Looking for the chickpea cookies from Pinterest or Facebook? Here’s the original recipe! Scroll to the bottom of the post for a how-to recipe video.
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!
I used homemade peanut butter in these cookies but store-bought (the kind with just peanuts and salt) works just as well.
Here’s how to make peanut butter! There’s also a video included. All you need is peanuts and a food processor (which you already have to pull out for this chickpea cookie recipe!).
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.
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!
Please read the following before asking a question! It will probably answer it. :)
- Tons of people have posted the nutritional analysis for these. They’re supposedly anywhere between 80-130 calories, which seems like a huge range to me. Please use a recipe analyzer like on CalorieCount if you need more information.
- You can use almond butter, sun butter, or whatever nut butter you like.
- The peanut butter should be the kind with only peanuts and salt. No added fat or sugar.
Be careful because there are some “natural” brands out there which aren’t really natural. I find that this peanut butter is usually expensive so I make my own.
You can make your own in only 5 minutes with a food processor. Check that out here. - 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!
- 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.
But thanks to the experimenters who left feedback, I’ve been able to update the recipe with alternatives to honey and peanut butter. Thanks everyone!
For my readers who are really sensitive to gluten, you might want to read my post on Is Honey Gluten-free? - For a totally sugar free version, use 30 drops of Stevia and cacao nibs.
- Do not double the recipe! It might be too much for your machine and could damage it.
- For a vegan version, you can’t use honey. Use agave.
- For a dairy-free version, use Enjoy Life chocolate chips. They’re just as delicious as regular chocolate chips. SO good!
And thanks for everyone who has pinned and left feedback. I really appreciate it. :)
Want more gluten-free treats? Here are some of my favorites!
Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites (gluten-free with vegan and dairy-free options)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 14 1" cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel1
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter, SunButter Natural or almond butter - room temperature2
- 1/4 cup (80 grams) honey (agave or maple syrup for vegan)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder3
- a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) chocolate chips (use vegan and dairy-free chocolate chips, if needed)
Directions
- 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.
- 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.
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2106 comments on “The Original Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites Recipe (aka Chickpea Cookies)” — Add one!
37 comments are awaiting moderation!
Nothing healthy about these at all. They are chocolate peanut butter cookies w/ Chickpeas. The chickpeas don't make them healthy !!!
Jennifer – Hope you enjoyed them!
Anon – I have no idea. :( My batter was super thick. Nothing in there is runny. You drained the chickpeas well, right?
Bridgette – I guess that could be it! Some people have told me that these are almost too sweet. Or maybe like you said, they just don't do it for you. Thanks for the feedback. :)
DuckyCooking – Thanks for the tip! Happy you liked them. :)
Christi – Hehe. Happy to hear! Thanks for your comment. :)
wahoo_mom – Your comment made me laugh. Thank you. :) And happy you liked them!
Lucie – I suppose that could be it. They really need the chocolate to sweeten them! I'm happy you're still happy about the experiment, though. Thanks for the feedback!
I made these yesterday and it yielded 20 for me, plus the dough I ate straight out of the food processor! I also substituted almond butter for 3 tablespoons' worth of peanut butter. I have to say I feel like I can sort of taste the chickpeas but it is a subtle taste. This could be because of my part almond butter substitution or that I used slightly less than a half cup chocolate chips and they were dark, not milk.. however I love the chewy texture and am really glad I made them!
I despise chickpeas, but gave your recipe a try anyway. Guess I don't despise them as I thought. They are DELICIOUS!
I made these for Thanksgiving, and they were all "gobbled" up (including my 3 year old).
THANK YOU FOR THIS RECIPE!!!
I just made these, and they were good! I actually preferred them after they cooled a bit, and were just soft and chewy, but not warm. I used 170 g cooked chickpeas and homemade vanilla sugar instead of the extract, made 20 balls and cooked them for 10 minutes. Thanks for the recipe!
I must say I didn't really care for these. They weren't bad and I couldn't taste the garbanzo beans but they just tasted healthy and weren't very sweet. I'd give them a 2.5/5 but if you like less sweet things, try them! Also the original recipe called for honey which is sweeter than agave
(Continuation on my comment) I used agave so maybe that's why they weren't that sweet. Also I am vegan so I do appreciate healthy and less sweet recipes, these just didn't hit the mark for me. Thanks for sharing and I'm glad a lot of people love these!
Bridgette, I totally agree with your comment. I'm also vegan, also used agave, and while I still devoured several cookies, they didn't quite do it for me. But as I mentioned in my comment below it could also be because I used some almond butter and dark chocolate.. who knows.
so yummy! but my batter was runny. any tips?
wow-i can't believe the comments on these. making today ;)
Sorry for the slow replies everyone! I've been having problems with replying, so I'm doing it this way.
healthhappinesshumour – Haha. Well I'm happy you enjoyed them! Thanks for letting me know. It seems like I'm the only one with dough / cold bites issues. :)
Tara – I'm impressed that your husband liked them too! My husband couldn't be tricked, unfortunately. Only because he saw me with the chickpeas. :( I'm happy that you can enjoy these cookies despite your diet limitations. It makes me happy to hear that gluten-free folks can eat my cookies. :)
Anon – Yup, the chickpeas take place of the flour, so it'd be like making normal cookies without flour. Won't work! I promise you can't taste the chickpeas, though.
Kelly – Wow! That's a lot. I'm so happy you enjoyed them enough to bake them so often. Thanks for letting me know!
Mrs. A – Thanks for the feedback! I'm happy you found this recipe and enjoyed the dough. :) Happy the husband was okay with them too!
lilyk – If you look on the first or second page of comments, a lot of people have posted what they came up as the nutritional info. If I remember correctly, they have about 130 calories.
teri – Yup! Lots of people have used almond butter.
CJG – Someone on the first or second page of comments made it with that. I think they added water or however PB2 works and said that it worked out fine! Let us know if you try. Good luck. :)
I was going to ask the same thing as one Anon — has anyone used PB2 as a sub for regular PB? Trying to watch the calories :)
can you use natural almond butter intsead of peanut butter?
what is the nutritional information??
what are the nutritional facts?? :)
I JUST made (and ate) these. Delicious!!! I actually thought the dough in it's raw state was quite tastey & I have a thing for eating frozen cookie dough (i just love it!) so, I put some aside to freeze. These were really quick & easy to make & hubby could not believe they were made from chickpeas. And talk about being more affordable than cookies made from Almond Flour. Thanks for the recipe! (Found it via Pinterest btw).
I JUST made (and ate) these. Delicious!!! I actually thought the dough in it's raw state was quite tastey & I have a thing for eating frozen cookie dough (i just love it!) so, I put some aside to freeze. These were really quick & easy to make & hubby could not believe they were made from chickpeas. And talk about being more affordable than cookies made from Almond Flour. Thanks for the recipe! (Found it via Pinterest btw).
I don't eat gluten free, but I thought I'd try out these cookies and now I'm addicted to them! Just about to make them for the fourth time in about 2 months – I NEVER bake cookies that often!
would it be okay if i dont use chick peas?
Wow, I just made these & am so happy they turned out awesome!! I recently went all gluten free & mostly vegan & I saw these on pinterest & was like "hmmm chick peas in cookies?? I don't know…" But was so surprised with how yummy they are right out of the oven. Honestly i even ate a couple finger tips of the dough & liked it. Thanks so much for the surprisingly delish recipe! Makes me want to experament with odd ingredients more often :) My husband even ate one & really liked it(and he is not as much of a health foodie as I am) Everyone questioning these because of the chick peas…just try them!! I think you'll all be plesently surprised.
~Tara
So I know you warned us about not eating them cold. I did it anyway. And either you are crazy or I am because they were awesome cold..and hot..and just the dough. LOVE these cookies. Definitely on my favourites list!