Miso Maple Dark Chocolate Chickpea Blondies

The perfectly salty sweet healthy treat

Growing up, I was an avid baker. I was the Thanksgiving pie maker, birthday cake champion, and never failed at supplying my father’s cookie addiction. When setting out on Bean Supporter, I never intended to become a bean baker. In fact, I was anti–bean desserts. To me, they came across as part of the health and wellness world, where people refuse to eat dessert and pretend that a frozen disk of nonfat yogurt tastes like ice cream (spoiler—it doesn’t). But after many requests, I took my knowledge of baking and food science to the humble legume back in July.

I wanted to make desserts that tasted like real desserts but kept the health benefits of beans so that you could eat them any time of day, including breakfast, and most of them are going to be far better for you than a protein bar. The rule is, they need to taste great.

My “baked beans” (what I call my bean desserts) have become a sort of staple, appearing monthly at my Bean-Ups (bean meet-ups held in a local park where people far and wide bring their greatest bean dishes to share).

This month, I decided to dive back into blondies. I had made blondies once before, but I was underwhelmed—they needed to be better. I wanted nuance, I wanted layers of flavor, but I also wanted to keep them gluten-free, vegan, and refined sugar-free to be accessible to the greatest array of Bean Supporters, while still tasting craveable.

I’m proud to say these blondies check every box. They are sweet but not too sweet, salty, umami, fudgy, and just kind of perfect. I must say, whether you make the bean version or not, please bring miso maple caramel into your topping rotation.

Recipe: