Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Chickpea Cookies)

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies - made August 24, 2013 from Texan Erin

Let me start off by saying if I had titled these "Chickpea Cookies", you probably would've skipped this entry and kept on going. I would have too.  Chickpeas?  In cookies?  Heck, I had to google "chickpeas" and see exactly what they were.  Then I was even more turned off to discover they're just another name for garbanzo beans.  I have no love for garbanzo beans.  Just bad memories of my parents trying to make me eat them when I was a kid and me spitting them out into my napkin, excusing myself from the table on the pretext of having to go to the bathroom and flushing that napkinful of garbanzo beans down the toilet.  Ick.

So why on earth am I using chickpeas (less traumatizing for me to think of them as chickpeas instead of the garbanzo beans of my childhood) in something as sacrosanct as cookies?? If you've seen the picture of these from Texan Erin's blog, you'll understand why I felt compelled. Some people might want to try them because they're gluten-free, dairy free, and contain no white sugar. I made them because her picture of them looked so good. And a friend as good as dared me to make them.  So I did.

The only change I made from the original recipe is I used almond butter instead of natural peanut butter, mostly because I prefer almond butter and the recipe said it was okay to make the substitution.  So that's what my cookies came out darker than hers.  Otherwise, I followed the directions to the letter, including weighing out all my ingredients to the last gram.  I didn't want any excuses on this recipe and wanted to be able to judge it on its own merit, chickpeas and all.

Baked for 10 minutes

They actually turned out better than I expected.  As with the limited number of things I've made that are gluten-free, they're rather dense, soft and "fudgy".  There are no crisp edges to this one and I'd advise you to let  the cookies cool completely before tasting them or else they might be too gooey.  I baked the first batch for the 10 minutes directed in the recipe and it was a little too gooey.  I baked the second batch an extra 5 minutes with no discernible difference in taste and the texture was just as soft but not as gooey once it had cooled. I think these would be hard to overbake but you definitely don't want to underbake them either.  Taste-wise, you can't taste the chickpeas at all; it seems they just contribute to the texture and give the cookies some body.  The honey was also not prevalent which was good for me since I don't like the taste of honey.  I liked these cookies but I don't know if I could say I loved them.  If someone wanted something with no flour, no sugar and no dairy, this cookie is a good choice.  I don't know that I would add these to my holiday baking list but if I did need to bake for someone who's gluten free, I'm going with these cookies.

Baked for 15 minutes

1¼ cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup + 2 tablespoons (165 grams) natural peanut butter (don't use regular peanut butter) or almond butter, room temperature
¼ cup (80 grams) honey 
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
½ cup (90 grams) chocolate chips

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. With wet hands, form into 1½" 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.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes (or up to 15 minutes). The dough balls will still be very soft when you take them out of the oven. They will not set like normal cookies.
5. Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the fridge) for up to 1 week.