With a few spotty bananas on the counter, and zero desire to make yet another banana bread, we ended up here! I recently made these chickpea blondies from one of my favorite bloggers and they were incredible (highly recommend). So I had a thought to make a hybrid; banana bread meets blondie bar. The result? A dense, creamy, perfectly sweet snack. They’re ideally eaten right out of the oven, but are just as good the next day thrown into a cast-iron pan with a little butter. But honestly, I try to put everything into my cast-iron at all times.
These are gluten free and just happen to be vegan, too! You’ll want to make sure your bananas are spotty (or even darker) for the right sweetness/texture. Oh, and yes there are chickpeas involved. But no, you will not taste them! They just add to a creamy, delicious texture (some extra protein isn’t a terrible thing either).
INGREDIENTS:
(makes ~16 bars)
2 overripe bananas
1 can chickpeas
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup almond butter, unsalted
1/4 cup coconut sugar
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
RECIPE:
Heat oven to 350 + grease a square pan, 8×8 or 9×9 with coconut oil or something else.
Drain + rinse the chickpeas. Add everything (besides chocolate chips) to a food processor and blend until creamy + smooth. Remove the blades and fold in the chocolate chips.
Spread batter evenly into the pan and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Once the edges brown and a knife comes out of the center clean, it’s done.
It might seem a little underdone, but it will continue to cook a little as it cools and this makes for the perfectly still-slightly-gooey bar.
Eat immediately! For leftovers, I love to heat up a little butter (or coconut oil) in a pan and sear all sides of the bar for a little treat.