Healthy Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve been trying to make a safe for eating and not funky tasting GF cookie dough. Not to turn into cookies, just to eat or use as cookie dough. There must be other people who miss cookie dough ice cream! I’ve had a number of dessert ideas that involve safe to eat GF cookie dough, but I really needed a cookie dough that didn’t have that weird GF flour flavored aftertaste before I could make those.

I’ve been experimenting and testing different ideas for this cookie dough with no really good results. I’m just getting funny flavors across the board. That is exactly what happened when I tried to turn this Chocolate Cover Katie recipe for blondies into cookie dough. I had high hopes, but it tasted funny! Maybe it was the flax, or maybe it was the chickpeas. It didn’t taste badly (I actually did enjoy it eating the dough!), but the taste did not scream “cookie dough”.

I don’t like wasting food and I couldn’t use the strange tasting dough in my recipe so I decided to bake it. Novel idea for a dough, I know, right? I had a small batch since I was testing, so I plopped some cookie shapes onto a cookie sheet and threw it in the oven for 10 minutes. I wasn’t expecting much, honestly. My cookie experiments end poorly about 75% of the time. So, when I opened the oven door, and there appeared to be real looking cookies on the baking sheet, I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Yes, that is a half eaten cookie.

I let the cookies cool, and ate one. Actually, I think I ate three. They are surprisingly good. They are soft, like I think cookies should be, and there is no funny aftertaste. Baking win!

Making these cookies is simple. You throw all the ingredients in the food processor. For thicker cookies, you’ll refrigerate the dough overnight. For thinner cookies, you throw them on the cookie sheet and bake them right away. You will literally have warm, soft, chocolatey cookies in under 20 minutes.

Thick cookies (chill dough overnight)

Thin Cookies (no chilling required)

Oh, and did I mention, these are healthy?! Just look at the ingredient list – its a lot healthier than a normal cookie recipe! So many good things in one cookie 🙂

 

Ingredients

• 15.5 oz. can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 2 Tbs creamy peanut butter
• 2 Tbs ground flax
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 c + 2 Tbs (or 1C – 2 Tbs) brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 c chocolate chips (or more)

Baking Directions

1. For the smoothest result, take the thing clear shells off the the chickpeas. This will take a while, FYI. It’s also not necessary, and will only change the texture of the cookie slightly.
2. Combine all ingredients except the chocolate chips in the food processor, letting it run until a smooth, uniform dough forms.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. For thicker cookies, chill the dough in the refrigerator overnight, before moving on to next step. (Note: you may have an easier time with shaping the dough into cookies if you refrigerate it for even 15 minutes before baking.)
5. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put a silpat (or parchment paper) on a large baking sheet.
6. Run your hands under cold water, and then scoop up about a tablespoon of dough, roll in into a ball, and flatten the ball onto the prepared baking sheet.
7. Repeat with the rest of the dough, wetting your hands when the dough starts to stick to them. Leave space on the cookie sheet for the the cookies to expand.
8. Cook for 12 minutes.
9. The cookies will be very soft. Let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes and they will firm up.

Recipe Inspiration: Healthy Chocolate Chip Blondies from Chocolate Covered Katie