08 Nov Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

You won’t believe the secret ingredient in these cookies!
Photo by Steffani Cameron

I love cookies, but cookies don’t love me. Sugar, gluten, you name it – classic cookie ingredients have always disagreed with me.

That is, until I tried chocolate chip cookies made with chickpeas. Surprisingly, they were good! But the recipes I’ve tried have been wildly different, and many add far too much peanut butter and sugar, negating the reason behind switching to chickpeas, I thought.

I experimented to reduce fat and eliminate sugar. I’m super-proud of this result and you’ll be shocked at how much they taste like the real deal.

These taste yummy, sweet, and gloriously cookie-like, so you might forget just how healthy (and packed with fibre) they are. They’re a perfect on-the-go snack.

Ingredients
¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup natural honey
2 x 19 oz cans of chickpeas (rinsed and drained well)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.25 cup natural peanut butter, at room temperature
1 cup chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

Add the applesauce, the chickpeas, half the peanut butter, and all the honey to the food processor. Blend it until everything’s getting happy. Add the rest of the peanut butter and blend until it’s as smooth as you can get it — like buttah, baby.

This is important. With the chickpeas pureed, do not add the chocolate chips! The beans will be too hot from pureeing, and it will melt the chocolate. Instead, cover the chickpea mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour or even till the next day, no big deal.

When it’s cool, add the baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and mix well. Now add the chocolate chips. Mix well again.

Form into tablespoon-sized balls, roll, and press down. Bake on parchment-lined sheets at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on size. (Don’t overcook them; look for a bit of colour and take them out. Remember, they’d be safe to eat raw, as there’s no egg!)

I love hot-out-of-the-oven normal cookies, but the perfect temperature for these fellas is about 10 minutes after they come out. They’ll stay chewy afterwards too. Don’t forget your glass of milk! Remember, fibre.

Alternatives

Want to funk them up? Add Skor chips, walnuts, and other tasty items when you would the chocolate chips. Add between ½ to 1 cup of your add-in for one batch.

Since I’m single, I freeze my dough in ½ cup containers for when I’m having a rough day working from home and want them fresh. In 20 minutes or so, it’s soft enough to scoop out and make a mini batch of cookies. It works out to 5 cookies per ½ cup, so keep that in mind when freezing in other sized containers.

I’ve got a cookbook coming out! Sign up here if you’d like to be notified when it’s released.