Vegan Chickpea Blondies

I once saw a recipe that used chickpeas as the base for brownies and I thought, "ummm nahhhh, I'm good." But months and months later after deciding I wasn't going to go down that path, I finally tried it out and holy WOW! It is craaaaazzzzy these don't have ANY flour and turned out as amazing as they did!

I used sun butter but you can use any kind of nut butter you want! NOTE THIS: using sun butter in baked goods will turn your dessert GREEN! I woke up the next morning to a forest green pan of blondies. NOT so blonde lol! I googled it and thankfully they were okay to eat. Turns out that sunflowers have chlorophyll in them and that green color is activated with the baking soda/powder when it cools! How amazing is that?! So if you use sunflower butter, always remember your dessert MAY turn green on you and it is OKAY to eat! :)

INGREDIENTS:

• One 15 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• ½ cup sun, almond, cashew, almond or peanut butter
• ¼ cup maple or agave syrup
• ¼ cup date or coconut sugar
• 1 Tbsp coconut or almond milk
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ cup vegan chocolate chips + more for the top

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 9" glass baking pan or pie dish and set aside.
2. Add all the ingredients except for chocolate chips into your blender or food processor.
3. Blend until creamy and smooth. Scraping down the sides as needed.
4. Once it is super smooth, pour into a small bowl and add chocolate chips and mix by hand.
5. Pour mixture into your prepared pan and spread out evenly. Sprinkle a generous amount of chocolate chips on top.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is set, cracked and golden brown.
7. Let cool for a few minutes and then enjoy!
8. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or on the counter in a cool area.