I don’t normally go putting weird things in my cookies but look what happened here. These are just full of chickpeas. And they’re sweetened with honey and have no added fat like oil or butter. 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 and gluten-free. 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 need the chocolate. Don’t go making them without the chocolate and then tell me that they weren’t sweet or gooey enough! These would be incredibly boring without the chocolate. And for some weird reason, these do not taste yummy in dough form. Baking them somehow brings out the sweetness and peanut butter flavor. Or maybe it’s just all that melted chocolate.
One thing I’ve learned since starting this blog is that people really love closeups of melted stuff. So there you go. :)
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.
2/18/13 Update: Tons of people have posted the nutritional analysis for these. Click “older comments” at the bottom of the page to view more comments and then hit ctrl + f and type “calories” or “nutrition.” I’m not going to post the analysis here because they seem to differ wildly.
A few other answers to questions that have come up several times:
- The peanut butter should be the kind with only peanuts and salt. No added fat or sugar. Be careful because there are some “natural” brands out there which aren’t really natural. I find that this peanut butter is usually expensive so I make my own. You can make your own in only 5 minutes with a food processor. Check that out here.
- Chickpea flour won’t work.
- Doing this in a blender (unless it’s a Blendtec or something) won’t work and might kill it.
- Adding random stuff like eggs… probably won’t work either. ;) Experimenting is great but I think this is a bad recipe to experiment with. But thanks to the experimenters who left feedback, I’ve been able to update the recipe with alternatives to honey and peanut butter. Thanks everyone! And someone has also adapted these to be totally sugar-free. See that comment here.
- For a vegan version, you can’t use honey. Use agave. Also be sure to check your chocolate chips! I’ve used these Enjoy Life chocolate chips and they are amazing!
And thanks for everyone who has pinned and left feedback. I really appreciate it. :)
Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- 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
- ¼ cup (80 grams) honey (commenters have used agave 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 chocolate chips, if needed)
Directions
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. Bake for about 10 minutes.
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.
788 comments on "Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites" — Add one!
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Has anyone tried these with almond butter instead of peanut butter?
Hi Dorothy, I made them with almond butter just this morning and they are really good (even though I inadvertently omitted the vanilla extract, jelly brains that I am). I will definitely make them again.
Can I just point out that they’re not vegan if you use honey….maple syrup would be fine. The constituents of the chocolate chips would also need to be checked if you’re vegan.
Jelly brains? I’ve never heard that one before and I love it! Definitely going to try to work that one into my daily vocab. :) Thanks for answering Dorothy’s question and for the feedback! I listed agave and maple syrup as a sub for the honey and assumed that a vegan would know not to use honey. But I just realized people might make these for their vegan friends and not realize about the honey and chocolate chips so I’ll make a note about that. Thanks again!
Yup, almond butter is listed as an alternative to peanut butter in the ingredient list. :)
My wife just made these, they were great. And then I went on kickstarter and found someone using your photos for their project. That always bugs me:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2092955106/zaiynahs-grandma-mobile-pastry
Thank you so much for letting me know, Boris! I’ll go check out that site right now. And I’m happy that you liked the recipe. Thanks again for the tip! :)
Yummy! I tried them with reconstituted chickpeas, and they turned out great! I had never used reconstituted chickpeas before, but they taste amazing and I highly recommend trying them. Also, because the chickpeas hadn’t cooled after cooking them, I ended up accidentally melting the chocolate chips. My neighbour referred to them as ‘chocolate bombs’.
I had to google what reconstituted chickpeas are. Thanks for teaching me something new. And melted chocolate in the cookies? Genius! Thanks a bunch for the feedback and the rating. :)
I tried these this weekend and loved them. Reblogged in fact! Would love for you to follow me/check it out.
Thanks!
http://mymilehighpie.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/cookie-dough-doesnt-always-have-to-be-raw/
I’ll go check them out, Annie! Thanks a bunch for letting me know about it. :)
Thanks, Erin! Good suggestions all, especially using nuts and brown rice syrup.
Since my husband is a serious chocolate lover, I will look for the Sunspire brand of grain-sweetened chips. But, also, here’s something else: After posting my question regarding avoiding refined sugar, I remembered that I had a recipe tucked away for making homemade chocolate chips with cocoa powder, extra virgin coconut oil, vanilla extract, and pure stevia (no blends) for the sweetener. For anyone who also needs to remove sugar from their diet, but loves chocolate, this might fit the bill. Guess I’ll try my hand at producing some of these tasty looking morsels (using powdered pure stevia as the sweetener)! The recipe came from this blog:
http://wholenewmom.com/recipes/desserts/homemade-chocolate-or-carob-chips/
That recipe sounds great! Thanks for sharing it. In Germany, we have high quality and delicious chocolate at a very low price. I’ve been in the US for the past two weeks and just discovered how expensive chocolate chips are. It’s insane! And they’re not even that good. Thanks again for sharing. :)
I can’t wait to try these. It’s no longer “dough” once it’s baked though.
Hope you like it! And once baked, they’re still basically doughy. Hence the dough in the name. :)
anything with chocolate in it is good as long as it has the right texture
Oh man!!! Ok…first I tried the recipe the original way, they turned out pretty good but nowhere near looking like the one’s pictured above! I also didn’t really like the texture…
So! As one comment stated, I removed the skin off of the chick pea’s, added 1 egg and 1 tablespoon, left them in the oven for 2 extra minutes and holy cow…it was the closest thing to my Chips Ahoy!!
The mixture was more liquidy but they came out looking like actual cookies.
I did the toothpick test before pulling them out, let them cool completely and am very, very pleased with this version!!!
Try it!
Thank you so much for this recipe!!
Charles
**Should read: 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of Vinegar!!
Hi Charles! I’m intrigued by your version and think I’m going to try it myself in a few weeks. My cookies always turn out like the pictures but others have said that they don’t. Who knows. ;)
Thanks so much for your feedback and the rating! I really appreciate it. :)
When Costco quit stocking natural peanut butter for so long, I started making my own by grinding peanuts in the food processor, and we actually prefer it over store bought peanut butter. Now I’ll make my peanut butter and then make the cookies right afterwards without washing the processor. They are just fantastic!!! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Karen! I agree with you. Homemade peanut butter is so much better than the stuff at the store. It’s also what I use in the these cookies. :) Thanks so much for the feedback and the rating!
These are a-freakin-mazing. I just recently began watching my grain/gluten and sugar intake so these fit the bill. WOW. My husband and I went nuts over them. We’re going to serve them tomorrow at our Father’s Day picnic.
I hope that the people at the picnic enjoyed the cookies! And I’m happy to hear that you liked them. Thank you so much for the feedback. :)
Greetings from Johannesburg, South Africa. I made these this morning and they turned out great! Wouldn’t guess that there are chickpeas in them! Thanks for the recipie!
Hi Brenda! I’m happy that the cookies came out for you. And yeah… it’s a pretty weird recipe, isn’t it? ;) Thanks for the rating and feedback!
i am going to try them when i get home
I need to avoid refined sugar. What can be used in lieu of regular chocolate chips since white sugar is a major component in the chips? Thanks!
You can just leave out the chocolate chips if you like. Other people have and they still enjoyed them. :) You could use nuts or Sunspire grain-sweetened chocolate chips. They use brown rice syrup instead of white sugar.
Unsweetened carob chips would probably be good. Most likely that’s what I’ll be using.