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.
FYI: Of the five brands of chocolate chips currently in my refrigerator, four have sugar as the first ingredient and the fifth lists semi-sweet chocolate as the only ingredient with its ingredients in parenthesis and the first ingredient in the parenthesis is sugar. While most people who NEED to avoid white sugar probably know this, it would probably be best not to say your recipe has no white sugar in it.
I have made these many times and they are delicious… Wanted to add my changes. :). Add a tablespoon of molasses… Gives you the “brown sugar” flavor while also giving additional nutrition. Also, highly recommend adding salt… Like 1/4 teaspoon or so. I have also subbed baking soda for the powder without issue. Yummy! Thanks for the recipe!
I love your molasses addition! Sounds yummy. :) And it’s good to know that baking soda works. Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Erin,
I just want to inform you that Sai from Road to Glory (https://www.youtube.com/user/roadtogloryJILSAI) is posting your picture of The Original Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites Recipe (aka Chickpea Cookies) on facebook. They use your content to get facebook likes. Furthermore they post it in conjunction with affiliate links to make money. I think this is not ok. You should to get your share from that money.
That is the link to the post:
https://www.facebook.com/SaiFitness/photos/a.127120700783672.27607.125036604325415/485014324994306/?type=1&theate
Hi, Frank! Thanks for letting me know. I think it’s totally ridiculous that they say that the first ingredient is whey protein when that’s not even an ingredient in the recipe (to which they don’t even link to!) I just reported that post to Facebook so I’m sure it’ll be removed shortly. Thanks again for taking the time to write me! I really appreciate it.
I have to say I was really skeptical about this recipe.. I only tried it cuz it looked so good in the picture.. but I don’t like any healthy substitutes in my sweets.. no applesauce, black bean brownies etc. so i went ahead and made these anyway, but did it really quickly… didn’t wait for peanut butter to cool and totally screwed up by adding a 1/2 cup instead of 1/4 cup of agave.. just cuz I wasn’t paying close attention.. instead of trying to make balls, I just scooped them on the parchment paper as I would chocolate chip cookies… when they baked they spread out and looked exactly like chocolate chip cookies and they were phenomenal!!! I know that is a lot of sugar, so I will try these again with the correct amount, but if you would like to try them as a grain free cookie as opposed to a cookie bite and are ok with the added sugar, I’d recommend that way as well. my 15 year old son ate one and loved it and didn’t even know that it wasn’t a “real” chocolate chip cookie :) thank you sooo much for this recipe!
I certainly don’t mind more sugar so I’m definitely going to try them your way! I’d love to see how they come out. :) I’m so happy that you gave them a try and that you and your son enjoyed them. Thanks so much for your feedback!
Yum! I overheard someone in a restaurant talking about these and found this recipe. Glad I did! Used dried chickpeas I soaked and cooked myself. Only had hubby’s Jiff on hand for pb :( but they still taste awesome and not greasy at all. Very happy and will make them again!
I love how you heard about this recipe. :) It seems as though people have mixed results with regular peanut butter so I’m happy to hear that it worked out for you. And good to know that soaking your own chickpeas works, too! Thanks a ton for your comment. :)
Last night my boyfriend requested black bean brownies, but when I went to make them, I realized I had used my last can. I did have garbanzo beans though, and I stumbled across this recipe. BF was super skeptical (why are they ALWAYS so skeptical?), but we both loved these! I had to keep him from eating the whole batch, and we each had one this morning with breakfast and thought they were just as good the next day.
Also, to add my 2 cents on the calorie count, I used a recipe analyzer and the ingredients I used (almond butter was the only substitution) came out to about 120 per bite.
I can’t wait to check out the rest of your site! :)
That’s awesome that your boyfriend ended up liking them! I so wish that I liked them the next day. I wonder if I’m the one doing something wrong as everyone else seems to like them at room temperature. ;) Thanks so much for your feedback and sorry for my slow reply!
I am not a vegan but I started cooking vegan meals and bake vegan. I made these cookie balls tonight and I must say I have had maybe 4 of them. They were so delish. I really like this recipe. Thanks!
So happy that you liked them. :) Thanks for your feedback and sorry for my slow reply!
Thank you for this recipe! It’s yummy. :-) My hubs and I have been on an elimination diet and this has gotten us through! I just realized the last time (like the 5th time) I made these that you say room temp peanut butter. Duh! It helped a lot to have it room temp. They came together much better and required less scraping of the food processor bowl! I also used agave and it worked great! Thanks again!!
Interesting that room temperature peanut butter makes such a difference! Good to know. :) (it’s been a while since I’ve made them!) Thanks a ton for your feedback and so sorry for my ridiculously slow reply!
Tried your recipe last weekend. They taste quite special but delicious. But all my non-vegan and not-so-healthy friends didn’t like it *lol*
I will sure bake them again!
Greetings from Switzerland
Aww. I’m sorry your friends didn’t like them! Did you tell them that there were chickpeas in there before they tasted them? If you did, don’t mention that the next time you share with people. ;)
instead of chocolate chips, I bake them without and then spread a thin layer of jam on the top and they are super yummy!!
Mmm! That sounds like a great variation. Thanks for sharing. :)
Hi – I don’t have a food processor…do you think a magic bullet would work instead?
I haven’t tried it but other commenters have with success. I hope you’ll enjoy them! :)
I substituted the honey with maple syrup and the penut butter for almond butter and used dark chocolate chips. After they sat out for night they were amazing the next day! Thank you :)
So interesting that you preferred them sitting out overnight! That’s great. Much better than only liking them fresh from the oven. ;) Thanks so much for your feedback!
Is there a way to get the nutritional value for the cookies?
Yup! Check out the first bullet point in the post. :) Hope you’ll enjoy them if you try them!
I used regular peanut butter (Skippy, to be exact) and they turned out perfect! Very delicious!
That’s awesome that they came out well with Skippy! Some others have said that it makes their cookies greasy so maybe it also has to do with the chickpeas, honey, or something else. Thanks a bunch for the feedback! :)
Hi Erin!
I have been eying these cookies for almost 2 years and I finally made them tonight! They are delicious but I had a really hard time rolling them out; they kept sticking to my hands and I couldn’t roll them into pretty balls. Any suggestions?
I’m glad that you finally got a chance to make them! Next time you could try using wet hands to roll the balls and other commenters have mentioned using cookie scoops (which I think would destroy the kind of cookie scoop I have). One time I just forgot about the dough for about 30 minutes and when I got back to it, it was somehow less sticky and much easier to roll into balls. I hope that helps and thanks for your feedback!
Step 3. With wet hands, form into 1½” balls.
Wetting your hands really helps :)
My batter was also a little but on the thin side so I added a tablespoon coconut flour to help thicken it which also helped it be less sticky.
Don’t have the patience to deal with the sticky cookie dough? Eating it raw is totally an option ;) delicious
Thin? I think that’s a new one! As long as they came out tasty, I guess all is well. :) And I like your idea of adding some coconut flour! Sounds yummy. Thanks for the feedback!
I’ve made these twice, the first time, the peanut butter was sitting out at room temperature and the dough was really sticky when I rolled them.
The second time, I got the peanut butter straight from the fridge and the dough was much easier to work. I think it’s actually better if the peanut butter is a bit cold.
I always refrigerate my peanut butter and have never had really stick dough, so that could explain it. Thanks for the tip! I hope you enjoyed them. :)
Thanks for posting this great recipe. I boldly omitted the chocolate (and had no cacao nibs) so my 18 month old could enjoy without me then navigating a refined sugar high and crash… if you add adequate PB and honey the flavour is still deliciously peanutty and sweet without the choc guilt. Yum.
I’m happy that you and your little one could still enjoy them without the chocolate! I’ll have to try it that way one day, just to see how peanutty they truly are. Thanks for your feedback!
Wow! Made these no-bake and they were truly delish! covered each ball in chia seeds for extra nutrition and some crunch. thanks for a true winner!
So sorry for my slow reply! I’m happy that you enjoyed these. :) I love your chia seed addition!
How many cookies does this make??
14. Enjoy. :)
I have a nut allergy, is there anything else I could use to make the cookies?
Others have used SunButter with success but I haven’t tried it myself.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these! Thanks for sharing. I have made them for non- paleo company, and people always want the recipe, and that says a lot!
That’s awesome that everyone enjoyed them! I love it when a healthy recipe is a hit with all kinds of crowds. :) Thanks so much for the feedback!