Chickpea Cookies

Chickpea cookies with no flour, no oil, no white sugar. These are just full of chickpeas. And they’re my very favorite healthy cookie so far! I don’t know if they really classify as cookies so I’ll go with cookie dough bites. And as a bonus, they’re grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan. Just in case that matters to anyone out there! And if you’re worried about the chickpeas, don’t be. I don’t like chickpeas and won’t eat them but that didn’t prevent me from inhaling these.

These aren’t the most beautiful cookie dough bites, but fresh out of the oven, with all that gooey chocolate, I bet you can’t tell that these are made with chickpeas. Or are grain-free. But cold? Yuck. These need to be warm! You can either freeze the balls and pop a few in the oven whenever it’s on, or simply put them in the microwave until they’re warm and gooey again.

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• Prep Time: 8 min
• Cook Time: 10 min
• Ready in: 18 min

Yield: 14 1" cookies

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter, SunButter Natural or almond butter - room temperature
• ¼ cup (80 grams) honey (commenters have usedagave and maple syrup with success!)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
• ½ cup (90 grams) chocolate chips (use vegan and dairy-free chocolate chips, if needed)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they're combined.
2. Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky.
3. With wet hands, form into 1½" balls. Place onto a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don't do much rising.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes. The dough balls will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven. They will not set like normal cookies.
5. Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to 1 week.

Notes

• My can of chickpeas was 400 grams, 240 grams without the water, and I used all but a few tablespoons.
• Don't even try with regular peanut butter! They'll come out oily. You MUST use natural peanut butter. :)
• If you need grain-free baking powder, you can use 1 part cream of tartar + 1 part baking soda + 2 parts arrowroot.