These simple vegan blondies are made with chickpeas, almond flour, and dairy-free chocolate chips. They are super gooey, soft, fudgy, moist, rich, and yummy! This blondie recipe is gluten-free, grain-free, protein-rich, dairy-free, egg-free, healthy, and can be made nut-free!
Gooey vegan Blondies (blonde Brownies)
Oh my, oh my… these chocolate chip blondies turned out better than expected. I always thought brownies are my weakness, but now I am not sure anymore! After making lots of brownie recipes like flourless brownies, simple no-bake brownies, sweet potato brownies, or healthy vegan brownies with peas (!), I thought it was time to create a healthy recipe for blondies. And I am glad I did!
What is a Blondie?
Blondies are actually the cocoa-less “blonde” version of brownies, however, they are even gooier and not cakey at all! They have a wonderful vanilla flavor, a tender texture, and a rich taste. As you can tell from my photos, I even underbaked them a bit, because that’s how I love them – super moist, gooey, fudgy, and delicious!
As I mentioned before, these vegan blondies happen to also be gluten-free, and grain-free. Even better, they contain healthy ingredients like chickpeas and almond flour. No eggs, no dairy, or regular wheat flour. Win, win!
The Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- Chickpeas: I used a can of chickpeas, rinsed, and drain. You can also cook chickpeas from dry if you prefer.
- Plant-based milk: Any dairy-free milk is fine, like almond milk, cashew milk, or coconut milk.
- Apple cider vinegar: Or use regular vinegar or lemon juice for these vegan blondies.
- Nut butter or seed butter of choice: I used cashew butter, however, feel free to use almond butter or even peanut butter.
- Vanilla extract: Use real vanilla or vanilla powder for the best flavor.
Dry ingredients:
- Granulated sugar: I used Xylitol, however, you can also use coconut sugar, organic cane sugar, or a keto sweetener like Erythritol.
- Almond flour: Any finely ground nuts will work too.
- Ground flax seeds: Or use ground chia seeds.
- Baking powder & baking soda: They will provide a little lift during baking.
- Sea salt: Just a little is needed to enhance the flavor of these gluten-free blondies.
- Dairy-free chocolate chips: Or use your favorite bar of chocolate and chop it with a knife!
Please read the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, measurements, complete recipe method, and nutritional information.
How To Make Vegan Chickpea Blondies?
Watch the video to see how easy it is to make these chickpea blondies.
- First, preheat the oven to 360 degrees F (180 degrees C) and line a baking pan (my pan measures 9″x6″ / 23 x 15 cm) with parchment paper.
- Process all wet ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth and lump-free.
- Add all dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips) and mix again (don’t overmix though).
- Now add the chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate of choice) and stir with a spoon.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan and top it with more chocolate chips.
- Bake in the oven for about 25-35 minutes (it can take some minutes more or less, depending on your oven and the size of your baking dish). I have a gas oven and baked the vegan blondies for about 27 minutes, and they were still a bit underbaked (which I love though!).
- Let them cool, then cut them into bars. They will be quite soft after baking, but firm up more once cooled down. Enjoy!
How To Store
You can store leftovers (if there are any) covered at room temperature for a day or so, or in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
Can I freeze blondies? Yes, you can freeze these vegan blondies for up to 3 months. Let them thaw in the refrigerator overnight. You can reheat them in the oven for a couple of minutes.
Recipe Notes & FAQ’s
Can I use a different flour instead of almond flour? As mentioned before, you can use any ground nuts of choice instead of almond flour (almond flour = 100% ground almonds). Some people had success making the recipe with oat flour, however, since almonds contain over 50% fat and oats don’t, the blondies won’t turn out as rich, gooey, and moist.
Can I make these vegan blondies nut-free? To make the recipe nut-free, I would recommend using ground unsweetened shredded coconut. Please do not use coconut flour because it contains less fat and absorbs a lot of liquid. The dessert would turn into a nightmare. Also, use coconut butter instead of cashew butter. I wouldn’t recommend sunflower seed butter as it will turn the blondies green unless you leave out the baking powder and baking soda (yes, this already happened to me, haha).
Chocolate Chip Blondies
I used mini chocolate chips for these easy-to-make blondie bars. They are dairy-free and not as sweet. If you prefer a keto sweetener, you could try out sugar-free chocolate chips for these blondies.
Other Vegan Bars & Brownie Recipes
- Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
- Lemon Cheesecake Bars
- Vegan Black Bean Brownies
- Easy Cheesecake Brownies
- Vegan Zucchini Brownies
Should you give this delicious vegan blondie recipe a try, please leave a comment and rating below, and don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with @elavegan and #elavegan because I love to see your recreations.
Vegan Chickpea Blondies
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- 1 (15 oz) can (265 g) chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) plant-based milk
- 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup (80 g) nut butter or seed butter of choice (I used cashew butter)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar of choice (see notes)
- 3/4 cup (90 g) almond flour (see notes)
- 4 tbsp (28 g) ground flax seeds
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/3 cup (60 g) dairy-free chocolate chips + more for the top
Instructions
- I recommend using a kitchen scale for this recipe. Check the video in the blog post for easy visual instructions.Preheat the oven to 360 degrees F (180 degrees C) and line a baking pan (my pan measures 9"x6" / 23 x 15 cm) with parchment paper.
- Process all wet ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.
- Add all dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips) and mix again (don't overmix though).
- Now add the chocolate chips and stir with a spoon.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan. Top with more chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
- Bake in the oven for about 25-35 minutes (it can take some minutes more or less, depending on your oven and the size of your baking dish). I have a gas oven and baked them for about 27 minutes, and they were still a bit underbaked (which I love though!).
- Let cool and cut into bars. They will be still soft at first, but firm up more once cooled down. Enjoy!
Notes
- Almond flour: You can use any ground nuts instead of ground almonds/almond flour. For a nut-free version, try ground hemp seeds or ground shredded unsweetened coconut. I wouldn't recommend coconut flour since it contains less fat than almond flour and furthermore absorbs a lot of liquid.
- Any nut butter like peanut butter, cashew butter works fine. For a nut-free version, use coconut butter. I wouldn't recommend sunflower seed butter as it will turn the blondies green unless you leave out the baking powder and baking soda.
- Sugar: Any granulated sugar like organic cane sugar, coconut sugar, etc. will work. I used Xylitol, but you can probably also use Erythritol.
- The nutrition facts are for 100 grams.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Equipment
Wow Ela, this one is definitely a keeper! I’ve made it a few times now and everyone loves it, even die-hard carnivores (expecting eggs and butter throughout their baked goods!) Today I wondered if I could adapt your recipe to make a Cherry Bakewell and apart from the excess water from the frozen cherries, it came out super tasty. I simply used almond butter, subbed almond essence for vanilla and plonked frozen cherries on top of the mixture before baking. I’m sure it’s not a proper recipe, but I love it and love all of your recipes.
Sounds amazing with the cherries. Thanks for your feedback, Dana. 🙂
Hi Ela!
Have made this blondies with some replacements.:
As I used plain flour instead of almond flour, I combined 100ml soy buttermilk (for a rich flavour) plus 20ml oil so as to give that fat, the recipe called for.
The result was a moist and gooey blondie..
Thanks for the recipe!
Wll make it again
Lovely blog!!
Sounds interesting! Thanks so much for sharing, Cecilia. 🙂
Hi I really wanna try this recipe but is the cheakpeas noticable?
Hi! No, it’s not. I wouldn’t publish recipes that taste weird. 🙂
Hi Ela,
Love your recipes! Could I use Medjool dates (and less milk) instead of granulated sugar? Thank you!
Hi Alexandra, I never tried that, but it might work fine. 🙂
Hi Ela, i wanna try and make this recipe but I only have oat flour, can I use that instead of the almond flour? Thank you!
Hey, I never tried it, so I am not sure. Almond flour (ground almonds) contains about 50% fat and oat flour doesn’t. Therefore, I am a bit afraid they might come out a bit dry. But you can certainly try it. 🙂
Can I ship these to a friend? Want to make vegan goods to ship but it is hot out here.
Thanks
Hey Terri, I really wouldn’t recommend it if it’s hot.
Hi Ela!! Could I use oat flour instead of almond flour?
Thank you! ❤️
No, I wouldn’t recommend it because you need the fat from the ground almonds, otherwise, the texture won’t be good. 🙂
Hi Ela, these look terrific. I only have almond meal – will that work the same as almond flour? i’m not sure of the difference between the two..
Also, I only have peanut butter and I know it tends to have an overpowering flavor… will that ruin them?
Thanks!
Hi Megan, almond flour is made of 100% ground blanched almonds (without the peel) whereas almond meal is made of 100% ground almonds (with the peel). But you can use it.
Also, peanut butter should be fine. 🙂
These came out amazing – my family is begging me to make more after one day! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Yay, I am glad you liked them! 🙂
I love your recipes so much. Made these blondies and they were fantastic. Used maple syrup instead of granulated sweetener and thus used less almond milk. They turned out delicious! ????
That’s awesome, Molly! I am glad they turned out fantastic with maple syrup. 🙂
Thanks for your feedback!
thanks Ela, I made them yesterday and they were a huge success! My kids went nuts.
Is there anything I can use instead of flax seeds? Their texture was pretty dominant and they also dotted the blondies, which made them a little less blond `-)
You could use ground chia seeds or psyllium husk. 🙂
Hello! I have tried this recipe twice now. Once in a glass baking dish with paper lining. And once in a metal baking dish. Both times I could not get the dough to cook through. They were severely under-baked to the point where they were basically dough still. Any advice?
Hello! That’s weird. Did you bake them long enough and what was the oven temperature? Was the batter too runny maybe?
I had the same problem. Cooked them in a glass 8 x 8 dish for 45 minutes total and they were as mushy at the end as the beginning. I thought the consistency was good pre-baked. Not funny. They are tasty though. They just seem raw.
So sorry to hear about the issue, Renee! It might have something to do with the altitude or with the oven (gas oven vs. electric oven). So many people made the recipe with success, therefore, I am not sure what might have gone wrong. If you want to give them another try, maybe add 1/2 a cup oat flour so that they firm up better. 🙂
These are SO good. I used almond milk, almond butter, and 3/4 cup almond flour (it was already ground so I’m not sure if that would have been exactly 3/4 cup of almonds before it was ground). I had these right out of the oven (becuase how could you not) but they were somehow even more delicious a day later. So moist and yummy! Definitely a fan of a tad under baked.
Yay! I am so glad you loved the recipe. Thanks for your feedback, Bailey! 🙂
Do you have any recommendations for xylitol substitutes? Thanks!
Sure! You can use regular sugar, coconut sugar, date sugar, Erythritol, etc. 🙂
Ela i do not have baking soda. There is any problem if i do not use it
Or can i replace the baking soda with something else?
Hi Gabriela! You can simply increase the amount of baking powder. I would say use 1/4 tsp of baking powder in addition. 🙂
Hi. Thank you for the recipe. I’ll be trying it tonight. However since I’m alone I’d like to know if the batter can be frozen and baked at another time?
I am so excited to try this recipe. However, can the dough be frozen as I’m only one person. Thank you
No, you can’t freeze the dough but you can freeze the baked blondies or just make 1/2 of the recipe! 🙂