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:
Vegan Chickpea Chocolate Chip 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
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’ve been making these often lately… Multiple batches most definitely.
Protein, fiber, whole food chickpea (not powder) and they taste great! I use 100% chocolate chips by Pascha and 1/2 cup coconut crystals by coconut secret. I use my Amazon silicone baking sheet. I originally made the batch according to the recipe but with 1/2 cup coconut sugar. It was great. The Last batch I made was without oats (grain free recipe) and used gar-fava flour instead, and applesauce instead of oil… Yum!!! Baked for 18min every time, soft dense tasty ?
Do you have the nutritional information for these?
You can calculate the info you need using the free calculator on MyFitnessPal.com.
Thank you so much for this recipe. They are delicious! I have a wheat allergy and try to stick to a lower sugar diet. I love the idea of the chickpeas for fiber and use the 88% cacao dark chocolate chips. Great mid-day snack. My boyfriend loves them too. Well done!
Excellent! It’s now one of my favorite cookie recipes! No one could tell they were made with chickpeas. I didn’t have coconut sugar so I replaced it with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup coconut flakes and it was very good. I did the recipe again and put more coconut flakes than brown sugar and I prefered it that way (that’s if you don’t mind the texture of coconut flakes of course). Thank you so much for this recipe!
I love your recipes! I was wondering how you store your cookies (or brownies) that contain beans, do you need to refrigerate?
I almost always refrigerate my baked goods to give them the best shelf life. These would probably keep well for 24-48 hours at room temperature, but since they’re moist they will be prone to molding much longer than that.
Very good! I replaced coconut sugar with cane sugar and coconut oil with sunflower seed oil and it turns out really great. 🙂
Omg!!!! I cannot stop making these cookies. Not only are they delicious, they are filling. Thank you Meagan!
These are AWESOME! I made a couple changes based on what I had on hand – but stuck pretty close to the original recipe. Used 1/2c brown sugar instead of coconut sugar; also included a couple dates, a couple Tblsp of chickpea juice; and cocoa powder (because – Chocolate!). Delicious! Off to the store to pick up more chick peas! Thanks for sharing!
um…. these are AMAZING! They are chewier and denser than a regular chocolate chip but there is no way to tell these are gluten free, let alone made with beans. I subbed 1/4 cup cane sugar and 1/2 brown sugar for the coconut sugar. Great recipe!
Can I use regular flour instead of oat flour?
This sounds amazing as is BUT! do you have any recommendations to make it into an oatmeal raisin cookie? I’m not a huge fan of chocolate chips but I really want to try this recipe and still keep it GF. Thanks!
Hmmm… I’ll see what I can do. 😉
Hi there! just wondering.. definitely a tablespoon of vanilla in these cookies, not a teaspoon? 🙂
I put a tablespoon of vanilla. You can barely taste it. Just right. The chocolate chips really takes over all the taste.
Thank you for this recipe! I made these today and we all loved it! Soft and chewy. Even my 6 year old loved it. Can’t even tastes the apple cider vinegar at all. Moist and not dry. I will definitely make again. I could even put less sugar next time b/c the chocolate chips are sweet.
I’ve been experimenting with chick pea chocolate chip cookies and this is the best recipe yet. I substituted Lucuma powder for the sugar (same amount) and two teaspoons maple syrup. Husband and toddlers love them.
Would the cookies turn out as well if I substituted canola oil or Earth Balance for coconut oil? Also, brown sugar for coconut sugar?
I haven’t tested those options myself, but I think they would probably still turn out tasty with those modifications.
I have been making these for about a year and just love them. I must say I cut the sugar to 1/3 of the stated amount (1/4 cup coconut sugar) and they are plenty sweet and yummy. The chocolate chips round out the sweetness. So if you are looking to cut on your sugar they still taste great!
Made these cookies and loved them. I had to make two batches because I did the first one in a blender and the cookies cam out really gritty. Next time I did it in a food processor and they came out better. Only complaint thye were a little dry. I would maybe add some more oil or a dash of water.
Hey ! Great recipe ! I’d love to try it, but do you have the quantities in grammes and liters ?
Thanks !
Alex.
HI! I tried out the recipe today for a bon-voyage party. My mother is my harshest critic, and she said it tasted amazing! It wasn’t too sweet, the initial bite is crisp; the coconut sugar is subtle and nuanced. I myself am vegan, but used Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips. There was enough chocolate throughout each bite. I asked for others’ constructive criticism of the cookie, and the consensus was: it’s delicious as a chocolate chip cookie! Not as a cookie that is made out of beans, but one that can truly stand on its own. Many thanks for sharing this recipe. I was a little skeptical of it working because I have had many failures on bean cookies before, but this is an exceptional game changer! I will be gifting these out as Christmas gifts: they’re that delicious. Thank you again!
Vegans don’t consume animal products at all just so you know. That’s a vegetarian.
I am not a vegan but my dad is and I wanted to make him something for working on my car recently. I used brown sugar and added a 1/4 cocoa powder plus a splash of almond milk to make these into a double chocolate cookie. I imagine black beans would add more intensity to the color if striving for a double chocolate cookie but as it was I wanted to use up my stock of canned chickpeas. These turned out great tasting, albeit a little dry. I would maybe add a “chia egg” next time for more moisture. Also, you might recommend to your readers when they drain their chickpeas, to save that liquid. My son has an egg allergy and that liquid is a great egg white replacement in many recipes.
Also, my kids had no idea they were eating bean cookies when I set them down for a taste test. They ate them quickly and asked for more haha so kid approved by a family of gluten and meat eaters.
Delicious!!! i made the recipe but used 1/3 less sugar, i cut up a 70% cacao bar for the chocolate chips. THey are still warm on my counter! I better wake my kids up from nap so they can eat some before i eat them all!
Such a great idea to add pulses to sweets and desserts! We’ve added white beans to pancakes, once and it is actually pretty good. These cookies look and sound as delicious as any “regular” chocolate chip cookie!
I tried these with normal flour, 1/2 c white sugar and olive oil as I didn’t have the other ingredients. No longer gluten free but still vegan. They were delicious, thanks!
These are a hit! I made one batch following the recipe, and then another using dates as the sweetener rather than the coconut sugar. I boiled the dates down to soften them up, and just threw it in the food processor. It took a little longer to get the dough to a smooth consistency but they turned out absolutely delicious 😋😊
These cookies are Sooo delicious! I was nervous to try beans in my sweets but these were really amazing, even my picky hubby couldn’t figure out there were chickpeas in there. Once I told him the secret, he was initially grossed out and then a few minutes later said he would have another one haha!
I couldn’t get coconut sugar so I subbed light brown sugar instead, and I also added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts just because I love them!
Thanks for so much for sharing!
Made these cookies twice now, first time they didn’t come out so good because I had to add water to the chickpeas in order for them to blend, I also subbed erythritol for sugar. Second time, I halved the recipe, used almost 3/4 cup of erythritol and everything else as usual. Also blended the chickpeas with a blender and then the rest of the way by hand. They came out so much better the second time! Thanks!
I’m just wondering how many calories per cookie?
Thanks for this recipe! I just made these and they taste fantastic (even the dough was delicious)! The baked texture is more like a cake or fudge which I enjoy. I’ll definitely make these again. Next time, I’ll add shredded unsweetened coconut 🙂
A very nice taste! Better than I’ve expected 😉 and the funny chickpea smell dissapears after cookies have cooled down.
A have used a spoon or two of shugar and two big tablespoons of honey. Totally enough 😉
These cookies are GREAT! Even my non-vegan-no-diet food eating Dad loves them! Plus, they are so easy to make! LOVE LOVE LOVE them 🙂
Would this recipe still be good without the chocolate chips or are those really essential? I know they are chocolate chip cookies but I’m trying to avoid chocolate lol
Busy Mom of 5 here… Not trying to improve this, just made these substitutions based on what I had, and wanted to let y’all know in case you were missing ingredients. (Some or all of these substitutions worked for me):
No chick peas, so I used cannellini beans
No chocolate chips, so I subbed a tbsp of pumpkin pie mix and turned them into Gingersnaps
No coconut sugar, but brown sugar works fine
No oat flour, but used GF trader joes flour
No coconut oil, but Earth Balance worked fine
Added in some chia seeds for crunch.
Kids loved it. (They also love the original recipe when I have all the ingredients). Thanks so much Megan!
Thank you for sharing what worked for you!
You don’t have to be gluten free or vegan to love these cookies! They are incredible and I make them all the time. They’re incredibly fast to make, too!
If you want them to look prettier, just put a few extra chocolate chips on top of each cookie before putting them in the oven.
Hi Megan,
Are all of your recipes made for the proper food combination?
Thanks!
All of the recipes in my two cookbooks are properly combined and clearly labeled, and I’ve also included properly combined meal plans in those. On the website, I share what I would consider “transition” recipes, to help people more toward whole foods and away from processed ones, but they are not all properly combined. I hope to have them all labeled one day on my website, but I’ve been blogging for years so there are a LOT of recipes to edit! You can always use the food combining chart as a guideline for determining if a recipe is combined or not. Hope that helps!
These are delicious! But half the time when I make these my batter goes really thin and I get these thin disks that haven’t risen at all. Other times they are thick and perfect. Haven’t changed a thing to the recipe. Do you know why this could be? Thanks!
Hey, I saw this recipe from Nikki limos YouTube video on tasty Tuesday. Thanks!
These are fabulous!! And I don’t feel worry about eating the raw dough either!
These are sooooo good!! I love them so much I’m addicted keep making them every few days! Thank you thank you I’ve been looking for a really yummy nut free chickpea cookie recipe for a while now.
Has anyone substituted chickpea flour? How did you adjust the liquids accordingly?
These turned out absolutely AMAZING!! So so so delicious and I’ll most definitely make these again! Also I added a little bit of cinnamon to my batch and it gave it a nice flavor. 🙂
I just made these and they’re sooooo good! I’m having a hard time stopping myself from devouring the whole batch! I’ll be making these regularly! Thanks for an amazing recipe!
My daughter has an oat allergy. Any other GF flours I could sub here?
I would think you could easily sub in any type of gluten free flour. Brown rice flour would be nice I think…
Wowsers! New to this plant-based way of eating, and I’m always on the lookout for recipes I can make to share with friends. This one is perfect! I’m restricted from oil, so I used tahini in place of the coconut oil, and they had a slightly ‘nutty’ flavor, but not overpowering. I also used extra vanilla to cover the chickpea flavor, and it worked great.
I find homemade oat flour to be a bit gritty, but that’s par for the course with whole-food plant-based, so I’m getting used to it. LOL
Regardless – superb recipe. Easy: 7 minutes to put together including washing the food processor; Simple Ingredients: If you’re eating plant based you probably have all of this in the house anyway; Delicious: Will satisfy even your omni-eating friends (sub a pastry-style flour if you need to address the gritty texture.
So so yummy! Thank you!!
What can you use besides coconut oil?
I do not like coconut I do not like the smell what is the substitute for coconut sugar
I have baked these cookies three times. My husband and four year loves them. I have shared this recipe with my friends.
I’ve found my new favorite cookie! So easy and absolutely delicious. If I hadn’t made them, I would never have been able to tell that they were made with chickpeas. Also, I used almond flour and had no issues. These are fantastic. Stop whatever you’re doing and make them right now!
Thank you for letting me know! Glad you enjoyed them!
Is it possible to us chick pea flour instead of the chickpeas?
I was a sceptic but I had to try it anyway. I used 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, 1 tablespoon of PB and halved the sugar. I needed all the strength in the world to stop eating these cookies immediately, they are too delicious. Has anyone tried it with applesauce for some of the oil? That would be my next experiment. Would love to see more bean desserts Detoxinista.
Love these cookies, my daughter prefers this recipe over the traditional one. We substitute almond extract 1T for the vanilla. And switch out brown sugar for coconut.
Almond extract is a great idea! Thanks for sharing!!