I have just returned home from a month of non-stop travel and the expression, “there is no place like home”, could not be more appropriate for how I am feeling. I love the smell of jet fuel and the anticipation of discovering new and different places but being home is pure comfort.
Paul, my husband, was complaining of no cookies in the house, as we sat at lunch today. Since I am doing a live appearance, all about lentils, on the Expresso show on Monday morning, I thought, why not do a few lentil experiments.
My first endeavor was a sweet one involving split red lentils (as they cook faster than any of the others due to their coat being removed, brrrr) being transformed into blondies. I love quick, tasty and healthy recipes and this fulfills all the categories. The lentils are a great source of fiber, potassium, folate and iron. The added coffee and chocolate makes these blondies a little more interesting and “grown-up” and finally using a mini-muffin tin makes it, oh so much faster and easier!
Try the recipe and see how many people you can fool and convert to enjoying sweets with lentils.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tablespoons espresso coffee
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- *½ cup red lentil purée
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350º F. Butter a mini muffin pan.
- In a medium bowl, stir melted butter and brown sugar until blended.
- Add the egg, vanilla, coffee and salt then stir vigorously until smooth.
- When the batter looks well blended, whisk in the lentil purée.
- Then gently incorporate the flour and chocolate chips, being sure not to over mix.
- Spoon the batter into the individual mini muffin cups, so that they are all filled to the top.
- Cook for 15 mins or until slightly brown on the edges and springy to the touch.
Notes
To make lentil purée, cook lentils in water. Reserve up to a cup of cooking water before draining the cooked lentils. Place 1 cup of cooked lentils in a blender and add 1/4 cup of cooking water. Blend until a smooth and relatively thick purée is achieved. If not all the purée is used, it can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to a year.
A little extra side note, if you have empty mini-muffin cups available while cooking your blondies, why not try the trick of cooking hard boiled eggs along with the blondie bites. Place a little water in each cup then add an egg into each one. After 15 minutes, or whenever the blondies are cooked, remove them to a cooling rack, turn off the oven and return the eggs to the oven to continue cooking for an additional 15 minutes. Then transfer the eggs to a bowl of cold water. Peel and eat or use in a salad or make deviled eggs or an egg salad sandwich…so many choices!
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