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Never in a million years would I have considered adding beans to my chocolate chip cookies, but that’s the fun thing about being an ambassador for the 2016 Year of Pulses– it’s giving me a great excuse to experiment with more ways to incorporate beans, lentils and dried peas into my recipes.
And the result is REALLY tasty.
I’ve been asked what my process is like when I develop recipes, so I thought I’d share a bit more about that today. Usually, I’ll get an idea for a recipe in my head, either from a craving or from sort of inspiration I see at a grocery store or online. In the case of these cookies, I was inspired to try adding pulses to a dessert because I’m in the middle of working on a new recipe in partnership with USA Pulses and Pulse Canada– and these cookies were one of the happy results that I thought I’d share in the meantime.
Once I have the idea for what I want to make, I’ll do a quick Google search to see what’s already out there. When it comes to recipes, almost everything has been tried, so it’s just a matter of seeing if someone has already tried the recipe the way I would do it. In the case of chickpea cookies, it seems that most websites have used a combination of chickpeas, peanut butter, and honey or maple syrup. That wasn’t the direction I was originally planning on going with it, but usually if a recipe is popular enough (meaning that there are enough copycat posts out there), I assume the recipe is decent and will try it as written to see what I think. My own taste buds and intuition are always my best guide! I made this recipe as written, and while the cookies were fine, they weren’t exactly what I was going for. (My toddler son took a bite, and immediately asked me to remove that bite from his mouth… so it wasn’t a winner across the board.)
What was good about that recipe, though, is that I didn’t taste beans at all. So, I knew that this idea could work, I just wanted a slightly better outcome. Lately, I’ve been aiming to create more nut-free and egg-free recipes, so I went with my original gut-feeling, which was to combine the chickpeas with a combination of gluten-free oat flour and coconut sugar. The coconut sugar helps give these cookies a dryer texture, rather than using a liquid sweetener like honey or maple syrup, and I think its maple-like flavor works perfectly in masking any chickpea flavor. My taste testers couldn’t tell there were beans in these cookies at all! (In fact, my husband’s co-worker has deemed these cookies BETTER than a “normal” cookie. Win!!) The beans act as the binder in this recipe, making eggs unnecessary, and they also add a hefty dose of fiber and protein to help stabilize blood sugar.
Knowing how much of each ingredient to add when developing a recipe is just a matter of experience and experimentation– usually it can take anywhere from 3 to 10 attempts to get a recipe right! So, we giveaway a lot of recipe experiments to neighbors or freeze them for future snacking. (In the case of my cookbook recipes, I usually test each recipe 20+ times, and then I also give the recipe to 25+ strangers to make in their own kitchens to make sure my instructions are clear.) I hope that you won’t have to do too much experimentation with the cookie recipe below, as it tastes pretty perfect to me! Keep in mind that adding a bean or vegetable puree to a cookie, in lieu of using eggs, will give any cookie a softer texture, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from gobbling these up– including my very picky son!
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Vegan Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 16 cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, or 1 (15 oz.) can, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour*
3/4 cup coconut sugar
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon raw apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
*Note: You can make your own flour by simply grinding gluten-free rolled oats in a food processor or coffee grinder until a fine flour is created.
Directions:
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas , or 1 (15 oz.) can, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon raw apple cider vinegar
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Process the chickpeas, coconut oil and vanilla in a large processor until relatively smooth. Add in the coconut sugar, flour, salt, baking soda and vinegar and blend until until a smooth batter is formed.
- Add in the chocolate chips and pulse briefly until incorporated. Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons onto a lined baking sheet and use wet fingers to gently flatten each mound (they won’t spread a lot on their own.) Bake until the tops begin to crack and the edges are dry to the touch, about 18 to 20 minutes. Cool completely before serving.
Video
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 207, Fat: 7g, Carbohydrates: 32g, Fiber: 5g, Protein: 5g
I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do!
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Reader Feedback: Have you ever tried adding beans or pulses to a dessert before?
I was wondering if this recipe has ever been tried as bars? We love these cookies and it’s our go to chocolate chip recipe, just curious what size and baking time if I wanted to do bars instead?
Hi.
Is the apple cider necessary? I don’t have that. Can I use white vinegar instead?
Also, can I use fine almond flour instead of the oat flour to make it healthier?
Oat flour has a lot of carbs (which are already present in the beans).
Thanks a bunch!
If you want to change the flour, I would recommend starting with a different recipe since almond flour is so different! My favorite one is here: https://detoxinista.com/almond-flour-cookies/ Or, you can try my Chickpea flour cookies which also make a great option!
I added aquafaba to the mix, autumn spices, and drizzled with oat butter once finished. Came out amazing. I used brown rice flour and added coconut flour as needed. my new go-to for cookies , thank you
Best. Cookies. Ever. I and my whole family loves them! They’re perfect and have about half the sugar content of classic chocolate chip cookies – plus they last so much longer :). I think I may be making these til the end of time. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
These are aboslutely delicious!! I have been making them for years! Non vegans love them too!!Thank you!!!
My question is regarding storage, I would like to send them to my daughter in college. How long can they stay in an air tight container without refrigeration?
I despise chickpeas, but this recipe intrigued me, as I’m now dairy-free & soy-free because of my baby’s allergies. I’ll admit, it was an absolute pain to make because I used my ninja bullet to blend everything, instead of the food processor. Way too dry for the ninja.
But oh my goodness, if I didn’t eat so much dough, I would have been left with more than 8 cookies! I actually really loved them. So did my husband, who’s not into any of this stuff. But most importantly, so did my 2 year old. We all loved them. And although I told myself I’m never making them again, since it was a pain, I’m going to make a much bigger batch tomorrow! (We already finished them all). Thanks for this recipe – this is exactly what I needed!
These cookies are very good. I’ve made these several times and never found the recipe to be dry. Maybe others are using cooked beans, as I’ve found those to be drier than canned beans. Another reason might be if folks are using a full 19 oz. can of beans. In Canada that’s the standard size of canned beans.
My substitutions are olive oil for the coconut oil and light brown sugar for the coconut sugar. Sometimes I have to bake them as littler longer than 18 minutes.
OMG! they are so good, i trully recommend baking them. 10 out of 10
delicious – what a winner!! my husband and children loved them too so double happiness 🙂