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.
I made these yesterday – they were a hit with the kids :) Here's my blog post – http://www.crankymonkeys.com/blog/baked-chickpea-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-balls/
Tried this with Cannellini beans since I didn't have Chickpeas, and I loved these!! I used my Pampered Chef scoop instead of rolling balls and it was easy. Do make sure each cookie gets its fair share of chocolate chips.
Have to admit, it's never as good as the real deal, but these were so worth it to not have the guilt and I was super satisfied and got to eat 4. And I don't have the sugar high and yucky feeling after eating the regular cookie dough.
Glad I found this on PInterest! Thank you Texanerin!
I just finished baking a batch of these and I really liked them. I even liked the cookie dough. I'm waiting to see how they taste at room temp.
I followed the recipe, but halved it because I had a smaller can of chickpeas. For some reason I had to bake them for almost 20 minutes. Might be the PB brand (it's natural, only ingredient is peanuts but it isn't runny as you describe yours) or the extremely hot and humid weather of the Caribbean.
These look so good….a great reason to try chickpeas!!! Thanks, can't wait to try them!
I baked these tonight but without the chocolate because I didn't have any. Still REALLY good. I like the dough too though. My 4 year old daughter gobbled them up!
I also used Agave instead of honey. Worked great.
Jen – I hope you will. :)
Anon – I hope you'll also like them baked! Thanks for letting me know you liked them in dough form. :) It seems like everyone else likes it but me.
Miryam – You are fast! And your TN comments always make me laugh. :)
Allison – That's the spirit! Don't tell husbands or kids anything. They'll never know. :) Thanks for leaving feedback. I'm happy to know that agave works!
Anon – Just pop them in the microwave before you give them to your girlfriends! Let them experience the gooiness. :) I'm happy these still worked with the more processed stuff, but it's definitely strange. I thought that they'd be even drier with it.
Melissa – I'm glad to hear that! My chickpea experience is pretty much limited to this recipe, so it's good to know that different brands of chickpeas might be different. I'll be sure to continue buying the brand I get! And thanks for letting us know about your agave substitution. Other people have also mentioned using it so I'll add it to the recipe.
I just made these last night, and they were a hit! (Even at room temperature. ;) I was out of honey, so I substituted an equal amount of agave nectar and they turned out great. I even like the dough, which hasn't been true of every chickpea-based dessert I've tried. (I'm starting to think some chickpeas are stronger tasting than others.)
Just adding my two cents…I followed the recipe really closely but ended up with more than 14 cookies (about 24–what a shame!) and I had to cook them for about 15 minutes and they still weren't as "set" as I thought they should be. I used "natural" Jif which is definitely more processed than real natural pb so maybe that was part of the problem. But based on the description in the recipe, the flavor is right (really good warm). And you warned us that they are gooey! Overall I like them and I predict my girlfriends and I will pig out on these over the weekend.
Found the recipe on Pinterest and I am hooked! These are delicious. I just had my first bite out of the oven and had to let you know. :) I didn't have any honey, so I used some Agave and I like how they aren't overly sweet. The real test will be when the husband gets home. Think I'll make him taste one before I tell him what is inside! :) Thanks for the great recipe.
Oh ok. My husband just tried it and thinks is the best thing ever. He used to eat cookie dough all the time as a kid, you know in TN they eat this kind of stuff!!
Anyhow, recipe already posted. am I fast or what? :-)
ummm holy cow found this recipe on pinterest!!! yuummmy as a dough! cant believe you dont like it raw! im so excited to try it warm, cold and room temp. thanks so much :)
How interesting! I'm definitely going to have to try this out sometime. I pretty much love anything with peanut butter and chocolate so I'm sure I'll like these!
Miryam – I don't like the dough unbaked, but I love it baked! For some reason, it seems to get sweeter. Or maybe I'm just weirded out by the chickpeas. Eating baked chickpeas seems much more "acceptable" to me. You know I'm weird with a lot of stuff. :)
Those candied almonds are just terrible. Terrible because they're so addicting. I've banned myself from making them because they seriously led to a several pound weight gain in a few days. Terrible. I hope you found some coconut sugar! They come out even yummier with that. :)
You don't like the cookie dough recipe you came up with? What are you saying? These are fantastic!! I was thinking that you could even add these on ice cream, yummy!!
…and yes I still have the almonds and the pudding with bananas to make you made a while ago :-) Soon, very soon!!
Anon – Thanks for doing that for us! It's not great like you said, but think about how much healthier the ingredients are in comparison to a normal cookie. :)
Miryam – YAAAAY! You made one of my recipes! :)
2. Haha, they look healthy. That's true. You can see in the picture where they're stacked on a plate that they're crackly and don't look like a normal cookie. Oh well.
3. True! And I'd like to add that people shouldn't try with peanut butter chips because they don't melt like chocolate chips.
4. I think the only person who found it a little lumpy used an electric mixer instead of a food processor so nobody needs to worry about lumps. :)
I didn't know how big chickpea cans are in the US. I should have probably made the recipe so that it would use the whole can. Whoopsy!
I LOVE cookie dough but not this cookie dough. I'm happy you enjoyed it though! I can't tell you how excited I am to see your post. YAY! Thank you so much for leaving this super thorough review. :D
OK first of all, OMG Erin, these are SENSATIONAL!! These are GENIUS to say the least. My daughter is eating them right now as we speak :-) me too!!
What I have found about making these:
1. I do like them cold or warm, and even raw, although the warm ones are a bit better. I like feeling the melting warm chocolate in my mouth, it gives it a nice touch.
2. I think these look healthy if you shape them like a cookie, otherwise they are good. I think some people may find them weird looking because they may appear to look healthy, but like I said, if you shape them like little cookie balls they don't. These also don't taste like they are healthy at all, just like cookie dough.
3. I totally agree with you Erin. If you take out the chocolate chips these may not be good, so DO NOT SKIP THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS.
4. I didn't find out that the mixture was lumpy or that it had chunks in it. As long as you pulse it in the food processor for a couple of minutes or so you will be good!!
I did actually made them with the entire 15.5 oz can of chick peas and added a 1/3 cup honey instead of the 1/4 cup. I got 15 large cookie dough balls.
I always though cookie dough was nasty with all of the sugar, flour and raw egg in it. These BY FAR exceeds the conventional cookie dough recipes out there. Now I can add cookie dough to my diet :-)
I think I got decent pictures so I am going to post this very very soon. What a winner recipe Erin!!
130 cal per piece – not great, but not awful either!
Becka – I definitely know what you mean. They're just kind of funky at room temp! Although I usually only bake "healthier" stuff, I don't want them to taste at all healthy. :) Food processors are a pain to clean (this is coming from someone who leaves it in the sink until I use it again… yikes. But I use it almost every day!) but I think it's worth it to drag it out. Thank you so much for your lovely comment! Now everyone else will know what happens with a mixer. You have a great day too. :)
These were delicious but it burned the motor out of my food processor. It was smoking and everything:( I have a cuisanart which is a good brand!
UPDATE: I ate 2 for breakfast. :) I didn't warm them up and they were still quite tasty. And they didn't fall apart! I ate them with my hands and they held together perfectly. Even though I do still like them at room temp, I will say they taste a bit "healthier" this way, if you know what I mean. Last night, I actually felt guilty eating them! Today… not so much. ;)
I guess there might be tiny pieces (I wouldn't necessarily call them chunks) of the beans still there, but it's hard to tell since there are also the crunchy bits of almonds from the almond butter. Now that I've mixed them in a regular bowl and have seen that the bowl cleans up well, (I guess from the oil in the nut butters,) I might drag out my food processor next time if I want to try for a smoother consistency. The thing is just a pain to clean!
Just wanted to come back with a follow-up. ;)
Have a great day!
Anon – I hope you do make them and that you like them! I'm so happy that people are leaving feedback because one person on the internet saying that chickpea cookies are really a good thing just isn't believable. :)
Anon – Thanks for the tip! I'm happy they still came out for you. :)
Julie – I hope they turn out well and I'm looking forward to your update!
Phyllis – I hope you liked them in their baked form too! I just didn't want people to expect the cookie dough to taste good, like normal cookie dough. But baked? I really think they're similar! Thanks for the feedback. :)
Kelly – I know, right? They'd just be funky without the chocolate chips. That's my opinion anyway. And I love that you saw this and made this within less than an hour. That's just like me. I see a recipe and immediately get up to make it. I just can't wait! Thanks for the nice comment. :)
Miryam – I guess you saw these on Pinterest? It seems to have exploded over there. You have to make them! I really think you'd like them. The texture isn't exactly like a cookie, but when warm, you can't really tell a difference. That's why I said to only eat them warm a dozen times. I can't wait to hear what you think!
Jennifer – Hahaha. That made me laugh. Thank you and thanks for letting me know that you liked them. :)
Becka – I'm happy that your additions worked! When they're warm, they're pretty gooey, but I'm not loving the cooled version. I bet your way is better if it added softness. There should absolutely be no chickpea chunks, so if you got rid of all those, I'm guessing it was the extra almond butter. Thanks for letting us know that it works with a mixer! But for anyone else who reads this, there should be absolutely no chunky bits in the dough! That sounds like it'd be terrible. Thanks again. :)