Rob is away which means I have been left to my own devices. I stay up a lot later when Rob isn’t here to remind me to go to sleep. I am the one taking care of the garbage, mail and laundry. I haven’t vacuumed yet, but I think that’s ok. We stocked up on groceries before Rob left, so I had a fridge full of produce to work through.
I have been eating my greens, but most of the time, I have been thinking of the dessert that awaits afterwards. Since moving to Houston, Rob and Joe have been a bad influence. You have likely met Joe, too…. the Trader Joe. When we first moved here, we were enamoured with vegan ice cream. We knew that habit wasn’t sustainable, so we weaned ourselves to smoothies and banana ice cream. Next came the chips. TJ’s has SO.MANY chips to try. The gateway chips were the black bean and quinoa ones, and then we progressed to the veggie and flaxseed tortilla chips and soy and flaxseed chips. I have put a chip ban in place while Rob is gone, although I will admit I like the chips more than sweets.
And then Rob discovered their vegan cookies. They even say vegan cookies right on the package. I knew I had to put an end to this madness. Even homemade cookies would be a better option. Although, I purposely did not bring any baking contraptions to Houston. (I can’t even find my graduated 1-cup measuring cup, sigh).. and strictly enforcing a no flour pantry (chickpea flour and masarepa, excluded).
What’s a cookie-loving girl to do?
No flour, no problem.
Peanut butter cookies to the rescue. Peanut butter and wait for it, mashed chickpeas, are the base for these cookies. I chopped up some chocolate to incorporate into the sweet batter. Now we had peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies! I am no stranger to beans in cookies, either. One of my favourite cookies are these chocolate mint cookies made with black beans and these chocolate chip chickpea blondies were a hit, too. I like bean-based cookies because they are softer and more cake-like, instead of hard and crackly cookies. They certainly have a different texture but you would never know there were chickpeas in them. These would also make a nice snack while cycling/exercising – a nice change of pace from date-based treats.
Have you baked with beans yet?
This is my submission to to this month’s Bookmarked Recipes, Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck and to this month’s Credit Crunch Munch.
Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies
From Lisa’s Vegetarian Kitchen
1.25 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (natural) peanut butter
1/4 cup agave or liquid sweetener of choice
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup chopped chocolate (or chocolate chips)
1. Preheat an oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.
2. In a food processor fitted with its S-blade, combine chickpeas, vanilla, peanut butter, agave, baking powder and salt. Process until smooth and well combined, scraping down the sides of the processor as necessary. Stir in the chocolate chips and pulse until evenly combined.
3. Roll batter into 1.5″ balls and place 1″ apart. Press dough down slightly, as they will not expand much. Bake at 350F until beginning to brown, around 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to allow to cool before serving.
Makes 12-14 cookies.
the taste space 
I love recipes and they fit very well in my business, I am in Wellness Industry but i find that most people do not take the time to list nutrition info such as protein, fat, or calories. Very important info to my clients.
That is easy to figure out on a number of websites, should you need to figure it out.
Yay cookies!
Yay vacuuming 😉
I will vacuum when I come back 😉
I want to meet this Joe chap, even if he sounds like a bit of a bad influence…:)
I’m super impressed that you don’t keep flour in the pantry. I love baking, though I do love raw desserts too and these flourless cookies look amazing.
I’m way behind and haven’t baked with beans. I do love dessert hummus!
Ah yes, dessert hummus. I will admit that nothing compares to traditional hummus in my eyes… even dessert hummus cannot compete. My next beany dessert I want to try is a white bean cheesecake. I actually wonder whether pureed cauliflower could work, too… Anyways, sounds like a crazy experiment worth trying out. 🙂
Trader Joe’s is hard to resist! I actually miss it already. It’s been two months now, I’m stuck in Buenos Aires, missing these chips and frozen meals at Trader Joe’s. I can’t wait to try their new products when I come back in November. I’ve never tried chickpea-based cookies, but I’ve tried brownies made with black beans and frosting made with avocado (so goooooood!) but I imagine these peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies are tasty…Gonna bookmark this, thanks 🙂
Haha, you are too funny. Buenos Aires sounds like fun, too. I wish I were able to travel more. 🙂
Spoken like a true baker, Gaby. I rarely bake these days and if i did, I would be following the recipe. I can do random for dinner, but who knows for baking. Even raw desserts are more forgiving. In any case, Rob has offered to be a guinea pig for any of your treats. He loves sweets of all kinds. I am more of a savoury gal, but chocolate and berries are my favourite.. oh, and peanut butter. 😉 I like your idea for a big mega cookie! Totally easier to make, just longer to bake… and probably less likely to overbake! 🙂
Mmm loving that these are gluten-free. They sound awesome! Can’t wait to try them out.
Don’t you love Trader Joe’s????? Have you tried Plantain chips yet? Those are the BEST!
Haha, yeah, we had the plantain chips while at Burning Man. 🙂
love the photo of the hand. I have never been a chip person so I struggle against E’s desire to fill our pantry with chips and then I feel guilty and buy them for him occasionally anyway. But I have always preferred home made cookies to bought (except when I was small and hassled my mum for bought biscuits) These cookies sound excellent – I have read somewhere that chickpeas in cookies don’t last so well – is that your experience?
Hi Johanna, They were better when fresh from the oven, but I will admit that they didn’t last too long. I ate them before I could test to see whether they would last longer than a day or so. Sounds like I need to try another batch.. 😉
Oh I can’t wait to try these! They might be my almost perfectly guilt free addition to my meal plan for next month!
I haven’t really attempted to bake with beans yet but it’s on my to-do list! Pairing them with peanut butter is a surefire way that I’ll love them!
Ohhh, I love the look of these! Chickpeas have yet to fail me in a dessert (even if some odd things I have tried have :P) but I have never baked with them. I will have to give these a go!
It’s probably a good thing that I live so far from any Trader Joe’s because I would be buying their products constantly! If I have ice cream or tortilla chips in my house, I’ll snack on them almost every night, so sometimes you just have to stop buying those things and when they’re not there, you don’t crave them! I don’t mind the taste of chickpeas in my desserts, so I like the sounds of these cookies although I’m sure the peanut butter and chocolate cover up most of the bean taste anyway!
I love how even in the face of challenges (no baking gear) you find a way to do it! I think someone is a baker at heart! Or there’s at least a serious sweet tooth 😉
These look delicious! I love the idea of cooking with whole foods like beans- even less refined that chickpea flour. And so so easy as you’ve demonstrated!
[…] Cookies and chips? Code words for Janet should be studying. […]
I wonder what could be used instead of peanut butter. I would like to use cinnamon chips instead of chocolate and I’m not sure the pb would taste good with the cinnamon. Any suggestions?
I think almond butter or cashew butter would work well with the cinnamon chips. Please let me know how it goes. I feel like you need stronger, assertive flavours to mask to the beans.
Thanks…I’m going to play around with it tonight and I’ll let you know. I actually have a pumpkin and cream cheese mixture leftover from another treat I made, I may use that for a nice fall flavor 🙂
The flavor was great…texture not so much 😦
I missed this one on Lisa’s blog. I would never think of sing chickpeas in something sweet.
[…] subsequent stop was at my favourite Trader Joe’s, where we sampled all 3 cookie butters before deciding which one to bring home. My Dad picked the […]
[…] go to standard box stores. Instead, I scope out cheap, fresh produce at the food market and Trader Joe’s and order random ingredients online. There are a few different websites I like, depending on what I […]
These look so amazingly…not to mention full of protein:) I love using unconventional ingredients!! Thanks for sharing on the VVPL!
[…] Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies by The Taste […]