This recipe still has me shaking my head. In surprise and amazement, that is. It shouldn’t, I suppose — this isn’t the first time I’ve tried crazy ingredient replacements with great results (my dad was gluten-free for many years, before gluten-free had its own spot on the grocery store shelf — mad ingredient substitution ruled the kitchen in those days).
I just wasn’t expecting whole chickpeas to make such amazing chocolate chip cookies. Yes, the stuff of hummus taking the place of flour in a thick, rich chocolate chip cookie pie, with cocoa and two types of chocolate chips.
It’s not gross. I pinkie swear.
And I’ll get the obvious question out the way: you absopositivelylutely do not taste the garbanzo beans. Not even the slightest bit. All you taste is rich, cakey chocolate cookie pie goodness.
Honestly, it’s far better than the standard flourless chocolate creations, which are, in my opinion, little more than gooey chocolate bombs. These cookie pies have texture and structure.
Baking with garbanzo beans is not new, when you get right down to it — gluten-free folks have been buying bean flours for ages as a substitute for wheat. The difference here is starting with the whole bean and mixing in a healthy share of oats. The two together are amazing.
With not a trace of bean flavor.
I’ll stop short of claiming they’re healthy, but they are healthier than your standard chocolate chip cookie fare: legumes and oats instead of flour, no eggs, coconut oil instead of butter, and part of the brown sugar originally called for substituted with coconut sugar.
I made these into mini pies with Oreo cookies crusts — thereby negating some of the healthier qualities of the cookie batter, natch — but it would be an interesting experiment to free-form these babies on a cookie sheet and see what happens.
Oh, and did I mention they’re super-easy, too? Everything except the chips goes into the food processor — no more work than regular chocolate chip cookies and equally delightful.
Karen xo
P.S.: for folks who are GF and dislike GF flours made with high proportions of beans (giving the flour an unusual tang), no worries here. I’ve baked with those flours, too, and there’s just no comparison to using whole beans.
Triple chocolate chip cookie pies
adapted from here
Amazingly, the flavor of the garbanzo beans disappears completely in these cookies (make sure you rinse them very, very well). For a really smooth result, I’d recommend removing at least some of the skins from the garbanzo beans — easily done by picking up a bean between your forefinger and thumb and giving the bean a pinch. The skin will slip right off. This is the kind of task I really dig (don’t judge me), but I totally understand if it’s not your thing. Any amount of skins you can remove before succumbing to despair is better than nothing. This also happens to be the secret for super smooth hummus — it really makes a difference.
Ingredients:
for the crust (optional – see note below):
10 Oreo cookies
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
for the cookie batter:
1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans, well-rinsed and drained
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut sugar (or use all brown sugar)
2 tablespoons applesauce
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or quality extract)
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I use Extra Brute from Callebaut)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
heaping 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
heaping 1/4 cup white chocolate chips (or use more semi-sweet or sub dark chocolate)
Special Equipment:
6 each 3″ cake rings (or small ramekins)
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Prepare the crust, if using: add the Oreo cookies to the bowl of a food processor, breaking them into quarters as you drop them in. Pulse until coarsely ground (it’s best to take it slow and do numerous, one-second pulses – the cookies will grind evenly that way). Remove to a mixing bowl and stir in the melted butter.
Prepare the batter: add all of the cookie batter ingredients, except the chips to the bowl of the food processor (no need to wipe out the yummy stray Oreo crumbs). Process until very smooth. This could take a good 20-30 seconds, and one or two scraping-downs of the bowl. Bits of oats might be visible – that’s okay. The batter will be thick, but not quite as doughy as regular chocolate chip cookie dough. Remove the batter to a mixing down and gently stir in the chips.
Assemble: place the cake rings on a parchment lined baking sheet. Spray the interiors with non-stick spray. Divide the Oreo crumbs evenly among the rings and use the back of a spoon to firmly press the crumbs to form a bottom crust.
Spoon the batter into the rings and gently level out (use two dinner spoons, one to gently press the batter into place, the other to keep the ring stationary as well as scrape batter off the first spoon). Fill the rings halfway up. Bake for 25 minutes. The tops of the cookie pies should be firm (don’t press down too hard when testing – the centers are still a bit gooey at this point).
Leave the rings on the the pan, and place the pan on a rack to promote cooling. Let rings cool completely, at least one hour. Remove the rings by lifting up on the ring while pushing down gently on the cookie top – the ring should slip right off. (If using ramekins, plan to leave the cookies in the ramekins. I haven’t tried this recipe in ramekins, but I’m guessing that it will be difficult to get them to turn out cleanly.)
Serve at room temperature, with a scoop of ice cream, if desired.
Note: I added the Oreo crust the first time I made these because I wanted to make sure the batter didn’t leak out of the bottom of the cake rings. It’s not a problem – consider the Oreo crust optional (although delicious). Without it, this recipe becomes gluten-free and vegan (be sure to use certified GF and approved vegan versions of the ingredients).
Mianders
Tuesday 13th of November 2012
First things first - I love your blog!!!!! I just finishsed eating this dessert - WOW WOW WOW! I'm thrilled with how it turned out as are my 3 guests - 4 gals who are all carnivores with no gluten restrictions. It was rich, creamy, and so chocolatey. Knowing I can make and share this with my vegan and gluten restricted friends excites me so much. Thanks for sharing this!
SoupAddict
Tuesday 13th of November 2012
That's so cool! Thanks for stopping back to share the result. :)
Velva
Wednesday 3rd of October 2012
Whole beans? I love it. I would have shied away from using chick peas had I not seen this post. Very cool!
Velva
Cher
Tuesday 2nd of October 2012
Garbanzos :-) Love it. I like using unexpected items in baked goods. It's like playing a trick on the world... (Lentil cookies - totally tricked the peeps)
Diane, A Broad
Monday 1st of October 2012
Oh boy am I excited to make these. I think I won't tell the gentleman that they're made with chickpeas and see if he notices.
britainknee
Monday 1st of October 2012
Wow- I'm not even a chocolate fanatic, but these look delicious! I like that there are a good amount of healthy ingredients, yet they seem so decadent!