Healthier Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies

You all love my healthy chocolate cookies- they’re consistantly the most viewed page of my blog. Fortunately, I love looking for ways to make my sweet, buttery, treats healthier without compromising any of the taste.

The easiest way to do this is by swapping butter for avocado. Avocados have a creamy texture that is perfect for adding to baked goods and for creaming with sugar- thanks to all of the healthy fats. In fact, Trader Joe’s goes so far as to call them natures butter. Avocados are also often referred to as “superfruit” due to all of the vitamins and antioxidants they contain. From helping with arthritis related problems to aiding with digestion, avocados deserve their reputation as a superfruit. You can read more of their health benefits here.

Unlike with my chocolate cookies, I used all white flour for a lighter texture and didn’t use any honey- so while they’re not as healthy as the cookies, they’re still pack a healthier punch with the avocado as well as a cut on calories. (So you can eat more, right?)

Like I said, if my dessert is going to be healthy, I don’t want to be able to tell that it’s healthy. And that’s the case with these blondies- Light and fluffy, thanks to a heaping teaspoon of cornstarch. The avocado taste is masked with a cup of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract + 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (sold in the baking aisle of most grocery stores, or at craft and baking supply stores), and 1.5 C of chocolate and peanut butter chips. You can buy combined bags, or just add 3/4 C of each. If you don’t want to buy almond extract, you can always simply use 1.5 tsp of vanilla, but I recommend using the almond- it just adds a little something extra that you can’t quite put your finger on.

Texture wise, these are like a combination of cookies and blondies- my intention was to make cookies; so I adapted a cookie recipe. I decided to put them in a pan because I didn’t want to wait for dough to chill, and I’m glad I did. They turned out softer, lighter, and more bread-like than cookie bars- just like a blondie.

Sneakily healthy blondies full of chocolate and peanut butter chips- what can be better?

Healthier Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
Ingredients

• 1 medium avocado
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 and 1/4 C flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 3/4 C chocolate chips
• 3/4 C peanut butter chips

1. Spray a 7×11 pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Peel, pit, slice and mash avocado. Cream with sugars and extracts on medium-high speed. Mix in eggs one at a time.
3. Combine Flour, soda, salt, and cornstarch. Slowly mix into wet ingredients. Fold in chips.
4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes until top is golden brown and sides are pulling away from pan. Let cool before serving.

Mr. Goodbar Brown Butter Blondies

Like most of you, I’m sure, the days (and weeks, apparently) after Easter left me with a plethora of candy sitting around my house.  One of my bags of chocolates was a variety of Hershey’s minis; including Milk Chocolate, Krackle’s, Hershey’s Special Dark, and Mr. Goodbars.

Here’s the thing though. I’m not a huge fan of Mr. Goodbars plain. So I set out to bake them into something. The winner? Blondies. I used the same base from Sally’s Baking Addiction that I did for my m&m blondies. I did a few things differently though- specifically, browning the butter, and baking them in an 8×8 pan. These were things I simply didn’t have available to me the last time I made blondies, but boy did they make a difference! I found myself polishing off three or four thick, delicious, buttery and caramel-y blondies. YUM.

Browning the butter was super duper easy. I was wary of it, but now that I’ve done it I want to brown the butter for everything. I finally understand what all the hype is about! All you do is melt the called for amount of butter in a skillet over medium heat, and keep whisking it until you see brown specks appear in the botton of the pan. The butter will be a gorgeous shade of amber, and your kitchen will be filled with a wonderful nutty aroma. Pour the butter into a bowl after this happens so the butter doesn’t burn! The entire process will take around 5-6 minutes.

I topped them off with chopped up mini Mr. Goodbars, but you could use any candy you prefer! The great thing about blondies is that they are a blank slate for ANYTHING you want to mix in. I see myself making many more blondies in the future!

Recipe:

(adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5-7 chopped mini mr. goodbar candy bars

1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat; whisking constanty. Remove from heat when butter starts to turn brown, about 5-6 minutes and pour into a large mixing bowl. Mix in brown sugar and let cool to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 350. Spray 8×8 pan with cooking spray and set aside.
3. To the cooled butter/sugar mixture, mix in egg and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Pour into 8×8 pan and sprinkle the chopped candy bars on top. Mix in slightly.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly brown. Allow to cool for at least one hour and slice into squares.

M&M Blondies

{recipe from Sallysbakingaddiction}

I had a rather horrible evening Thursday night. For security purposes I’m not going to talk about why, but essentially I got in a lot of trouble at work for a very small infraction, and I came home and sobbed. Friday I proceeded to eat my sorrows in Chocolate cookies and peeps. Feeling terrible about eating six cookies in one day and not saving many for my roommates, and wanting to do something other than moping over tumblr and cookies, I decided to try this recipe from sally’s baking addiction to use up a bunch of margarine and Christmas m&ms I had.

So I made these. I substituted margarine for browned butter because I accidentally bought eight pounds of it two months ago and really need to use it up; plus, I’m saving my butter for Easter. (I’m a poor intern, don’t judge me.)

I also used a larger pan instead of the 8×8 called for in the recipe because that was all I had,  so they were much thinner than Sally’s were.

To view and make this recipe, go here.