Gluten Free Blondies with Surprising Ingredients

Gluten Free Blondies



I had a fun time playing around with some ingredients yesterday.  I have a recipe I love and it calls for... wait for it... black beans and avocado in brownies; you can see the recipe HERE.  I've made the recipe probably four times now and I just love it.  I've used a little extra avocado and it's great. I've used half cocoa powder and half whole wheat pastry flour and it's great. I've frozen the brownies... again... GREAT!

I got to thinking about recipes for blondies instead of brownies.  I decided to substitute banana for avocado and I decided to substitute cannellini beans (white kidney beans) for the black beans.  The original recipe calls for cocoa powder (no flour) so the original brownies are gluten-free.  My intention yesterday was to make the blondies and bring them to my Tuesday knitting group.  Janet in the group follows a gluten-free diet so I used pulverized rolled oats in place of cocoa powder.

These blondies are moist, sweet, and flavorful.  The only draw back was that the blondies were very crumbly.  I am sure I could play around with the ingredients a tad to try to make the blondies hold together a bit more but I wanted to type up this recipe "as is".  I did make a "a lifter" out of two pieces of foil in my baking pan. This was great to get the blondies out of the pan to cool and slice.  Since this treat is rather crumbly, I recommend making a foil lifter as I did.  You can see a photo of my prepared pan below. I just fold two pieces of foil to fit in the pan and over lap them in the style or shape of a "+" or plus sign and then I spray the foil with non-stick cooking spray. You could also make a lifter out of parchment paper if you desire.





Bean and Banana Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

Ingredients

• 1 large egg 
• 1 - 15 oz can cannellini beans (white kidney beans), rinsed and drained
• 1 medium sized ripe banana
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt (I use kosher salt)
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chip
• option:  add in 1/3 cup of chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Make foil lifter: Take two strips of aluminum foil which are slightly narrower than the baking pan and the lay the strips of foil an 8 x 8 inch baking pan in the shape of a "+" or plus sign (see photos).  Spray with foil with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Place the oats in the bowl of a food processor and pulverize until the oats resemble flour.  Pour the oat flour in a bowl; add in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir with a fork to combine and set aside.
3. Place egg, banana, beans, vanilla, brown sugar, and oil in the bowl of a food processor and process in until smooth. Add in ground oat mixture and process again until smooth.  Add in the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts (if using) and stir in with a rubber spatula.  Carefully remove food processor bland and pour the batter into the prepared pan; use spatula to spread batter evenly to sides.
4. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and top of blondies is golden brown.  Cool in pan for about 10 to 15 minutes and then carefully remove the blondies from pan using the foil (or parchment paper) lifter.  Allow to cool to room temperature and then cut up as desired.  Since these are rather crumbly, you may wish to use a serrated knife.

Enjoy!