Cashew Butter Blondies (gluten-free, paleo-friendly)

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These cashew butter blondies are made with just five main ingredients! They’re gluten-free, paleo-friendly and delicious!

These 5-ingredient Cashew Butter Blondies are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and dairy-free. They're so good! Both cakey and fudgy/gooey! Recipe by Ashley of MyHeartBeets.com
Thanks ALDI for sponsoring this post 🙂 I love that they now carry so many healthy, organic and gluten-free options!

I have gone holiday crazy.

Not in a good way either – you know, where you feel productive because the house is perfectly decorated inside and out. Nope. I mean I’ve gone holiday crazy in the realllly unproductive sense where I sit on the couch after work and binge watch every single Christmas movie ever made. I mean, sometimes I browse Pinterest for cute Christmas DIY ideas that I’ll probably never make. And sometimes if I’m feeling super guilty, I’ll edit photos for the blog while I watch Melissa Joan Hart kidnap a guy and force him to be her boyfriend over the holidays (see the cringe-worthy movie: Holiday in Handcuffs – or um, please don’t see it?).

Why am I telling you this? To hopefully make you feel better about yourself if you’re doing the same thing I am…?

But really, even though it all sounds slightly pathetic, I kinda love it.This is the only time of the year where I feel like I can get away with hiding out at home in the evenings, sipping on a mug of hot cocoa or eating a freshly baked treat while mindlessly watching television under a blanket. Real life.

What freshly baked treats have I been munching on lately while mindlessly watching one Christmas movie after another, you ask?

Cashew Butter Blondies. 5 ingredients. BAM. Real life.

(how many times can I say “real life.” in a blog post without coming off like an annoying millennial? at least 5 times, right?)

These 5-ingredient Cashew Butter Blondies are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and dairy-free. They're so good! Both cakey and fudgy/gooey! Recipe by Ashley of MyHeartBeets.com

Just 5 main ingredients!

These dessert bars are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and hopefully much healthier than your average blondie/brownie.

The 5 main ingredients: cashew butter, maple syrup, eggs, vanilla extract and baking soda.

I’ve made the blondies pictured here with mini chocolate chips, dried cranberries and salted macadamia nuts but you can use whatever additions you want. I have to make a push for the macadamia nuts though – they’re just so perfect in these blondies.

These 5-ingredient Cashew Butter Blondies are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and dairy-free. They're so good! Both cakey and fudgy/gooey! Recipe by Ashley of MyHeartBeets.com

cakey blondies or fudgy blondies? you can have them both!

Do you like your blondies more on the cakey side? Or do you prefer fudgy? I feel like these cashew butter blondies are both. The edge pieces have more of a cake-like crumb and the middle pieces are softer and fudgier. I’m a fudgy girl and my husband is a cakey guy so these were perfect for the two of us. You can always bake them for a shorter period of time if you prefer them gooey or add a few extra minutes to the baking time to make them more cake-like.

By the way, this is what the batter looks like before you put it into the oven – remember to smooth out the top:

These 5-ingredient Cashew Butter Blondies are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and dairy-free. They're so good! Both cakey and fudgy/gooey! Recipe by Ashley of MyHeartBeets.com

When you take the pan out of the oven, let it cool completely, then cut the blondies into pretty little rectangles.

That’s a cakey piece right there in the middle. If you look closely to the right, you can see one that’s a little more gooey – yummm. I really do prefer the gooey ones but they don’t photograph as well (things only food bloggers think about).

These 5-ingredient Cashew Butter Blondies are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and dairy-free. They're so good! Both cakey and fudgy/gooey! Recipe by Ashley of MyHeartBeets.com

I bought the cashew butter, macadamia nuts and dried cranberries used in this recipe from ALDI. You might remember me telling you that they invited me to their corporate headquarters in Chicago last month. They found me through a blog post I wrote about them: Real Food at ALDI. Their chefs prepared an awesome meal for us and they even made sure I had plenty of gluten-free options:

aldi-dinner

For dessert, even though they were kind enough to put out some gluten-free cookies and almond milk hot chocolate – my eyes were glued to their cranberry blondies. I couldn’t eat those because they weren’t gluten-free so I was inspired to make them myself – paleo and all.

I think you’ll love these blondies regardless of the add-ins you choose (but if you create a killer combo, make sure to let all of us know in the comments). Bake these this holiday season or year-round 🙂

These 5-ingredient Cashew Butter Blondies are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and dairy-free. They're so good! Both cakey and fudgy/gooey! Recipe by Ashley of MyHeartBeets.com

Cashew Butter Blondies

These 5-ingredient Cashew Butter Blondies are gluten-free, paleo-friendly and dairy-free. They're so good! Both cakey and fudgy/gooey! Recipe by Ashley of MyHeartBeets.com

Cashew Butter Blondies

5 from 5 reviews
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Servings 12 pieces

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup cashew butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ cup mini chocolate chips optional
  • ¼ cup macadamia nuts optional
  • ¼ cup dried cranberries optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350F.
  • Add the cashew butter, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla extract and baking soda to a large bowl.
  • Using an electric hand mixer, combine until smooth.
  • Fold in the chocolate chips, macadamia nuts and cranberries if using.
  • Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 glass dish lined with parchment paper.
  • Bake at 350F for 15-18 minutes.
  • Allow the pan to cool, then cut and serve.
Did you make this recipe?Tag @myheartbeets on Instagram and hashtag it #myheartbeets!

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PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: Thanks ALDI for sponsoring this post! I love that you now carry so many gluten-free options for me & my readers!

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Hi, I’m Ashley. Thanks for being here! I truly believe that food brings us closer together. Gather around a table with good food and good people, and you’ll have the ingredients you need to create some happy memories. My hope is that you find recipes here that you can’t wait to share with family and friends.

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Comments

  1. jayne weber says

    Thank you for your amazing recipe and website. I only use one egg per batch because I prefer a more chewy/brownie like consistency. I love the way cashew butter tastes with this recipe.

  2. Ginny B says

    5 stars
    Just made these. So simple! I used my hand mixer to whip the ingredients together. I think this added extra air and helped the blondies to rise more and be lighter. Mine came out cake-like. I did add more sweetener as we like things sweet. Used more vanilla, too. I subbed sliced almonds for the macadamia nuts. My DH really likes them.

  3. Jaylah says

    Is the maple syrup required for the texture or can it be left out? My concern is that the syrup and vanilla together will make the blondies too sweet for my household’s tastes.

  4. joanna schupp says

    These came out super delicious!! Mine were more like cake texture than blondie texture but they were still to die for. I used peanut butter and baked them for a little longer (25 minutes) because my toothpick was coming out gooey. Is that the goal? I will make them again and only do it for the suggested time to see if that is the key. Thanks again!!

    • My Heart Beets says

      So glad you liked them! These blondies are both cake-like and also fudge-like! The edge pieces have more of a cake-like crumb and the middle pieces are softer and fudgier. Let me know if you try it again and what you think 🙂

  5. Mram says

    Hi Ashley,

    Just did a bath have of these blondies.

    The middle was slightly too fudgey for my taste so sliced them and put it in oven and baked slow and low. – these are the best biscotti , even without trying.

    Thank you so much.

    • Linda says

      The middle was too gooey for me also so i took the idea of remaking it into biscotti from the comment above (Mram) and they turned out so yummy!! Portioned it into 1″ x 3″ strips and cooked 325F 15 min on each side. Mram had the beat idea, it is perfect flavor for biscotti!

    • My Heart Beets says

      Megan, one reader sent me a message saying that almond butter worked for her and another wrote on Instagram that sunbutter worked (but it made the blondies green due to the reaction between chlorophyll and baking soda). I haven’t heard anything about macadamia but I bet those would be amazing! If you try please let us know!

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