My daughter’s potential gluten intolerance has to be one of the biggest blessings in disguise!!!
I did not grow up vegan or even vegetarian. We ate dinner most nights as a family which included some sort of meat as the center stage, along with a starch and veggie. Desserts were usually once a week and were a cake or some chocolate boxed pudding.
So for me to venture into the world of using beans as the main source in my desserts was something that was unfathomable to me six months ago. I never even heard of doing such a thing.
There are no words to describe how good this Blondie Cookie Bar is honestly. You would NEVER EVER know this has beans in it, EVER, trust me. I used an organic chocolate bar and roughly chopped it up instead of using processed chocolate chips.
Next time I’m going to make them in an 8 x 8 pan instead of a springform one just because I like square cookie bars. They pack better in the kids lunches and are easier to freeze that way. (You all know by now how much I freeze everything!)
This literally comes together in 10 minutes! I’m not kidding. I had everything already in the pantry and when I saw this I was all over it! I made some homemade vanilla ice cream to go on top and I really can’t begin to tell you how utterly surprised I was at how fabulous this ‘alternative’ dessert is.

Blondie Cookie Bar
- Total Time: 40 minutes
Description
A fabulous blondie cookie bar that uses garbanzo beans as the main ingredient. Totally head smacking good !
Ingredients
- 2 Cans Garbanzo Beans, (drained and thoroughly rinsed)
- 1 ÂĽ Cups Old Fashioned Oats (3 min)
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- ½ Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 Organic Chocolate Bar (70% or higher cocoa – you will use about ÂĽ of it)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F
- Lightly spray or grease a 10″ springform pan (including the sides)
- Put the beans into a food processor and pulse a few times to break them up
- Add all the dry ingredients (minus the chocolate) and give it another few whirls
- Add the wet ingredients and continue to pulse until it’s smooth
- Transfer to a large bowl and carefully stir in the chocolate chunks you’ve chopped
- Pour into your prepared pan
- Bake between 30-35 minutes
- Let cool before slicing
- Top with vanilla icecream
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
Hi! I’m visiting your site and found this recipe. Are the oats cooked or dry? Just wanted to check, as a time is mentioned next to the ingredient.
WOW !!! WOW !! and W.O.W. !!!! Who ever knew garbanzo beans could do something like THIS ! I am blown away. I will say however they are better the next day and drizzling real chocolate (even a small amount) makes a big difference. They are amazing and I can’t thank you enough Debi for a great dessert for my diabetic husband and I … thank you
★★★★★
oh my gosh .. thank you Gale. It’s been a really long time since I’ve made these. You’ve just reminded me how good they are. Thank you. I think I might put them on this weeks menu.
Who knew chickpeas could make a dessert like this!!!!! Thank you thank you!!!
I never knew what chickpeas were Donna and I certainly didn’t know they could make a dessert like this!