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!
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Hey there! These look AMAZING. Going to make these tonight :-D Do you use raw organic honey or just the regular honey? I feel like those are two very different consistencies… Thanks! hehe!
Hi there! Thanks. :) You can use either because it gets blended up in the food processor, anyway. :) I’ve used both. But I’d save your raw honey since you’re going to be baking the cookies and that ruins the whole raw thing. Hope you’ll enjoy the cookies!
I made these last weekend and am going to make them again tonight. Really good, soft-baked feel. I loved these even though they taste “healthier” than regular cookies. I used the entire jar of chickpea because I wasn’t going to use the remainder later on. I followed everything else exactly though. So good fresh outta the oven. And still good later on when room temp. I threw the leftovers in the freezer because I wasn’t sure how well the’d keep on the counter; they were edible right out of the freezer days later. I liked that! Thank you for this recipe!!
I’m so sorry I didn’t see your comment until now! That’s interesting that you could eat them straight from the freezer. I need to try that! I’m happy you liked them, despite them tasting healthier than normal cookies. :) Thanks a bunch for your comment!
I am a lazy baker and didn’t want to measure (that’s work!). So I threw in the entire can of chickpeas and dumped in what seemed like a reasonable amount of PB and honey and vanilla. I did measure the baking powder.
Then I threw it all in an 8×8 and baked it at 350 for 20 minutes. They cooked nicely, we got 9 squares out of the dish, and the kids loved them. They held their shape wonderfully.
So if you’re lazy like me, the dump and pour method seems to work well with these. :)
Haha. Oh my gosh. Baking without measuring… :D I’m happy that they came out well with your random amounts of peanut butter and honey! And even better that the kids loved them. :) Thanks a bunch for your comment!
Thanks for the recipe! It’s become a go-to Sunday evening dessert for us and we love that we can still enjoy that family tradition, but in a much, much healthier way.
That’s great! I love that these are a go-to recipe for you. :) Thanks for your comment!
First time making these today and they were delicious! I let them cool and went to put in airtight container and noticed the color changed. They are no longer the light freshly baked color like the photo but darker. It won’t stop me from eating them, just wondering if I did something wrong?
I haven’t had anyone mention anything like that! So I really have no idea. Did you use sunflower seed butter, by any chance? I’m happy they’re still tasty! :)
I kind of laughed at some of the comments on here. I made the recipe exactly as shown and my cookies turned out DELICIOUS! My batter tasted just like the ingredients, it was good. Not like cookie dough batter but hey these are great ingredients here! I ate one right out of the oven and they are sooo good. The consistency is fine, it’s a little crumbly but again I would expect that with the ingredients provided. I can’t wait to freeze a few too like some of the readers did. These are such an amazing treat to add to my healthy eating, I’m so glad I stumbled across this recipe!
With 1,800 comments, I’m bound to get some doozies. ;) I’m happy you enjoyed them! I wouldn’t say that they’re supposed to be at all crumbly, though. Since you followed the recipe, I’m not sure what could have caused that. It’s great you still liked them. :) Thanks a bunch for your feedback!
I think I ate mine too soon haha. Once I let them cool, they were soft like a normal chocolate chip cookie :)
Ah, okay! Good to know. Thanks for coming back to let me know! :)
What do i do with the chickpeas!? 😬🙈🙂
I feel like im missig a step
It’s in Step 1 of the directions. :)
Do you take all the skins off of the chickpeas? When I open the jar some are still on and some are off and it takes a long time to “skin” them. Thanks!
I don’t! Just leave them on. Enjoy! :)
I just tried these with sun butter, can chick peas, honey, and everything else. They were amazing immediately after. I stored them and did some stuff around the house. 2 hours later they’re turning green?!!
Why?
I ate a few more, same taste.
Not sure what’s going on..
Don’t worry, they’re okay. ;) Read the section called “My cookies turned green, what happened?” from the SunButter FAQ. I’m happy they’re still tasty!
when I first tried these I wasn’t a big fan of the texture but I think it was because I used a mini food processor that didn’t blend it smoothly enough. I almost threw them out but decided to freeze them instead and THEY ARE AMAZING frozen! I’ll for sure make them again :)
I haven’t tried them frozen! That’s good to know. :) Thanks for the tip and for your comment! I’m happy you didn’t end up throwing them away.
I didn’t care for them room temperature or even straight from the oven, the texture was just off. Based on your review, however I tried them frozen and OMG, they are to die for! I gave some to my co workers and they had no idea it was made from chickpeas. A-mazing!! Thanks for the tip. It is Game changer.
Huh! That’s interesting. I still only like them hot from the oven. ;) I’m happy you found a way that you can enjoy them and that you co-workers liked them, too!
Are you eating them straight from the freezer? Or thawed first?
You’d want to thaw them first a little. :)
Can you do this without nuts? Thank you.
Yes! The SunButter I link to in the recipe is nut-free. :)
Can you freeze these?
I haven’t but the other reviewers have with success!
Hello, in your recipe you use what kind of chocolate pepper? Is it dark chocolate or milk chocolate? thank you in advance for your response
Hello! I used semi-sweet chocolate. You could also use dark chocolate!
Impressed with your healthy cookie recipes! Can’t wait to try.
Thanks so much! Enjoy. :)
I just made the chickpea chocolate. Chip cookies. They were pretty easy to make and wow are they good. I’m trying to lower my A1C and have really been watching what I eat. I needed a cookie or cake option for after dinner. I finally found this yummy cookie that is very satisfying. You should try them and don’t tell your family anything about them till after they eat one. I’d be curious to see if they notice the difference.
I totally agree with you on not telling family and friends what’s in the cookies at first. Nobody needs to know that there are chickpeas in there until they’ve tried them. ;) I’m so happy that you found the recipe and that you liked the cookies! Thanks a bunch for your comment. :)
Hi Erin,
I have not read through the 1800 comments so please excuse me if this has been asked before. Have you tried any other sweetener besides the liquid ones listed (honey, agave, stevia, maple syrup)…Ex: coconut sugar? just wondering if the sweetener had to be liquid for some specific reason. Thanks and truly love all of your recipes!
Hi Kathy! I haven’t. You could use a granulated sugar but then you’d have to add a little liquid to make up for the lost liquid in the sweetener. Unfortunately, I don’t know how much. I hope you’ll enjoy them. :)
I have followed this recipe to the letter and they were quite good, although they still tasted a little bit “healthy”. Using turbinado sugar instead of the honey and adding a tablespoon of melted butter made cookies that were nearly indistinguishable from toll house.
I’m happy that you enjoyed them! Thanks for sharing your honey sub. :)
Hi, I’ve made this recipe a couple of times now, love it, no problems.
The last time I made it, I used a homemade SunButter (just sunflower seeds, maple syrup, and a little salt and oil) and accidentally used bicarbonate soda instead of baking powder.
Here’s the weird thing… the dough turned a a deep dark green colour when left exposed to the air. It still tasted the same, and I could scrape off the green to find the normal coloured dough underneath, but green???
Cooked and ate them with no ill effects, but they were, as my husband says, “house biscuits”, ie, not ones to serve to others 😉
Wondering if anyone has some culinary science knowledge to explain what happened?
Hi there! That’s totally normal. :) Here’s an explanation! I’m happy they were still tasty. Thanks so much for your feedback!
Yum! But best not to make in a Australian heat wave (97F). Chocolate melted as I stirred it in. Would need to freeze chips or refrigerate batter next time!
Yikes! That’s a bit hot for cookie baking, indeed. I hope they were worth it! ;)
I have been fascinated with chickpea goodies lately and I tried your recipe tonight based on the delicious looking photo.
Wow, fantastic! Once I stopped sampling the dough, I made 3 flavors: chocolate chip, white chocolate chip, and my favorite, pumpkin pie spice with chopped pecans.
I plan to bring some to my boyfriend on Thanksgiving and see if he can guess that these are secretly healthy!
Oh yum! I love your variations. How much pumpkin spice did you add? I’d love to try that! I hope that your boyfriend will like them. :) Thanks for your comment!
Pretty good cookies. Miam miam 😊. I will try with half the honey next time because I try to cut on sugar. My 8 years old son liked them. Thanks.
I’d love to hear how you like them with half the amount of honey! I’m happy you and your son enjoyed them. Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Erin,
This recipe is beyond good!!! I did right now and I’m impressed!
Thank you for sharing something so delicious!
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(I hope you can see the picture of my cookies)
Hi Maria! I’m so happy you liked them! I unfortunately can’t see your picture. Maybe you could add it to one of my Facebook posts? Thanks so much for your comment!