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Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies

· Natalie 56 Comments

Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies that are gooey and sweet, loaded with salted dark chocolate, speckled with green, and so easy to make. Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free!

Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies (vegan + gluten-free)

Make greens as decadent and un-salad like as possible?

Challenge accepted. Completed. Conquered. Couldn’t have been more of a success.

Hidden under the guise of buttery-rich almond butter oat blondies with the perfect crackly top surface interrupted only by melty dark chocolate chunks and flecks of sea salt, no one would ever guess you visited the produce department while grocery shopping this ingredient list. Even my macro lens all up in that post-bite blondie closeup is barely giving it away.

But greens don’t come in a better form than Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies.

Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies (vegan + gluten-free)

Just because I went all organic dark chocolate and flaky sea salt on you, don’t think these are fancy or complicated to make. The ingredient list includes:

  • Almond butter. Or cashew is really good too!
  • Coconut sugar. This is essential for the crackly top, maple syrup or dates just won’t do it.
  • Flax eggs. Or regular eggs will work too.
  • Oat flour AND rolled oats. For a lil extra texture.
  • Shredded zucchini. Which the food processor makes reallyreallyfast!
  • Vanilla extract.
  • Salt! Plus more on top.
  • DARK CHOCOLATE. In and on top.

For the chunks, I chopped a dark chocolate bar from my fave chocolate brand, Hu Kitchen. The ingredients are flawless, taste is amazing, and they aren’t crazy high in sugar (thank you!). Not gonna lie, my consumption frequency of their Vanilla Quinoa Qrispy bar is getting a little out of hand over here lately. Don’t send help though.

Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies (vegan + gluten-free)
Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies (vegan + gluten-free)

Feel free to not tell a soul you share these with that there’s anything green going on here, and just let them revel in salty-sweet blondie bliss. Feel free to ignore the rules, break these babies out of the pan while still warm (sometimes extra crumbly is a worthwhile risk), and top them with vanilla ice cream. Or feel free to chill them overnight, let the fudginess intensify to a denser-but-extra-delicious level, and share them with no one but yourself.

And yes, ALL OF THE ABOVE is the only logical answer here.

Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies (vegan + gluten-free)
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Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies

★★★★★ 4.9 from 9 reviews
  • Author: Natalie
  • Prep Time: 00:10
  • Cook Time: 00:25
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 16 bars 1x
  • Category: desserts
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: american
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Description

Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies that are gooey and sweet, loaded with salted dark chocolate, speckled with green, and so easy to make!

Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. Whisk together the almond butter, nondairy milk, coconut sugar, flax eggs, and vanilla. 
  3. Add zucchini, and stir to combine.
  4. Add oat flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Mix to form a thick dough.
  5. Fold in the dark chocolate (save some for sprinkling on top).
  6. Spread batter into a baking dish (oiled or lined with parchment paper).
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350ºF. The edges should be lightly brown when they are done.
  8. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. You can eat them warm – they are delicious that way – but much more fragile and crumbly.
  9. Enjoy! (Try a sprinkle of flaky salt on top, or serve with ice cream)
  10. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 bar
  • Calories: 161
  • Sugar: 11g
  • Fat: 8g
  • Saturated Fat: 2g
  • Carbohydrates: 20g
  • Fiber: 3g
  • Protein: 4g

Keywords: vegan, gluten free, bars, chocolate, salted, oat flour, dessert, snack, oil free

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Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Blondies (vegan + gluten-free)

SunButter Grasshopper Cookie Cups

· Natalie 27 Comments

Like mint chip ice cream in mini pie form! Grasshopper Cookie Cups with a creamy mint filling inside a rich dark chocolate cookie crust. Vegan, paleo, easy!

SunButter Grasshopper Cookie Cups
THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER

A dark, crispy chocolate cookie vessel contrasted by a fluffy dollop of sweet mint cream in the middle…that’s gonna be a good bite. No question.

But story time. I popped these cuties in the freezer for 30 minutes before their photoshoot to make sure the filling wouldn’t melt halfway through (yup, Florida is already that hot), and whoa! Something happened. The freezer changed them. But for the better. The MUCH better.

The filling didn’t turn to ice cream per say, but it turned chilly enough to trigger my brain’s hypersensitive ice cream response. And the cookies are just crumbly enough to create a crushed cookie topping vibe. And the flavor is more than minty enough to turn this whole experience into a DID I JUST CREATE HANDHELD MINT CHIP ICE CREAM? moment.

And that was the moment I knew we had created something great.

SunButter Grasshopper Cookie Cups

I say we because this recipe was the joint dessert brainstorming baby of me and my girl Sonya. And the video was a team effort too, shot by Daniel who knows how to use all the fancy camera gear that makes us look like we’re making cookie cups in a movie. And the whole recipe was inspired by our favorite nut-free baking partner SunButter!

Production value over the top? Nah. These cookie cups are delicious enough to deserve every bit of the attention.

SunButter Grasshopper Cookie Cups

So what makes these Grasshopper Cookie Cups so minty and magical…

  • The cups. A buttery, brownie-decadent, sweet but not too sweet cookie cup made with just 6 ingredients – good stuff like cacao, almond flour, and organic SunButter. The texture is halfway between your most tender crispy-edged cookie and an oreo pie crust, and all the credit goes to SunButter for that gift.
  • The filling. The creamiest, coconut-based, chilly mint filling that could not contrast those cookie cups any more perfectly. I tested it with coconut cream and full fat coconut yogurt, and I think I prefer the yogurt. But both work!
  • Chill time. I like most chocolate desserts better cold (exceptions: hot chocolate and lava cake), but these NEED to be refrigerated for optimal enjoyment. Or even freeze for an hour or so before eating, you will not regret it.

And don’t think these cookie cups can’t be the perfect edible vessel for other things too. Yes I am absolutely already thinking of ice cream…

SunButter Grasshopper Cookie Cups

More fun news! SunButter is offering YOU $1 off any jar of SunButter, so if you haven’t tried it yet now is your chance. Well now and again every month twice a month because SunButter is that awesome and you’re gonna love it that much. Just trust me – pretty soon peanut butter and almond butter will be crowded out of your pantry too.

Print the coupon HERE!

SunButter Grasshopper Cookie Cups
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SunButter Grasshopper Cookie Cups

★★★★★ 5 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Natalie
  • Prep Time: 00:15
  • Cook Time: 00:25
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 8 cups (or 18 minis) 1x
  • Category: cookie
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: american
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Description

Like mint chip ice cream in mini pie form! Grasshopper Cookie Cups with a creamy mint filling inside a rich dark chocolate cookie crust. Vegan, paleo, easy!

Ingredients

Scale

Chocolate Cookie Cups

Mint Filling

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. Whisk together the SunButter and maple syrup.
  3. Add the cocoa powder, almond flour, baking soda, and salt.
  4. Mix to form a thick dough.
  5. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray with nonstick spray.
  6. Press a thin layer of dough onto the bottom and sides of each muffin tin to make a cup. You should get 6-8 cups (or 18-20 if making minis).
  7. Bake for 25-28 minutes (or 12-15 minutes for minis) at 350ºF.
  8. Cool for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely (or even chill overnight) before filling.
  9. Stir together the filling ingredients until thick and creamy.
  10. Fill each cookie cup with a spoonful of mint cream. Top with mini chips. Enjoy!
  11. Keep covered in the fridge for up to a week.

Notes

*The solid part scooped out of a can of full fat coconut milk that has been chilled overnight. Or you can use full fat coconut yogurt.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 cup
  • Calories: 259
  • Sugar: 14g
  • Fat: 18g
  • Saturated Fat: 7g
  • Carbohydrates: 23g
  • Fiber: 4g
  • Protein: 6g

Keywords: mint, st patricks, chocolate, cookie, muffin, green, vegan, gluten free, paleo

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Grasshopper Cookie Cups (vegan + paleo)

Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake

· Natalie 83 Comments

This Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake is like banana bread but lighter, filled with nutty peanut flavor and a salted caramel peanut butter glaze on top!

Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake (vegan + gluten-free)

If chocolate found out this was happening, I’d be in trouble. Chocolate with banana – amazing. Chocolate with peanut butter – magical. But just this once let’s let banana and peanut butter collaborate on a cake without chocolate getting in the way.

Look, I love a good brownie as much as the next person. But even mini chocolate chips seem to steal the flavor show of whatever you bake them into. And with sweetness from extra ripe bananas, nuttiness from creamy peanut butter, and decadence from the salted caramel peanut glaze on top, we want to keep ALL the flavor for ourselves.

Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake (vegan + gluten-free)
Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake (vegan + gluten-free)
Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake (vegan + gluten-free)

This recipe is like banana bread, but it is not banana bread. Because…

  • we are blending the bananas instead of mashing for a more consistent texture
  • the crumb is lighter and softer
  • the flavor is richer, more dessert than snack (but still can be both, of course!)
  • it’s baked in a bundt pan, not a loaf
  • SALTED. CARAMEL. GLAZE.

If you can’t tell I really love that glaze. Like really really really love.

But I have strong feelings for the cake too. The peanut butter flavor is not subtle…in a very good way. The bananas get even sweeter from baking, and combined with coconut sugar things quite caramel-y. And neither overpowers the other – they just harmonize perfectly!

Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake (vegan + gluten-free)

If you want to add chocolate chips I won’t stop you (who would do such a thing?), but I urge you to try at least the first batch without. I think you’ll find banana and peanut butter to have some serious solo game of their own.

Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake (vegan + gluten-free)

Happy bundt baking to you!

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Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake

★★★★★ 4.9 from 8 reviews
  • Author: Natalie
  • Prep Time: 00:15
  • Cook Time: 00:45
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 12 slices 1x
  • Category: cakes
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: american
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Description

This Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake is like banana bread but lighter, filled with nutty peanut flavor and a salted caramel peanut butter glaze on top!

Ingredients

Scale

Cake

  • 3 medium bananas (250g)*
  • 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground flax + 4 tbsp water)
  • 1/2 cup (70g) coconut sugar
  • 1/2 cup (125g) peanut butter
  • 1 cup (240g) nondairy milk
  • 2 cups (250g) oat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups (165g) almond flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Peanut Butter Glaze

  • 1/4 cup (60g) peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup (40g) maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup (50g) coconut oil, melted
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. Prepare flax eggs and set aside to gel for 5-10 minutes.
  3. Mash or blend the bananas.
  4. Mix together the banana, flax eggs, coconut sugar, peanut butter, and nondairy milk.
  5. In a separate bowl, combine the oat flour, almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to eliminate any clumps.
  6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix to form a batter. 
  7. Pour into a bundt pan** (mine was 10 cup but 8-cup would be fine too) that has been generously sprayed with nonstick spray.
  8. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350ºF.
  9. Remove from the oven. Cool for 10 minutes. Flip onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
  10. Whisk together the glaze ingredients until smooth. If it’s too thick, microwave for 5-10 seconds.
  11. Spoon glaze onto cooled cake, and sprinkle with chopped roasted peanuts.
  12. Enjoy! Keep leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Notes

*About 1 cup after mashing. You can either mash with a fork, or blend to a puree if you don’t want any chunks.

**If you don’t have a bundt pan, cupcakes/muffins would be the best alternative. They will bake for slightly less time (about 30-35 minutes). You could try baking it in a regular cake pan, but I don’t recommend a loaf pan for this recipe.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 slice
  • Calories: 283
  • Sugar: 13g
  • Fat: 14g
  • Saturated Fat: 2g
  • Carbohydrates: 32g
  • Fiber: 4g
  • Protein: 8g

Keywords: vegan, gluten free, banana, cake, bread, dessert, glaze, caramel, snack, healthy

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Peanut Butter Banana Bundt Cake (vegan + gluten-free)

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

· Natalie 98 Comments

Easy, ultra rich Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins with oats, hazelnuts, cacao, coffee, and dark chocolate chips – a decadent snack or healthy dessert!

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

Sometimes you need a mid afternoon snack that feels decadent like pre-dinner dessert, and answers your please send brownies! call, and fills that place in your heart that loves nothing more than biting into a soft chocolatey cupcake at the same time.

These Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins were crafted just for that purpose.

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

Decadent like dessert but made with good stuff like oats and yogurt so they’re healthier too. Rich like a brownie but not too fudgy and fluffier inside. And perfectly single-serving sized like a cupcake but without being as extra as 3 inches of piped frosting on top.

I truly think we’ve struck a perfect balance here. Although not so balanced when it comes to level of chocolate, that = AGGRESSIVE.

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

In my (unbiased of course) opinion these muffins are better than other chocolate muffins for a few reasons:

  • Flourless. Or more specifically we are making our own “flour” by grinding a combination of oats and hazelnuts in the Vitamix.
  • Oil-free. The hazelnut flour combined with nondairy yogurt gives these muffins all the moisture they need.
  • Coffee. Yes there’s some of that in here too…hello EXTRA richness.
  • DOUBLE chocolate. A.k.a. chocolate with chocolate chips.

And I may have added more chocolate chips on top pre-baking…triple chocolate? I take the job of chocolate chip allocation very seriously.

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

You will regret NOT making these, of that I am sure. So muffin-bake away my friends, but do come back and tell me how much you love them too!

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins
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Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

★★★★★ 5 from 12 reviews
  • Author: Natalie
  • Prep Time: 00:15
  • Cook Time: 00:35
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
  • Category: muffins
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: american
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Description

Easy, ultra rich Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins with oats, hazelnuts, cacao, coffee, and dark chocolate chips – a decadent snack or healthy dessert!

Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or spray with nonstick oil.
  3. Mix together the flax and water for the flax eggs, and set aside to gel.
  4. Grind the oats and hazelnuts in a high speed blender to a fine flour consistency. 
  5. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, coffee, maple syrup, flax eggs, and vanilla.
  6. Add the oat + hazelnut flour, cacao (or cocoa) powder, baking powder, and salt.
  7. Whisk/stir until you have a lump free batter.
  8. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  9. Fill each muffin 3/4 of the way with batter. Sprinkle a few extra chocolate chips on top of each.
  10. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350ºF.
  11. Cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from the pan.
  12. Enjoy warm, or I like them even better chilled the next day.
  13. Store in the fridge in an airtight container, or freeze for longer storage.

Notes

*You can use almonds or another type of nut instead. Or if you don’t have a high speed blender, use 1 1/2 cups oat flour and 1 1/2 cups almond flour.

**Brewed and cooled or use cold brew. You don’t taste the coffee, it just enhances the chocolate flavor, but if you’d prefer to leave it out use nondairy milk instead.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 muffin
  • Calories: 158
  • Sugar: 11g
  • Fat: 5g
  • Saturated Fat: 3g
  • Carbohydrates: 27g
  • Fiber: 4g
  • Protein: 4g

Keywords: vegan, gluten free, nutella, snack, easy, baking, chocolate chip, yogurt, dairy free

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Double Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins

Tahini Medjool Date Chunk Cookies

· Natalie 166 Comments

Tahini Medjool Date Chunk Cookies. Crunchy outside, sweet/salty and soft-baked inside, these oatmeal cookies just might be better than chocolate chip!

Tahini Medjool Date Chunk Cookies
THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY NATURAL DELIGHTS®

My favorite Medjool dates now come in sweet little sprinkle-on-or-stir-into-anything-sized chopped chunks, and I am HERE FOR IT.

First new packaging, now this new chopped mini form – Natural Delights really knows how to spoil a girl. As if Medjool dates weren’t already snack-perfect enough, these new little Medjool morsels are nearly irresistible to eating by the handful (after handful after handful after…). And they are conveniently coated in a light dusting of coconut flour to keep the finger stickiness under control too. They think of everything.

But what I am even more excited about than the straight snack-ability is how perfect they are for baking! Or cooking. Or topping smoothie bowls. But COOKIES…

Tahini Medjool Date Chunk Cookies

With the help of these new chopped Medjool dates I have created chunky, BETTER than chocolate chip, salted Tahini Medjool Date Oatmeal Cookies. And with only a quarter cup of sweetener for the whole batch, because those Medjool dates mixed in take care of much of the sweetening naturally but without the time/cleanup of having to blend them into date paste or chop them yourself.

I’m very happy chopped Medjool dates are now part of my baking life. Almost as happy as you will be when your mouth is full of one of these sweet-salty cookies.

Tahini Medjool Date Chunk Cookies

And don’t think for even a second that I neglected texture in all my excitement about the caramel-like cookie taste – I would never. Tahini and almond flour keep them moist in the middle, oats give them a wholesome chewiness, and maple syrup makes the edges just crispy. They are the perfect mix of soft-baked but slightly crunchy.

And if tahini isn’t your thing (me two years ago, so I get you) swap it for almond butter or peanut butter or whatever nut/seed butter you like.

Chopped Medjool dates have just given cookie baking an easy, fruit-sweetened upgrade and you need to get in on this, friends!

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Tahini Medjool Date Chunk Cookies

★★★★★ 4.9 from 48 reviews
  • Author: Natalie
  • Prep Time: 00:10
  • Cook Time: 00:10
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 12 cookies 1x
  • Category: cookies
  • Method: baking
  • Cuisine: american
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Description

Tahini Medjool Date Chunk Cookies. Crunchy outside, sweet/salty and soft-baked inside, these oatmeal cookies just might be better than chocolate chip!

Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. In a mixing bowl, stir together the oats, almond flour, baking soda, and salt.
  3. Add the tahini, maple syrup, and vanilla. 
  4. Mix to form a thick dough.
  5. Fold in the chopped Medjool dates.
  6. Scoop/roll into balls and arrange on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (they will spread so don’t overcrowd).
  7. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350ºF or until golden around the edges.
  8. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 10 minutes. 
  9. Enjoy, these are delish warm!
  10. Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze for longer storage.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 cookie
  • Calories: 136
  • Sugar: 6g
  • Fat: 7g
  • Saturated Fat: 1g
  • Carbohydrates: 14g
  • Fiber: 2g
  • Protein: 4g

Keywords: vegan, oatmeal, gluten free, dessert, baking, snack, salted, oil free

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