This week has been a loooong one. It’s nice to have special services at church in honor of Holy Week, but we’ve also needed a little extra caffeine and sugar in the evenings that we’ve volunteered in our respective areas of the church. Today I had a little extra time on my hands so I baked up a batch of Eating Well magazine’s Almond Butter-Quinoa Blondies!

This healthier version of blondies makes 24, contains 3g of protein per serving, and delivers 147kcal per “serving”. I intentionally put “serving” in quotes because this batch bakes in a square 8×8 baking dish. I don’t know about you, but an 8×8 square pan barely serves 12. Unless of course you did just want a single bite of dessert/snacks… The picture makes them look massive, but reality pales in comparison! I want more than just a bite; I’m willing to take the extra calories. I managed to get 16 fair portions out of this recipe.

For this recipe I used the remainder of a jar of Nutzo Peanut Pro Crunchy which (despite being an excellent peanut spread) I fear contained a touch too much oil since my batch of blondies came out rather overmoist. I did heed the instructions not to overbake however. This being my first time using quinoa flour, I didn’t want dried out dessert.

All the blondies I’ve ever had in my life never had chocolate chips in them. The addition of Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips studded throughout gave this recipe an extra indulgent note. They looked and smelled so good, I could hardly wait the 45min cooling time to dive right in! This cleaner version of a blondie weren’t exactly like I’d remembered “blondies” to be. They were extraordinarily nutty, but in a good way!

Blondies were purportedly first invented by set down in the Fanny Farmer cookbook in the late 1800s. It was everything a brownie ought to be (it was in fact called a brownie), except it contained none of the cocoa to which we’re all accustomed. I’m sure Ms. Farmer had no clue what quinoa flour was or that we’d be swapping it in place of the wheat stuff many years later, but I’m glad she set a classic down on paper so many years ago!

Word to the wise, make sure you have an ice-cold glass of milk on the ready with which to enjoy these. They’re RICH! Have you ever tried a different spin on blondies?