These aren’t brownies, promise. They just look dark bc I made them from beans and the only beans I had were a dark rosy color. I started feeling better last week and was itching to make something in the kitchen and I was craving cake mix bars. But after careful combing through both pantries I ascertained that we had no cake mixes in the house. So I figured I’d Google quick and easy blondies and I happened upon a recipe from one of my favorite sources – Chocolate Covered Katie.
I have long resisted the idea of bean baking. But I tried it this time since it seemed like the lowest hanging fruit and I adapted the recipe to better suit my measuring, lower sugar, and cake-batter(ish) requirements. If you want the original chocolate chip blondie (with peanut butter) original recipe go to the source here.
Cake Batter Bars [Vegan, Gluten Free, with beans]
Adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie
Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8×8 pan.
- 1 can (~15 oz) beans, drained and rinsed. (The color of your beans will influence the color of your bars. That’s why mine are dark and I cannot call them “blondies” in good conscience.)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup coconut sugar (or sub brown if you like)
- big splash of vanilla
- small splash of almond extract
- ¼ cup ground flax
- ¼ c almond butter
- handful of chocolate chips & palmful of sprinkles
Grind everything (except the chips and sprinkles) in a food processor or high-speed blender until nice and smooth. Mix in the chips and sprinkles. Spread into your greased 8×8 pan. Decorate the top with more chips and sprinkles if you like. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350.
J came over later that night to drop off the CSA we’re sharing so I made her sample the goods. Of course they looked better once my food stylist arranged them for me.
More vegan cake batter fun from CCK:
Learning How... 