When I first started my baking blog I decided to go easy on myself. This recipe was given to me at a high altitude baking class I attended when I first moved to Santa Fe. It was already adapted for high altitude, it just needed to be veganized.

First, I substituted vegan margarine for butter. Then I swapped bananas for eggs. While I was changing the recipe, I made it healthier by using whole wheat flour in place of some of the white flour. I also added extra chocolate chips because, well, you can never have too much chocolate.

These bar cookies turned out perfect on the first try! They were moist and dense, but still slightly crumbly. Years later, while adjusting the recipe to the lower altitude of 5000 feet, I decided to try some other tricks I learned. Let me just say that many attempts were made and many sub-par blondies were eaten until I decided to go back to the one I had made before. Here is that recipe that had worked out so well.

Chocolate Chip Blondies
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 cup organic sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 TBS vanilla soy yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
6 oz chocolate chips
Heat oven to 350F. Grease a 9 x 13″ metal pan. Cream margarine and sugars. Add yogurt, vanilla and bananas. Mix well. Sift together flours, baking powder and salt. Mix half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix in other half of dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread mixture into the prepared pan. Bake 32-35 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.

Until next time, happy baking!