Happy and Healthy at Home: Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies...

Just tried these tonight, and YUM!

If you like the chocolate & peanut butter combo, you need these in your life!

These are an easy mix-up for those kids stuck at home to help out with, no mixer needed. I enjoyed some time with my daughter in the kitchen tonight after dinner while the guys mowed the lawn. Just a big bowl, a spoon, some fun Disney Princess music, finger-licking, laughing and eating quite a few extra chocolate chips! :)

*No egg, and easy to substitute flour and sugar! (See my ingredients/tips below.)
**I would say you could change out the peanut butter for any nut butter, or allergy friendly alternative. However, it is a large part of the recipe consistency, so you can't just omit the peanut butter.
**Post a comment and picture to show us if you tried something different!

I've been trying to think of fun little things to make memories with our kids during these unusual days at home; so, after baking and cooling our blondies, we packed them up, all put on our pajamas and went for a ride out in the orchards to eat our snack and look at the stars! Fun and special memories!

...AND we are seriously celebrating making it through 2 weeks of homeschooling without killing each other and accomplishing all of our work so far. Yeah, that is worth celebrating people!

So, here is another good one for you to try! (I did use a little bit of sugar in this one, only because I ran out of my healthier sugar alternative and I figured the liquid sweetener would alter the consistency too much. Feel free to experiment and share what you came up with! I love hearing other people's ideas substituting different healthy flour and sweetener alternatives that they have on hand.

Here is the link for where I got the recipe...
Healthy Blondie Bars
...and below is my adaptation. Enjoy and Happy Baking!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars

Ingredients:
2 Cups Peanut Butter (Or your choice of substitution)
1/2 Cup Applesauce
2 Tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Flour (I used Spelt flour this time and it was great.)
1 Tbsp. Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Cup Milk of Choice (I used Grass-fed Organic whole milk)
1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Sugar
*The recipe calls for this, listed below was my alternative sweetener combo, what I had on hand...
- 1/4 c. raw organic agave (since spelt flour is a little more dense mine could handle a bit of liquid)
- 1/4 c. Coconut Palm Sugar (I personally do not prefer to use too much of this at once--strong flavor)
- 1/2 Cup White Sugar (This was the only other granulated sweetener in my house at the moment!)

Instructions:
Preheat Oven to 350 F, and line a 9x13 glass pan with parchment paper.
Stir together the peanut butter, applesauce, and vanilla till well combined.
Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda
Pour your dry ingredients, your sugar/sweetener and your milk (you may not need all the milk depending on your flour) into the peanut butter mixture. Grab a big spoon and slowly stir it all together--combine well. Stir in your chocolate chips.
Spread into your parchment-lined baking pan and pop in the oven for 20 min.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a baking rack in the pan for at least 30-40 min. Remove blondies by the parchment paper and allow to cool an additional 30 min.
Once completely cooled, slice and enjoy with a nice glass of milk or cup of coffee!
Store at room temperature or in the fridge if you prefer them firm.

Tips:
*Try any flour substitution you would like, but remember each is a bit different with how much it absorbs. So, you may need to try a couple times to get the consistency how you like it.
*A good 'go to' for a cheap and healthy flour substitution is Oats! Just grind them up in the blender or food processor for a few seconds and you have oat flour. I use this all the time in my baking.
*1 Tbsp is a LOT of baking soda in a recipe and I do feel it left a teeny bit of that bicarbonate taste behind. Next time, I may experiment with a little baking powder along with a little less soda.
*Coconut Palm Sugar has a very distinctive taste, that is why I used only a little. I could not taste a difference with only 1/4 cup. I would love to hear what you tried as sweetener!
*Very easy to use any flour or granulated sugar substitute for this recipe, for gluten or sugar free.
*Just put in half the milk at first and stir to see if you need it all. I did use all of my 1/2 cup.
(See my photo if you're not sure about your batter consistency.
It should be spreadable like brownie batter.)
*I used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate baking chips and a few mini chocolate chips. It's what I had. Mix it up and try any baking chips you like! You could add an extra crunch w/ a few nuts.
*Don't forget the parchment paper if you have it! Seriously, it lifts right out and NO dish to clean!
*I cooked mine 5 minutes longer than the recipe stated, and I did let them cool a long time, but not an hour. We were ready to go and I felt they were still a little too warm to slice, so I popped them in the freezer for 5 min. They were perfect and easy to cut!
*See photo below for consistency and ingredients. Come back and comment to tell me how yours turned out!
Happy and Healthy Quarantine Baking!

Ingredients I used...