Coconut Flour Blondies with Chocolate Chips

I got a bag of Let's Do... Organic Coconut Flour and could not wait a full day even to try it out. They have coconut cream too, which has the wheels in my head turning. I'll definitely post about that later. I have been experimenting with gluten-free recipes, and saw this recipe in Living Without a few months ago. I decided to adapt it and make it vegan. I also decided not to do gluten-free for this one, because I wanted all the other flavors to be familiar except the coconut flour. It tasted nutty and coconut-y just in the powder form, so I figured in a blondie it will be perfect.

Here's the recipe the way I did it.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup SOFT dates (it took 6 for me)- if your dates are not soft, soak them in about 1/2 cup warm water, and use that water for your flax eggs
3 Tbsp flax mixed with 1/2 cup water (let it sit and gel)
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line an 8X8in pan with parchment paper. Spray oil over the parchment and pan. Put all the wet ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Try not to drink the resulting liquid (this may be the hardest part of this recipe). Blend the dry ingredients in a large bowl (not including chips) with a whisk or fork to break up any coconut flour clumps. Pour wet ingredient liquid into THE BOWL, not your mouth, and combine completely. Add chocolate chips and give it another spin with your spoon. It will look like cookie dough and taste like awesome. Don't eat it all, but go ahead and taste that. It's got hints of macaroon flavor, but the texture and chips bring you back to memories of chocolate chip cookies. Now fight the impulse to form this into balls and press it down into your pan evenly and bake it for 25-30 minutes. It will leave your hands feeling luscious with coconut oil, which is a really good moisturizer. You may lick the bowl now. And the spoon. And the inside of the food processor (watch for blade). Let them cool a bit before pulling it all out in your handy dandy parchment paper and cooling competely before cutting. The original recipe says this makes 16, but realistically, I'm going to get 9 portions from this.

These had a great chewy moist texture, a perfect flavor that just hinted at coconut, and a pretty slightly browned top.  I think next time I'll use a little more agave and fewer chocolate chips, but overall it was a success!  My husband who isn't a coconut fan ate them up and said they didn't have the coconut flavor he doesn't like.  I, on the other hand, got my hints of maccaroon flavor without it being overpowering.  I think these would also be great with shredded coconut and macadamia nuts instead of chocolate chips, because they already have a slight island flavor.