Peanut Flour Blondies

The recipe that eventually became my Peanut Flour Breakfast Bars began as an attempt at making a blondie. The results were tasty, hence the creation of the breakfast bars, but really didn't have the decadent dessert-level richness I was craving. It wasn't until I looked up some blondie recipes online that I realized I was not going to achieve my goal while being prudent with the oil and sweetener. So, a few tweaks to my former attempts, and these sumptuous blondies were born. These blondies are sweet, rich, and chewy. They don't quite have that cookie-like chewiness and gooey middle you can get with traditional baking ingredients, but they certainly have a satifying texture to them and, for me, they really hit the spot (at multiple points throughout the 2 days it took me to get through the entire pan... oops). Feel free to add some keto-friendly chocolate chips, very dark chocolate chunks, or chopped nuts to the dough (pre-baking) for extra flavors and crunch. I suspect I'll add a few of these myself next time around. Toppings, such as those pictured, are also a good option to add some flavor and flare. Enjoy!
Yield: 9 bars
Macros (per serving): 245 calories | 11g protein | 19g fat | 2.5g net carbs
Prep: 15 minutes | Bake: 23 minutes | Cool: 20 minutes
Equipment Required: a 7-inch (18cm) square cake pan or a 9x5-inch (23x13cm) loaf pan
Storage: at room temperature for up to 36 hours or refrigerated for up to 5 days. Cool fully before sealing in an airtight container.
Warning: keto baking can be very finicky. Though this recipe is pretty forgiving, I suggest using a kitchen scale to weigh all ingredients for which gram measurements are provided.

Dry Ingredients:
  • 1 cup (120g) defatted peanut flour, sifted if lumpy
  • ½ cup (96g) allulose (another sweetener may or may not work ✎)
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • ⅛ tsp salt​
Wet Ingredients:
  • ⅔ cup (160ml/g) unsweetened soy or pea milk, at room temperature​
  • ⅔ cup (96g) oil-roasted salted peanuts ✎
  • ½ cup (120ml/108g) melted coconut oil or vegan butter and omit the salt
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
  2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
  3. Line an 7-inch (18cm) square pan with parchment paper. Let the parchment overhang 2 sides for easy removal of the bars. If you do not have a 7-inch (18cm) square pan, you can use a 9x5-inch (23x13cm) loaf pan.
  4. Put the wet ingredients in a high-powered blender and blend to smooth. It will become a thick creamy mixture. I'm using a bullet blender for this. ✎
  5. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture. Try to get as much of the wet mixture out of the blender as possible. Mix until a thick dough is formed and no dry patches remain. I use a large silicone spatula for this. 
  6. Transfer the dough to the pan and press into an even layer. I use the back of my spatula for this.
  7. Bake for about 23 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then carefully remove from the pan and allow to cool for another 15 minutes. Cool more fully for storage.
  9. Optionally, top with a drizzle of peanut butter (can thin with a little melted cacao butter or coconut oil), melted chocolate, cacao nibs, chocolate chips/chunks, and/or chopped nuts.
  10. Cut into 9 bars and enjoy. 
✎ Notes:
  • Peanut flour is one of my favorite flours for vegan keto baking. It is low in carbs, high in protein, and has a lovely subtle nutty flavor. Structurally, it behaves much like chickpea flour, making it a great option for creating certain types of baked goods. I'm using Protein Plus peanut flour, which is a defatted peanut flour, and may not be available outside the United States. I use a "shop and ship" service to have it delivered to me abroad. In the distant past, I have tried an alternative peanut flour from Nuts.com (also in the US) and found it behaved similarly in the recipes I tried it in. A more widely available option that may also work in this recipe is a sugar-free peanut butter powder. As for using another flour here, perhaps a defatted almond flour would work. Defatted sesame flour may work, but I find it needs a little more liquid than peanut flour. In essence, if you don't have peanut flour, you're better off with a different recipe.
  • I have not made this with any other sweeteners and I'm not sure how it would turn out with an alternative. Allulose retains moisture in a way that is similar to sugar and other keto-friendly sweeteners do not have this quality.
  • I prefer to use oil-roasted peanuts in recipes because they are cheap and readily available. However, I assume a dry-roasted peanut would work fine here. Note that the macros are calculated with oil-roasted peanuts, which have a slighlty different nutritional value than dry-roasted ones.
  • For the wet mixture, there isn't a lot of content for blending, which is one reason I prefer to use a bullet blender here. If you use a countertop blender with a large carafe, blending might be difficult.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the peanut flour (Protein Plus).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.