Are you enamored with teff flour yet? I am! Teff flour is my new baking darling. Making cookies? Teff flour. Making brownies? Teff flour. Making snack bars? Heck, yes, teff flour!

Even the Globe and Mail is publishing full page articles extolling the virtues of teff, and when the Globe and Mail gets on board, you know teff is making it mainstream. According to the Globe, teff is great for iron, protein, and fibre. Particularly of note, teff’s fibre comprises a lot of resistant starch, a particular kind of starch that resists digestion in your small intestine. This starch makes it into your large intestine and is turned, by the bacteria there, into good stuff for your body (basically it feeds the bacteria and they turn it into short-chain fatty acids). All very positive.

Teff has been called the endurance grain, the stamina grain, the energy grain, and more. Or maybe those are names I’ve made up. Either way, consensus is that teff should be in your diet prontissimo.

So let’s talk blondie bars. Also, don’t get too excited, but I’m going to be trying teff BROWNIES soon. Yes and yes.

But back to the blondies. These are another very easy intro recipe for teff. Easy to make gluten-free, simple ingredients, and really pretty forgiving. You can’t go wrong with nut butter and chocolate chunks in anything. You can’t teff this up.

The original recipe is from Vegan Richa; I just upped the teff factor. I took them to the office for a farewell party and my sister called them “the best bars ever”. They would make an awesome lunch snack (we are in the back to school zone) or a tasty and healthy-ish option for a work snack shindig.

Enjoy! Also I promise I’ll stop with the teff play on words very soon. I’ve pretty much run out of ideas anyways.

Chocolate Chunk Nut Butter Blondies (with Teff Flour)

• Author: Original recipe from Vegan Richa; tweaks by Emily Joldersma, R.H.N.
• Recipe Notes: vegan, gluten-free, oil-free

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup + 2 tablepoons non-dairy milk
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 tablepoon flax seed meal or ground chia
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup almond butter or peanut butter or other smooth nut butter (I used a mix of almond and peanut)
• 1/2 cup teff flour
• 1/4 cup  + 2 tablespoons coconut flour (or more teff, if you don’t have coconut flour)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2/3 cup gluten-free/dairy-free chocolate chunks

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, flax/chia, maple syrup, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
3. Stir in nut butter until completely combined.
4. In a separate bowl medium-sized bowl, whisk together teff and coconut flours, cornstarch, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until well-combined (without, you know, stirring the thing to oblivion).
6. Spread batter into a (very lightly) greased 8×8 pan and bake for 18-25 minutes, depending on your oven’s hotness. They should pull away from the edges of the pan just slightly and look dry on top.

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