Halloween Chocolate Fudge Blondies (Vegan Gluten-Free)

Thick, fudgy and tender pumpkin blondies packed with pumpkin spices and chocolate chunks. These Halloween Chocolate Fudge Blondies are vegan, gluten-free and fun to decorate as Halloween monsters.

If you love Halloween baking and love the idea of a warming, cosy and chocolatey blondie, then these treats are perfect for you. They are easy and fun to make, perfect for baking with little ones this spooky season. Plus, they are made with natural, wholefood ingredients with added protein, fibre and googly eyes.

Why will I love these blondies?

These blondie squares are so delicious, they are:

• Lightly spiced with pumpkin pie spices
• Packed with chocolate chunks and coated in more chocolate
• Decorate with edible sugar eyes for a Halloween treat
• Topped with a thick chocolate ganache
• Made with wholesome ingredients
• Naturally vegan, gluten-free and easily nut-free
• Easy to make in one bowl with minimal prep time
• Great for making with little (and big) ones
• Great for trick or treat
• Delicious without the spooky eyes

If you already love the sound of these Halloween Chocolate Fudge Blondies then skip ahead to the recipe card below. Or, first let’s discuss the recipe in more detail.

What ingredients do I need?

These blondies are made with fully egg-free and dairy-free ingredients. For the base we need:

•  Pumpkin puree: make sure this is 100% pumpkin and while you can make your own, I prefer the texture or tinned pumpkin. My go-to brands are KoRo or Bakeroo which you can find online.
• Applesauce: this adds sweetness and more soft texture to the blondies. As above, make sure this is 100% apples and you can either make your own or buy it from the shops.
• Coconut oil: for the texture and to help bind the bars. If you prefer, you can use vegan butter or margarine spread.
• Smooth runny nut or seed butter: my favourite is the banana bread flavoured cashew butter from KoRo which is so delicious but regular almond, cashew or another nut butter are great. Make sure they are smooth and runny and to keep these nut-free, use tahini or sunflower seed butter.
• Caster sugar: or coconut sugar for sweetness.
• Vanilla essence: for flavour.
• Oat flour: this makes these blondies wholesome and adds a lovely texture. Make your own oat flour by blending oats to a fine flour-kike texture in the blender and keep for 2 months in a sealed jar. Make sure your oats are gluten-free, where needed.
• Plain or GF flour: use plain or gluten-free plain flour with xanthan gum to keep these bars light. You could try wholemeal or spelt flour, too.
• Vegan vanilla protein powder: I love the vanilla sweetness that the vanilla buttercream protein from Macromike adds to these blondies. (AMB-AMY is my code for money off everything0. If you prefer to not use protein powder, use the same amount of plain flour as well as the plain flour originally used.
• Spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and mixed spice make these squares taste delicious and warming.
• Baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt: for rise, texture and flavour.
• Dark chocolate: chop up the chocolate to fold into the batter so that every bite has lots of chocolate in. I used the dark orange and ginger bar from Divine Chocolate.

As for the chocolate ganache topping:

• Dark chocolate: as above, although this chocolate is chopped much smaller so it melts more evenly. I like dark chocolate (about 75% or higher) but use whatever you prefer.
• Vegan butter: this creates a lovely soft, luscious and glossy ganache when mixed with the chocolate and spread over the brownies. Coconut oil will not behave in the same way as a ganache. So, if you want to use coconut oil here, that is fine, but the top will much runnier so reduce the oil to 20g and spread over the bars.

Finally to decorate, we need:

• Icing sugar: mix this with water to create a pipeable yet thick frosting to create spooky shapes.
• Edible sugar eyes: for decoration only, you can swap these for sprinkles or leave them off all together.

How do I make these treats?

These Halloween bakes are easy to make in a few steps:

• Whisk together all the wet ingredients for the blondies: till smooth.
• Add in the dry ingredients: and stir to a thick, smooth batter.
• Fold in the chocolate chunks: till combined.
• Smooth into an 8-inch square dish: and bake for 32-35 minutes until cooked through.
• Allow to cool slightly: and slice into 16 squares leaving them all touching.
• Melt together the chocolate and butter: to form the ganache.
• Spread the ganache all over the tops: and then pull apart the blondies so the ganache drips down the sides.
• Chill for 1 5minutes to set the ganache: in the fridge.
• Decorate with the icing sugar: and some edible sugar eyes.

How long will they last?

Enjoy these blondies straight away or keep them in the fridge for 3-5 days, although best enjoyed at room temperature. You can freeze the blondies for up to 1 month, wrapped well and allow them to defrost at room temperature before eating.

Are they gluten-free and nut-free?

Yes, these are easily gluten-free if using gluten-free oats and a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend. To keep these nut-free, use tahini or sunflower seed butter.

What else can I make for Halloween?

I hope you are going to love these Halloween Chocolate Fudge Blondies and for more spooky ideas, how about my:

• Halloween Vegan Rocky Road
• Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Bread
• Spooky Mummy Rice Crispy Pops
• Vegan Pumpkin Spice Halloween Cake
• Halloween Chocolate Dirt Pots

I look forward to hearing what you think of these Halloween Chocolate Fudge Blondies so please let me know in the comments below and leave a star review above. If you do make these, I’d love to see so please tag me in them, I’m @nourishing.amy on Instagram and use the hashtag #nourishingamy. I’m also on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest  – please say hello!

With Halloween blondie love x