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.
Forget my question. I was in wrong page
this sounds great. I’m definitely going to try this.
But I have question. Could they be baked into actually cookies?
I’m sorry for just now seeing your question! I don’t understand your question, though. These are baked into cookies. :)
Whoops, sorry! Just saw your second comment.
I dont have maple syrup or honey. Can I use regular sugar? Or a banana?
I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure. You’d be missing liquid if you used sugar and I’ve never used bananas as a sub for sugar. Sorry I’m not very helpful!
Used a banana and my family loved it! Thanks
Thanks for letting me know that it worked out well! I’ll have to try that myself. Was it a small banana? Or 1/4 cup of banana?
What’s if I don’t wanna use peanut butter or anything like that? Can I omit?
I’m sorry for just now seeing your question! And no, without it you’d just have chickpeas + sweetener. That wouldn’t work.
These butter chocolate chip cookies are my favorite and I would definitely would love to get these in my dinner, lunch and breakfast list.
I’m so glad you like them! :)
can i replace the chickpeas with hummus if i measure the weight in grams?
Nope, sorry. That has other ingredients in it.
I made this recipe with Maple syrup and sunflower butter. Delicious! But they turned green 2 hours after I made them. Is this OK? Why did this happen?
I’m sorry for just now seeing your question! Yes, it’s okay. Sometimes sunflower seed butter reacts with baking soda / powder, turning things green. :) I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for your comment.
These are genuinely so delicious. I love how much they taste like choc chip cookies, with melty chocolate and everything, when they are fresh out of the oven! I’ve made this recipe twice in the past two weeks. I’ve added it to my regular list of recipes.
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your comment! We’ve had the flu / other fun stuff for the last few weeks. I’m so glad that you like the cookies! Warm and melty is definitely the way to go. :D Thanks for your feedback and sorry again!
Hi Erin, these look incredible! How long will the dough keep if I freeze it?
Hi! I’d say about a month. :)
You are a genius! I seriously want to nominate you for a Nobel peace prize for creating this recipe! I eat no grains and no sugar but I really miss chocolate chip cookies. These are perfect. To make them with no sugar/ honey I created a honey substitute out of 3/4 C Lakanto Monkfruit sweetener boiled together with 1/2 cup water to which I added 1/2 tsp xanthan gum to thicken and stabilize it. I ended up adding just a bit of powdered pure stevia to it to sweeten it a little more. I used Lily’s Stevia Sweetened Dark Chocolate Baking chips (and added walnuts to the dough because I love walnuts in my cookies). Yours look like they got a nice crisp on the outside. Mine don’t look like that. any tips on how to get the outside to brown/crisp?
Aww, thank you! I will gladly accept your prize! :D Haha. You made my day! I’m so glad that your lower-carb version worked. Thanks for sharing how you did it! I wouldn’t say that the tops are crisp. They’re still kind of soft. If yours look a lot different than the photos, then it’s likely because of the sweetener change. You could maybe try the broiler for a minute? But it also might burn. I’ve never tried that with cookies. Thanks again for your comment!
You are right, it is probably the sweetener change that makes them not look the same. They are still delicious.
I realized that the recipe I wrote above to make a sub for honey with monkfruit sweetener is double the amount needed for this recipe. Although I mixed it up like that I only used 1/4 cup of it to = 1/4 cup honey.
I am trying your Perfect Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies today (using monfruit sweetener), the dough is all made and I will bake them in an hour.. I’m so excited!
I hope that the chocolate chip cookies came out well! And thanks for letting me know about the sweetener change correction. :)
Wow these are such yuuuumy morsels. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad that you liked them! Thanks for your comment. :)
Just made these – they’re amazing! OMG.
Yay! So glad you liked them! Thanks for your comment. :)
Hi, just thought I’d share, I don’t have a food processor. First time I tried blender and yes almost broke it I think. Second time I just used a good potato masher and worker like a charm! Everything is soft enough so it’s easy to mash. Also, easily can double or triple the recipe! Thank you for the great recipe!!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found a method that works better. :) Normal blenders definitely don’t work! Thanks for your tip and comment. :)
I didn’t have any natural PB or peanuts to make any so I took my chances making with regular peanut butter… it was a little oily but definitely can still do it! It was a hit with my fam, even the cookie dough was yummy to eat.
Yay! I’m glad to hear that it still worked out okay. :) Thanks for your feedback!
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?
Hello! I’m so sorry for just now replying to your question. I was on vacation and just got back. Hopefully you found the answer in the post! Sunflower seed butter is listed in the recipe. :)
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.
Hello! I’m so sorry for just now replying to your question. I was on vacation and just got back. Did they still crumble after they cooled? If so, you can try baking for another 2 minutes to see if that works! Thanks for your feedback. :)
Have you tried these with carob chips? I am allergic to chocolate… I think they would work the same way.
Hello and sorry for just now seeing your question! I haven’t tried it but some of the commenters have with success. I hope you’ll enjoy them!
Thank you so much. Kids loved them!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy that they liked them. :)
Hi Erin, It’s Tamara and Nicole in Mexico… Friday night is our dessert night. I actually made garbanzo flour from beans we cooked, sun dried, and then powdered. Can I use that instead of cooked beans? I could soak it first. Thanks for making our lives sweet.
Hello! I don’t think that would work. It might but I’m really not sure. Sorry I can’t give you a better answer! If you try it out anyway, I’d love to hear how it goes. :)
And it’s great to hear from you. :)
Has anyone tried freezing the batter or already cooked cookies? Trying to prepare these a couple weeks ahead.
You can freeze both but since I think they’re best straight from the oven, I prefer freezing the dough.