I just love dessert. Actually, my whole family seems to have a huge sweet tooth.
As I’ve talked about before in my Healthy Meal On the Go post, my dear hubby, Eric, has type 1 diabetes. We are always struggling to keep his blood sugar in check, while not making him feel deprived at meal times.
When he was first diagnosed, dessert just seemed like it would have to be a thing of the past, but luckily, we have made some good strides in inventing delicious desserts that don’t run his sugar up. These Real Food Maple Blondies are one of our favorites little treats. They also get bonus points for being super easy to make!
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, a dietitian or a medical professional of any sort. I am merely a home cook who strives to keep my family well-fed and healthy. Claims that these don’t run up blood sugar are based solely on Eric’s personal observations and may not apply to everyone.
OK, so when I make up a new recipe with Eric in mind, I usually try to strive for the recipe to meet a couple of specific criteria.
- Choose whole grains
- Add extra protein
- Use some healthy, fantastic extra virgin coconut oil
- Limit or eliminate refined sugar (sweeten with honey or maple syrup instead)
- Use some of those beautiful farm fresh eggs from the counter
- For goodness sake, make sure it still tastes good!
So, as you see, I have my work cut out for me, but I love a creative challenge! (I wouldn’t be a blogger if I didn’t!) And it doesn’t hurt that the family enjoys my “research and development” phase.
Basically when I try to “real food” a recipe, I make healthy swaps to the recipe that I think might work. Then I bake it up and see what happens. I ask myself questions like these:
- Does it tasted good?
- How’s the texture?
- How is Eric’s blood sugar?
- How does it make me feel after I eat these?
- Is my sweet tooth satisfied?
- Do I feel like I just ate a brick?
- Does this taste like “diet” food? (AKA, is it yucky?)
Lucky for us, these maple blondies are out of the R&D department and ready to share.
So, without further ado, here’s how we make our real food maple blondies!
- ¼ cup melted butter or coconut oil
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- 1 farm fresh egg
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ cup chopped nuts
- ¼ cup unsweetened coconut flakes (optional)
- Melt butter or coconut oil over low heat.
- Pour into mixing bowl and then whisk in maple syrup and egg.
- Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
- Omit coconut flakes if you don't care for them.
- Pour into a greased 8x8 baking pan or a 10" cast iron skillet.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the blondies comes out clean.
- Allow to partially cool before serving.
In terms of ingredients for these, I should probably call these “Amazon blondies.” Because we live in a rural area, we rely on Amazon prime for a lot of our “real food” ingredients. *Affiliate link alert!* The organic whole wheat flour, maple syrup and coconut oil I use in this recipe are all things that I have on my subscribe and save plan. I also occasionally order unsweetened coconut flakes from Amazon, because they are difficult to find locally. (Sometimes I do luck out at Big Lots of all places, though!) If your local stores have a good selection of items like this, then count yourself as lucky. I’m just glad there is a company willing to deliver them to my door!
If you like this recipe, you might also like my “Yummy Food” Pinterest board! And of course, if you don’t want to miss a recipe, you should sign up for Beulah’s Mooooooosletter. She’ll deliver all the farm news from the cow’s point of view!
For more great recipes, check out my cookbook!
***This post contains affiliate links. That means that a portion of the purchase price of items bought through these links goes toward keeping this blog up and running and food in Beulah’s bowl, so thanks!***
Looks wonderful! I may have to try making this, this weekend!
Thanks!