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Since the beginning of the year, my mom has been off of sugar.  She has much more self control than I do.  Maybe if I didn’t have to be off of gluten, eggs, and dairy I could do it, but 3 major food avoidances is all I can handle.

The only treats she has had are clementines, a piece of toast with jam, or some date balls I had made.  I wanted to see about making her a real treat.  I had seen a plethora of posts about brownies or blondes made with beans, so thought I would give it a go.

I tried a garbanzo bean blondie recipe once before, and I don’t know if it was all in my head, but all that I could taste were the beans.  Consequently, I was hesitant to have another go at it, but  I decided to try it again, this time using more spices to conceal the pungency of the garbanzos.  

So I knew I was going to use spices, and what better ingredient to go with spices than pumpkin?   I looked at a half-dozen recipes for bean blondies.  Many called for sugar, which I had to avoid for my mom’s sake.  Many also called for oil and/or peanut butter, which I also wanted to see if I could avoid.  To solve those problems, I substituted maple syrup for the sugar, and a little extra pumpkin for the fat. 

Like what I do with my pumpkin cupcakes, I cook the canned pumpkin and spices for a few minutes so they don’t taste like a can or jar.  I also used currants instead of the typical raisins because they can be more evenly distributed in the batter.  If sugar isn’t a concern then using Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips would be a delicious choice.

This recipe doubles well (as long as your food processor has the capacity, of course).  I just use a full can of pumpkin when I double it. The blondies also freeze well.  I cut them into square and put each square in a little snack bag.  Great for a little guilt-free treat.

These were a hit not only with my mom, but also with my dad.  I didn’t tell either of them at first that there were beans in it, and when I revealed the ingredients, they were shocked, but they still went in for seconds (and in my dad’s case, thirds and fourths).