Chocolate Chickpea Cookies

Sweet tooth cravings can really get you. Sugar fuels your brain and makes your noggin feel 'rewarded' when you eat something sweet, making you only want more of it. So when I ran out of my stash of girl scout cookies the other day, I knew my bad habit needed to be kicked. I had seen a recipe somewhere for chickpea cookie dough; somehow I ended up with these delicious chickpea cookies instead. No regrets. 

The most tedious part about making chickpea cookie dough is definitely peeling the chickpeas. What you want to do is dump the can in a strainer, and under running water gently rub the peas against the ridges in the strainer. The skins should come off easily.
It's so important to rinse the beans well and then bake in the oven for 15 minutes after peeling them. This really gets rid of the "chickpea-y" taste that makes us all wince. I once skipped this step and it was truly awful.

If you only want cookie dough, you can go ahead and mix all the ingredients except the chocolate chips together in a food processor, skip the baking and opt for a spoon instead. But what happened next in my recipe is what made this recipe unique and a total success amongst my family.

After baking the chickpeas, I blended them with the other ingredients. Forgetting the peas were still warm, I mixed in half my chocolate chips. They melted of course and turned my batter chocolatey. I'm not sure why, but something was really throwing me off about eating this mix with the spoon. There's just something decadent about biting into a chocolate chip in cookie dough, and with all my bits melted, I wasn't getting that. So I threw the dough on a tray and hoped they would bake.

I pulled the 10 cookies out of the oven and set them on the counter to cool. A few long minutes later 2 were missing. The culprit was targeted for questioning. I was surprised to hear my dad say he had no clue the cookies were flourless and made from chickpeas. It was obvious the cookies were a hit once the rest of my family started coming home. Even the kids enjoyed them. My mom even brought one to work for her coworkers to try. They were shocked to learn the sweets were almost pointless in their 'weight watchers' app.

I think these cookies could be tweaked to bake even better than the way I did them that day. I'm not too savvy when it comes to baking but every once in a while I can pull an awesome not-so-guilty recipe out of my sleeve. If you tweak this recipe and find the cookies bake better with a different ingredient such as baking soda, yogurt, or even an egg, please do tell me! I'm always saying there's million ways to make a recipe your own or even better and this one is no exception. I'm excited to see if you like these cookies as much as my family did!

Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 10
Calories: ~123 per a serving

Ingredients:

1 can (15 ounces) of chickpeas

1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 cup splenda 
1/4 cup chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk (only if needed)
2 tsp oats

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Strain, rinse, and peel chickpeas. Lay out on a baking sheet and bake on 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Try not to let the peas get crispy.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. Add all the ingredients except the milk to the food processor. Blend until smooth and add milk as needed. Batter should be thick enough to spoon onto the baking sheet.
5. Use a spoon to transfer dough onto baking sheet or foil into about 2 inch sized cookies. Batter should be enough for about 10 cookies. Flatten dough as this will allow the centers to cook more evenly and fully. Bake on 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. 
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool before eating or transferring onto serving plate.