The Original Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites Recipe (aka 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.
* 2017 update: this post is 5 years old and I have a new favorite. :D You HAVE to try these paleo chocolate chip cookies if you haven’t already! There’s also a vegan option. And for hot summer days, these no-bake oatmeal cookies (naturally gluten-free + vegan) are my favorite!
- Nutrient-Rich Ingredients: Packed with protein and fiber from chickpeas and natural peanut butter, these bites are as nourishing as they are delicious.
- Naturally Sweetened: Maple syrup or honey provides a subtle sweetness, eliminating the need for refined sugars.
- Diet-Friendly: These bites are gluten-free, dairy-free, and grain-free, making them suitable for various dietary needs.
- Kid-Approved: Their cookie-dough-like texture and chocolatey goodness make them a hit with both kids and adults.
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.
By the way, if you’re a peanut butter lover like I am, you have to try these healthy peanut butter balls. They’re also gluten-free and vegan!
Ingredients Notes
These are just notes on select ingredients. Please scroll below for the full recipe!
- Chickpeas: Also known as garbanzo beans, chickpeas provide the creamy base for these bites. Use canned chickpeas for convenience, and make sure to rinse and drain them well to remove any briny flavor.
Chickpea flour won’t work. I don’t think plain hummus will either. I haven’t tried anything other than chickpeas, but others have used butter beans, navy beans, red kidney beans, great northern beans, and lentils with success.
I generally don’t like goodies made with those types of beans, but I love these cookies made with chickpeas. Please use chickpeas unless you have an allergy! - Peanut Butter: This should be the kind with only peanuts and salt. No added fat or sugar. Be careful because there are some “natural” brands out there that aren’t really natural.
I find that this peanut butter is usually expensive, so I make my own. Here’s how to make peanut butter! All you need is peanuts and a food processor (which you already have to pull out for this chickpea cookie recipe!).
Other nut or seed butters also work great. I use sunflower seed butter for a nut-free version. - Maple Syrup or Honey: make sure to use maple syrup for the vegan version. For a totally sugar free version, some commenters have used 30 drops of Stevia and cacao nibs with success.
- 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 cookie dough bites 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.
- Doing this in a blender won’t work and might kill the blender. Making these in a Blendtec blender or something equally powerful might work but I haven’t tried 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.
- Do not double the recipe! It might be too much for your machine and could damage it.
- Vegan Peanut Butter Fudge: A creamy, caramel-like fudge made with just four ingredients. It’s vegan, gluten-free, and comes together in minutes.
- Peanut Butter Apple Crumble: A delightful twist on a classic dessert, combining tender apples with a peanut butter oat topping. It’s gluten-free and vegan.
- Peanut Butter Protein Balls: Perfect for on-the-go snacking, these no-bake bites are packed with protein and flavor, and they’re easy to customize.
- Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies: Soft, chewy, and flourless, these cookies are a simple yet satisfying treat that’s naturally gluten-free.
- Healthy Peanut Butter Ice Cream: A rich and creamy no-churn ice cream that’s both vegan and paleo-friendly, offering a guilt-free indulgence.
Chickpea Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (205 grams) canned chickpeas well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel1
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 10 tablespons (160 grams) natural peanut butter SunButter Natural or almond butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (80 grams) honey or maple syrup or agave for vegan
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) chocolate chips use vegan and dairy-free chocolate chips, if needed
Instructions
- 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 1 1/2" 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. The dough balls will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven. They will not set like normal cookies.
- 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 of the chickpeas.
- 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.
The best bean cookies EVER. SO OBSESSED!!!! Definitely my “go-to” bean cookie recipe from now on!
Haha. Your go-to bean cookie? You have several bean cookie recipes? :D Love it! Thanks so much for sharing the cookies on IG and so happy that you liked them. :)
This recipe is wonderful, I have just mad my first batch of these, they are so delicious, I used all 240g of chick peas and normal peanut butter but I have since looked at your homemade recipe for peanut butter and will try that next time. I must also find some smaller chocolate pieces to put into this recipe as they hadn’t melted properly.
I’m so happy that you enjoyed the cookies, Jane! :) And good to know that using the entire can of chickpeas works. I hope you’ll enjoy the homemade peanut butter! It’s so very quick and easy and impossible to mess up (which I love ;)) Thanks a ton for the feedback and the rating!
Amazing ! Super yummy :)
So happy that you liked them Diane! :)
Mine don’t look as good as yours yet they do taste good . Thanks
You’re welcome! I took a look at your picture. Perhaps it was the almond butter you used? I had no idea that Jif even made almond butter! Interesting. :)
Hi, I saw that you noted people had commented saying these were 80-130 calories each but to use a counter. I have just done that and stated 16 cookies each out of the receipe. The online calorie counter states they are 165 calories each.
WoW – That seems very high.
Any thoughts?
Anyway they are very tasty but my blender did not like wizzing it all together.
Kind Regards, Emma
Hi! I’m happy that you found them tasty. :) And the difference in calorie counters and the exact brand of ingredients chosen with those calorie counters is exactly why I don’t list the nutritional information. They vary too greatly. 165 for 16 sounds much, much higher than the other commenters’ results. I’ve also used a few different calorie counters and gotten around 110 – 120. Perhaps one of the ingredients was off?
Thank You Erin, i’ll go with yours :-)
Darn, all the good stuff has chocolate! Can’t have that either. Darn!
You could just leave it out. :)
I am just about to take batch #3 out of the oven! My husband and I are addicted! We’ve been using agave, and they are great hot or cold! Thank you!
Wow! Three batches? That’s impressive! So happy that you liked them (especially when cold!) Thanks a bunch for the feedback. :)
Thought you’d like to know this FB page is using your recipe and photo without attribution:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=648511628502138&set=a.102400699779903.5190.100000299205237&type=1
Thanks so much for letting me know! I’ll see about having them add a link. And wow. So many shares. :( Thanks again!
ignore my last comment kept them in for few more minutes all in shape and warm and gooey and sooo tasty! Cheers
So happy that they came out for you! :) Thanks for coming back to let me know they worked out!
how soft should they be? Have left for ten minutes but still seem super soft so much so I dont think I would be able to get them off the tray to even resemble cookies/dough balls?
whoops, just saw you could freeze them! Yay!!
Yay! Hope you’ll like them! :)
Can’t wait to make this. Just wondering, can you freeze them?
Yup! People have frozen both the dough and the baked cookies with success. :)
I’m Sharing on FB’s Modarelli Baking Company’s page
but linking your page to come back here for the recipe :)
Awesome! Thanks so much. I really appreciate it. :)
I had to substitute about a third of the peanut butter with cashew butter and when I tried the dough, it tasted exactly like Reeses cups filling. I’m German and I haven’t had Reeses cups in ages so you can imagine the victory dance I did. Truly awesome. And I think they’re not bad when they’re cold either, but my other baking might have given me low standards :D
Vielen Dank, liebe Texanerin. Deine Seite ist perfekt für Amerikanisches veganes Backen mit deutschen Zutaten!! Bitte bleib!
Vielen Dank for your very nice comment, Sarah! :) I’m happy that the cashew butter worked out. And if you like Reese’s, you can make your own at home! I have this recipe for homemade Reese’s. They’re super easy to make! They’re not vegan but you could use powdered sugar or probably agave in place of honey. :) Thanks again for the feedback and the rating!
AWESOME recipe !! hubby loved them (didn’t tell him the ingredients until after he ate them hahaha). Made it with regular peanut butter and it was fine :) Will be making another batch tomorrow! I cant believe there is no flour!!
thanks
So happy that they worked out with regular peanut butter. Yay! :) And good call on not telling your husband the ingredients first. ;) Thanks a million for the feedback and the rating!
Rock the skinny badge! You have been featured on FoodSkinny.com
http://www.foodskinny.com/food-2/skinny-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-bites/
Thanks for letting me know!
Does a Magic Bullet count as a food processor? I’d love to make these but that’s the best I’ve got besides a regular blender..
I haven’t tried it but I found this in an old comment: “If you don’t have a food processor or Blendtec you can cheat with a Magic Bullet. Blend about 1/4 of the can at once and then mix the dough in a bowl like normal cookie dough.” I hope that helps! :)
I’ve made other chickpea cookies but this recipe is different and sounds yummy. I’m going to make them right now. I have a ripe banana I’d like to use. Have you ever added a banana?
Sorry I wasn’t able to get back to you immediately! I haven’t tried these with a banana so I’m not sure if that’d work. Did you try? I hope you enjoyed them! :)
I just tried to make this and it came out tasting awful :( I am do upset! I am going to the store right now to get some more ingredients to make them again. I used cashew butter (only thing I had) maybe that’s it? I hope the second time around it’s good!
I’m sorry you’re upset. I think they’ll come out much better when you follow the recipe and use one of the nut butters recommended. :)
Do you know what the nutrition info is for this recipe? How many calories, fat, fiber and carbs? I eat paleo but starting to track ww points to keep things in check. Thank you!
Hi, Christina! I’m afraid I don’t. But take a look at the first bullet point (they’re above the recipe). I hope that link will help you! :)
This might help :)
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/homemade-chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-cookie-garbanzo-base-23894870