Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

http://www.texanerin.com/2012/04/grain-free-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip.html


Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
I don't normally go putting weird things in my cookies but look what happened here. These are just full of chickpeas. And they're sweetened with honey and have no added fat like oil or butter. 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 and gluten-free. 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.


These need the chocolate. Don't go making them without the chocolate and then tell me that they weren't sweet or gooey enough! No no no. These would be incredibly boring without the chocolate. And for some weird reason, these 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.

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.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups canned* chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter
1/4 cup (80 grams) honey (commenters have used agave with success!)
1 teaspoon baking powder**
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
1/2 cup (90 grams) chocolate chips

* My can was a 400 gram can, 240 grams without the water, and I used all but a few tablespoons
** If you need grain-free baking powder, you can use 1 part cream of tartar + 1 part baking soda + 2 parts arrowroot.

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. Yields about fourteen 1 1/2" cookie dough balls.