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!
—
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!
—
Reader Feedback: Have you ever tried adding beans or pulses to a dessert before?
I’m no oil, can I use something else?
These are the best cookies out there! I call them everybody cookies because everyone can eat them!
These are outstanding. I like choc-chip cookies to be crispier, so I just bake them a little longer and they are wonderful.
Haven’t tried, yet, but, as long as the recipe is primarily based upon chickpeas, anyway, why not use some chickpea flour, instead of the oat flour?
Just made these, they are soooo good, let hubby try them before I told him what was in there and he said they were great!!!
These were awesome. I used only 1/4 cup sugar, which was just barely enough, but since there were enough chocolate chips in each bite, it was fine. I’m wondering what the purpose of the vinegar is in the cookies? ( Ididn’t use any)
This is great! I can’t tell that it’s vegan or has chickpeas! One question – why do you recommend we add ACV?
It reacts with the baking soda to help vegan recipes rise, since it doesn’t call for eggs.
So soft and delicious!!
So good! Only had about 1/4 cup of oat flour left so I subbed the rest with red mills gluten free. Also used brown sugar instead of coconut sugar. Delicious. Couldn’t even tell these weren’t “real” coconuts!!!! This is day 2 and they aren’t staying together… any suggestions for the next time? I know you mentioned coconut sugar to help dry out. Maybe I can use a teaspoon of coconut flour?
Also for chocolate chips most of wegmans brand of chocolate chips do not contain milk or any allergen… and it’s nearly 1/3 the price of many other vegan brand of chocolate chips! You’re welcome lol 🙌🏾
INCREDIBLE! Subbed 2 bananas and used less sugar, and added oatmeal at end to give more texture, and subbed chocolate chips for cacao nibs. SO GOOD
Great recipe, my son is picky and loved them. Next time I will reduce sugar slightly and choc chips by 2 TBLs. They are delicate to eat and fall apart easily but that’s not a deal breaker. Will try adding a bit of nut butter next time as we don’t have any nut allergies in our household.
Is nutritional value per cookie? Seems high for one cookie
can i use chickpea flour? same amt. with the beans?
These are AMAZING! Would never guess they’re made of beans!
How do you store them and for how long? Just made a tray and they are delicious!!
Love this! Made a couple different chickpea recipes last week and my husband told me he needed a little break from them. Made these hoping he’d see he didn’t really mean that! Lol! I was right! He’s asking for a second batch!
My question: how would flax be as a sub for oat flour??
Thank you so much!!
What is a serving size for the chick pea chocolate cookie recipe?
Hey how many cookies is serving ? You wrote 207 calories per serving , is this for one cookie ??
Loved these. Great recipe. I was AMAZED that you can’t tell that there are beans in them, let alone as the main ingredient, They are softer and not crispy, but, hold together nicely. Terrific with coffee.
I’m allergic to oats. Any suggestion on what could be a similar flour to use for texture?
The dough is delicious too. I freeze some to nibble on! I adore regular chocolate chip cookies but need to watch carbs , etc. I have tried so many recipes but this one is best yet! I replaced coconut sugar with monk sugar due to carb restriction and didn’t seem to make any difference! Still yummy! I also used half lily stevia chips and half endangered species 88% chocolate bar broken up into chips/ again to reduce carbs. Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
These are sooo amazing! Thank you !!!Just FYI I subbed sugar with monk sweetener to cut down on carbs and it was still great. Wanted to ask you if there was a good oil to sub for coconut while still keeping this yummy? I need to change that out for one friends. Thank you!
These are amazing. They taste a little like choc and nut cookies.
Do you think pinto beans could work here? Made them four times with chickpeas and they’re amazing!:)
Absolutely delicious! I will say that I have made MANY chickpea-based baking recipes and almost always, there is a district background taste. BUT, these are just light, fluffy, cookies! Now, I will say, do not be startled when your batter isn’t super thick! I was skeptical that these would even turn out, but they are light, fluffy, and packed with chocolate!
Hi! can I replace the oat flour with almond flour? or will that ruin the texture of the cookie?
I don’t have any oats but I really want to try it!
Thank you for this recipe! These cookies were an all around fan fave! My only problem was that they were a bit crumbly, we could hardly touch them and they would desintegrate. What could I add to bind them more? Egg?
Hi! I have a question. Is there a difference between oat flour made with rolled oats versus quick oats?
I’m not 100% positive, but I don’t think there would be a huge difference once it’s finely ground.
These are amazing! I really can’t believe that these taste like real cookies! I have tried several other recipes that were just ok, tu this is my new go-to. I did add a couple tablespoons of almond butter (not sure why) and I subbed a stevia based sweetener and they turned out phenomenal! Thanks so much for sharing!
Really delicious cookies! My one and two year old devoured them. I added 1/4 cup of maple syrup instead of the sugar, also added in some spinach and flax seed and some oat milk. Turned out really well, will be making them again. Thank you!
This is the first dessert recipe I have made that had chickpeas in it, The cookies came out great! The dough started off very dry but after combining all the ingredients in the food processor (minus the chocolate chips), it actually ended up being a very moist dough. And the end product was a super moist and delicious cookie!
may i use sunflower oil instead of coconut oil?
Hello ! Is it 207 calories for 1 cookie ?
Love love these cookies. My son is allergic to everything, he loves these cookies. I used maple syrup instead of sugar and I also throw in spinach or kale. Perfect healthy snack!!
Thank you so much for this recipe! No lie. It is the absolute best chocolate chip cookie I have ever made. My husband is a cookie monster! But, I also want to watch out for his cholesterol and digestive needs. I am now baking them for our adult children to introduce healthier eating for themselves and their children. Bon Appetite!
I plan to try these but wanted to warn you – chickpeas are legumes, as are PEANUTS. Some people allergic to peanuts also react to chickpeas (like my son). You mentioned in your blog post that you have been trying to make more nut-free cookies – this one technically is not nut free if you get down into the details.
Wow, I’ve never heard of that! They let us bring chickpeas to our nut-free school, so that’s really interesting to know. Thanks for sharing.
These cookies are my absolute favorite weekly treats! And easy to make. Because I don’t use coconut sugar (I use brown sugar), I’d like to try a healthier alternative. Would monkfruit sweetener be okay to use?
I make these weekly! My favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe! My family approves of them!
These are awesome!!!
I never comment, but these are amaze balls 😂. So yummy 🤤 I would even say better than regular flour ones, I’ve done the coconut oil and also substituted with butter because I ran out of oil. Lowered the sugar to 1/2 a cup and since you can’t find coconut sugar in Mexico I’ve used white and brown sugar (both work great). I have an extremely picky eater and loves these. I add flaxseed or psyllium husk powder just 2 teaspoons for added nutrition for my kiddo and it doesn’t affect the flavor. My parents devour these also! Thanks so much for this recipe!
This is so incredibly delicious!!!! Thank you so much for this recipe. I reduced the sugar and added mini semi sweet chocolate chips and it is insanely delicious! Thank You Thank You Thank you!
delicious – what a winner!! my husband and children loved them too so double happiness 🙂
OMG! they are so good, i trully recommend baking them. 10 out of 10
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.
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 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?
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!
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