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.
Made these today first time. DELICIOUS!! Iam diabetic and substituted honey/maple syrup for golden monk fruit sweetener and used Lily’s dark chocolate chips. They turned out perfect! Filling and delicious. Shared this recipe with everyone I know.
Thanks so much for sharing the recipe with everyone! I’m so glad that they worked out well with your subs. :) What sweetener did you use exactly? Lakanto Golden? And did you use the same amount? Thanks for the tip and for your feedback!
Well I am 100% drooling looking at these! I love how allergy-friendly your recipe is. I’m a sucker for anything with chickpeas :) Can’t wait to try it!
I hope you’ll enjoy them! :)
hi, erin! i made these using cashew butter since i had just made some at home, and they turned out fabulously!!! no detectable bean taste haha. i then adapted the recipe to make some no-bake cookie truffles! just wanted to say thanks for the creative idea :~)
You’re welcome! I’m glad that you liked them with cashew butter. :) And no-bake truffles sound amazing! What a great idea. Thanks for your comment!
Amazing cookies. My kids love them and want to eat the whole batch which is ok considering how healthy they are.
I’m so happy that your kids enjoyed them so much! Thanks for your comment. :)
Hi I could not find the video to the recipe. I feel dumb asking this :(
Hi there! It’s at the top of the page. If you have an adblocker on, you might not see it.
I made these for a summer pool party. Kids were devouring them. Their moms were telling them to not eat so many . . . until I told them that these cookies were mostly healthy. I should have made a triple batch instead of just a double.
I’m so glad that the kids were devouring them and that their moms were okay with it. :) Thanks for your comment! I hope we have summer soon, too. ;)
Sorry, I know you have over 2000 reviews so I can’t get through all of them. Do you know if anyone has substituted peanut butter for sunflower seed butter to make them school friendly?
Yes, it’s listed in the recipe. :)
Oh my goodness, I don’t know how I missed this. I blame mom brain. Sorry for that!!
Absolutely no worries! Hope you and your kid will like them. :)
YUMMY!!!!! And so easy!!! My hubby also HATES chickpeas and he had no idea they were in the mix. :)
I forgot to mention– I didn’t have honey or maple syrup on hand, so I used regular sugar + 3Tbl almond milk, (suggested below). Turned out perfectly!
my mother had made these a while back, I loved them so much, to be honest, more then normal chocolate chips cookies! I made them and brought them to work. Told the gluten free girls they can have, and no one else anything. Everyone loved them, one even said yum so buttery! Haha I said well they’re chicpea, no butter! Everyone was shocked and loved, and asked for the recipe:)
Haha. I’m glad that they thought that the cookies were buttery! And better than normal chocolate chip cookies?! I think you like these better than I do. ;) Thanks for your nice comment!
Tried these last night and they are excellent. I always remove the shells from my chickpeas before working with them to get the batter a little smoother. If we leave them in the oven another 2 minutes or so, would that help getting them to firm up a little more? Mine were crumbling apart as I’d take a bite.
Did they fall apart even after they had cooled? Because after they cool, they should hold together better. If they still fell apart, then you can definitely bake them 2 minutes more and that ought to help.
These cookies have been a staple for my 2 diabetic pregnancies,thanks for getting me through some desperate times!
Could you use reconstituted PB2 powder instead of all natural peanut butter? It’s lower calorie and lower fat than even the all natural stuff.
I’m so happy that they’ve gotten you through some tough times! I’ve never used PB2 but lots of commenters have used it with success. :)
Hi Michelle, How did these work using PB2, and what measurements did you use? Thanks!
Can you use chickpeas cooked from scratch vs canned chickpeas?
Yes, you can. :)
I make these all the time and seem to get 19 cookies with the ingredients mentioned above. Any idea how many calories in each one? Thanks
Hi! I don’t have that info but you could use this recipe analyzer if you’d like for the nutritional profile. :)
I loved these! I made them with maple syrup and they were delicious!
Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m happy that you liked them with maple. Peanut butter and maple is always a good thing. :D Thanks for your feedback!
LOL. You may consider putting the “”do not double “ in the recipe notes…LOL. I read it after the fact. Oh, and YUM!
I’m happy you liked them! And Unfortunately there are too many notes to include in the recipe. Hopefully people will read the post. :)
Hi????
First… thank you for the super yummy recipe. I have an unnamed autoimmune disease and removing gluten/dairy/sugar from my diet has helped me feel better. These cookies were my first treat since my diet change. Just one question… I have a sugar substitute that’s a stevia/erythritol blend. The package states that it is twice as sweet as sugar so I would use 1/2 cup if a recipe called for one cup of sugar. Do you think I could use this in your recipe in place of the honey? If so, any idea how much? Thank you!
Hi there! Sorry for just now seeing your question. I’ve never used a granulated sweetener in these cookies but I know a few commenters have with success. So according to the bag’s instructions, I’d use 2 tablespoons. You might have to add a little bit of liquid if it’s much thicker than when you made it with the honey. I’d love to hear how it comes out!
I just made these and they are DELICIOUS! The batter was equally amazing. I didn’t have honey/agave or vanilla, so I subbed 1/3C raw organic cane sugar and added 3T of almond milk and 1tsp of allspice and it turned out wonderfully. Thanks so much for the great recipe!
You’re welcome! That’s great that they came out well with your subs. :) Thanks for sharing them with us and for your comment!
Do the 1/2 + 2tbsp of peanut all go into the batter? Just wondering if the 2tbsp is for something else?
It all goes in together! It’s 14 tablespoons all together.
Just made these – they’re amazing! OMG. Best treat I’ve made all summer. I’m printing this recipe – it’s a keeper!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. :) Thanks for your comment!
Can’t wait to try these! Thank you so much for sharing. I’m always in need of new gluten free treats ❤️
You’re welcome! Thanks again for your comment. :)