: *Thinks for a moment* Then: "Yeah, I like them".
Oh wow. That looks so easy. And your Dad is such a "Dad." Meatloaf? Stovetop stuffing? Hysterical. Thanks for the laugh.
ReplyDeleteyour dad's comment cracked me up. i definitely want to try these. the link didn't work for me, but i might be able to find it by googling it.
ReplyDeleteThese look good! If you're looking for a vegan pecan pie recipe I've had success making this recipe and substituting pecans for the chocolate chips and walnuts https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/chocolate-chip-kentucky-pie/
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I screwed that up so badly! They are fixed now. Sorry about that--they are totally worth making :)
ReplyDelete