Adopt a Gluten Free Blogger: Elana’s Pantry’s Almond Butter Blondies

Growing up us a gluten-eater, I loved the original Toll House Squares. These are basically just a chocolate chip cookie in a bar form that is best eaten just a few minutes after coming out of the oven. I know because I could never wait for them to cool all the way. I would stand in front of the oven inhaling the chocolaty aroma waiting for the timer to go off in anticipation of the gooey richness.

When I learned that grains and flour of any type don’t agree with me I assumed that Toll-House Squares were not going to be part of my life anymore. When I saw Elana’s Pantry’s’ grain-free Almond Butter Blondies I had to try out the recipe because the picture looked just like my childhood favorite. And what could be better than two of my favorites combined in a bar form: chocolate and almonds?

I used the Adopt a Gluten Free Logier event put on by SeaMaiden of the always-inspiring and 100% gluten-free Book of Yum as an excuse to indulge in this sweet delight. This is a blogging event in which you adopt another GF blogger and make one of their recipes. I chose Elana’s recipe largely because I love how she makes a lot of Specific-Carbohydrate Diet friendly-recipes with her own tasty and creative twists that are good replicas of traditional comfort foods. Lots of kid-friendly, low-carb, vegan, and raw recipes are on her site as well.

I ended up adopting two bloggers. I arrived home from a vacation in Mexico this week and realized I was totally out of the roasted almond butter this recipe calls for and too busy moving boxes all over the place in order to get carpet installed in a few days to make my own or go buy it. Plus, we had a lovely jar of organic peanut butter that we almost never eat sitting in the cupboard. So I went against one of the key aspects of the Adopt-A-Gluten- Free Blogger event and altered the recipe by using peanut instead of almond butter. It turns out that Elana’s Almond Blondies were a spin-off of Celiac Chick Kelly’s Peanut Butter Bars. So hats off to both of these gluten-free divas for putting these flourless delights out there.

How did the bars turn out? Delicious and interesting. Interesting because these actually taste best when cooled as they are much less gooey due to the lack of flour. They need to cool to ‘set’. I enjoyed these gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, refined-sugar free delights guilt-free! So if you are in the mood for some gluten-free and healthy kitchen inspiration go check out Elana’s Pantry and the CeliacChick’s’  blog.