Chickpea Cookies...Who Knew?

I'm loving all the dessert recipes out there that have hidden healthy ingredients. These Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie-Dough Bites had caught my eye a long time ago and I finally made them this past weekend. The hidden ingredient in these delicious bites are chickpeas. I know, you all are thinking GROSS and while yes they don't taste as decadent as cookie-dough I think they come pretty darn close!

These have no flour, oil or raw sugar making them a healthier dessert option. Although it probably isn't healthy to consume as many as these as I have...whoops!

Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie-Dough Bites via Texanerin Baking

Grain-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie-Dough Bites from Texanerin Baking

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 natural peanut butter**
• 1/4 cup honey 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder***
• a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

*When dry the chickpeas try to discard of the clear like film that covers the chickpea

** Don't even try with regular peanut butter! They'll come out oily. You MUST use natural peanut butter. :)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F. 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.