Making Cookie Dough Bites!

Current Mission:  

Cookie Dough Bites

A friend sent me the following recipe and the picture looked SO GOOD!  It is the profile picture I am currently using for my Wheatless In Indiana Facebook page.  Melty chocolate and gooey goodness with Garbanzo beans and no wheat!!!!

Here is the recipe exactly as it was sent to me.

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 (agave would be amazing too!)

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 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.

Mission Briefing:

My can of Garbanzo beans were more then 400 grams, so of course I had to eyeball it to try to keep things close to the objective in the recipe.  But as Julia Childs has been known to say... "Its just you alone in your kitchen and who's to know!"

As you all know by now, I'm not exactly a kitchen wizard and sometimes I fumble around.  For someone like me using a food processor is still a little "new" and I don't like anything to complicated - although I have been know to take a crack at the complex when the mood strikes.    Here are the mission photos:

Garbanzo bean "skins" that came off as I was patting them dry

Giving the garbanzo beans a patdown!

Everything but chocolate chips in the food processor

Ok... I think this is as smooth as it gets, not like smooth peanut butter but it will do for me!

In goes the chocolate chips

This stuff is thick, look out mixing with a plastic spatula!

I opted to smoosh instead of making them into balls

I left them in the oven a little longer then 10 mins.  I used regular bake instead of the new fangled option to convection bake... that will be another mission on another day!

My final observation 

Upon tasting, I enjoy the flavor and it is a great little treat.  It is not overpowering with sweetness (although my peanut butter had sugar added to it).  I will make this again and next time I plan to leave them in balls and not cook them as long.  I think it is all trial and error to get everything the way YOU like it.  

I hope to in the future try these little goodies out with a different kind of nutbutter, but if you look at the store they can be a bit expensive.  It might be something I will by to reserve for special occasions like a Sabbath meal or a Holiday.  :-)  Enjoy!  I highly recommend this recipe!!!!