Peanut Butter Hot Cross Bun Blondies (Vegan GF)

Sweet, fudgy and delicious vegan and gluten-free blondies packed with warming hot cross bun spices, lots of melting chocolate chunks, complete with a chocolate cross. These blondies are quick and easy to make for a tasty, high protein and whole-food snack.

I really do love a blondie, as much as I love a brownie. There is something so sweet and satisfying about a blondie, though. Without the chocolate overload, you can really focus on the sweet vanilla-y notes. They also remind me a lot of cookie dough, especially no-bake cookie dough, which I am a huge fan of. These Peanut Butter Hot Cross Bun Blondies, like a few of my other blondie recipes, relies on a secret ingredient that you might not expect… chickpeas. Don’t worry, this doesn’t taste like falafel or hummus but just goes to show how versatile chickpeas can be. They make the base for these sweet squares naturally gluten-free, high-protein and packed with fibre, too, while adding the squidgiest texture.

The recipe comes together in just a few minutes with the help of a blender or food processor. This really is essential to make sure there are no lumps of chickpea in your batter; that would really ruin things. Simply blend together all the wet ingredients to a thick sticky paste before adding in the dry ingredients, blending to a really sticky dough and then folding in the chocolate chunks. Bake until golden brown and smelling like hot cross buns before cooling, slicing and decorating with melted chocolate crosses. These really are everything I want for Easter and more.

What goes in these Peanut Butter Hot Cross Bun Blondies?

• Chia seeds: or you can use ground flaxseed, too. These bind the blondies together and make sure that they are the best texture. 
• Plant-based milk: any milk will work here. My favourites are oat, almond or soya.
• Chickpeas: as mentioned above, you don’t even know they’re lurking inside. They add a really great texture and very little taste. If you don’t have chickpeas, you can use any white beans like cannellini beans, butter beans or white kidney beans, too.
• Peanut butter: this adds the best peanut butter flavour to these blondies without being overpowering. You could also use almond or cashew butter for a different option or tahini/sesame seed paste for a nut-free recipe.
• Vanilla essence: for the lovely cookie dough-like flavour.
• Coconut sugar: for the rich flavour and colour that this sugar lends. Or you could use caster, golden caster or light brown sugar.
• Ground almonds: these add such a lovely nutty texture and taste to the blondies that I much prefer to using plain flour. If you are nut-free, you could use ground seeds like sunflower or pumpkin or try ground hazelnuts for another option.
• Oats: make sure your oats are gluten-free if you need. Simply blitz these beforehand into a fine meal or flour.
• Cinnamon and mixed spices: these are the classic hot cross bun flavours. Mixed Spice is a traditional flavouring here in the UK and is a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace and clove. If you can’t find any, use extra cinnamon and a dash of ginger and/or nutmeg.
• Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda: they both keep these blondies really light and fluffy while still being squidgy.
• Chocolate: stuff the blondies with chunks of chocolate before baking and then pipe on the chocolate crosses to make these really Easter-worthy blondies.

These Peanut Butter Hot Cross Bun Blondies really do come together in no time at all, with very little effort and maximum flavour. If you love cookie dough, chocolate and hot cross buns, these are for you. They are naturally vegan, gluten-free and easily nut-free, too, while being sticky, sweet and squidgy.

Make them for friends and family, or for yourself. They will keep well for up to 5 days or they freeze too if you want to make up a batch for yourself to enjoy over the coming weeks. Enjoy them warm again by popping them in the microwave or oven as they are great with ice cream!

If you are looking for more Easter recipes and Blondie ideas, how about my:

• Carrot Cake Butterscotch Cupcakes
• Vegan Easter Sugar Cookies
• Chocolate Hot Cross Bun Scones (No-Yeast)
• Jammie Dodger PB&J Blondies
• Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Peanut Butter Hot Cross Bun Blondies (Vegan GF)

• Servings: 16
• Time: 35 minutes plus cooling
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Sweet, fudgy and delicious vegan and gluten-free blondies packed with warming hot cross bun spices, lots of melting chocolate chunks, complete with a chocolate cross. These blondies are quick and easy to make for a tasty, high protein and whole-food snack.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp chia seeds
• 120ml plant-based milk
• 1 tin chickpeas, drained (240g drained weight)
• 80g peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 60g coconut sugar
• 50g ground almonds
• 50g oats, ground into a flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp mixed spice
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 80g chocolate, chopped
• Extra melted chocolate (approx. 40g)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160Fan/180*C and line a square 8-inch dish.
2. Stir together the chia seeds and plant-based milk and leave for 5 minutes to form a gel.
3. Add the chickpeas, nut butter, chia-milk mix and the vanilla to a food processor and blend until smooth.
4. Pour in the coconut sugar, ground almonds, oat flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and process to a sticky dough. Fold in most of the chopped chocolate.
5. Spoon the batter into the lined dish and smooth over the top. Sprinkle over the remaining chopped chocolate. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and still a little soft in the centre.
6. Allow to cool fully in the tin and then on a wire rack before slicing into bars of squares and decorating with a chocolate cross.
7. Store in an airtight container for 3-5 days at room temperature or freeze for up to 1 month.

I look forward to hearing what you think of these tasty Peanut Butter Hot Cross Bun Blondies so please let me know in the comments below. If you make the blondies, I would love to see them, remember to tag me! I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With hot cross blondie love x

The original recipe and social media post were sponsored by Grapetree wholefoods shop who I love as they have everything and it’s where most of the ingredients for this recipe came from. However, this post is not sponsored, and all opinions are my own.