it's hilarious that people seem to like me cooking. hilarious.
but, since i'm now - what i like to refer to as - a mix between martha stewart and kanye west (i only listen to rap when i cook. it's my thing), guess i should probably share EVERYTHING I COOK EVER (note: not to worry. i cook MAYBE once every 2 weeks. example: today i ate a slice of tofu microwaved with honey garlic sauce, some sprouts, some hummus, and hot sauce. gourmet. i know).
i'll admit, i wanted to share this one mostly because it's one of the only things i ever cooked that got compliments. and YES the people eating them HAD been drinking all day. and YES they were all biased because i was sitting in the room, staring at them while they ate, greedy for approval. but nevertheless, i remember the words 'these are AMAZING' coming out of someone's mouth. so, take that.
the inspiration to make these came from this post. when i stumbled onto this beauty... chickpeas? in cookies?? i can pretend cookies are health food? duh. no contest.
so when i finally ended up reunited with my food processor, and managed to slip some cookie ingredients into the weekly grocery shop, i had a mission. make chickpeas into believable cookies.
THEN. the chocolate. i'm lazy. i don't want to stir chocolate. anything i can do in a food processor, i'll do it. are you like me? sweet. throw them bits of chcolate into the slow processor, and 'pulse'. a few times. apparently you're not supposed to over 'pulse'. not sure why... because i food processed my chocolate, i had teensy chocolate bits spread all through my cookies, and it was delightful.
it was super thick. borderline, i was worried that my processor may break. so anticipate that. that means you're ready. wet your hands (this is vital), get out your baking sheet (i don't have a baking sheet yet), and start scooping. i'm sure those fancy pants bakers out there have an ice cream scoop for uniform size and shape cookies, but i use the old 'this looks about right' method. ancient. passed down from generation to generation. really fancy. the recipe calls for 1 1/2" balls, but since we're all human, and a) like big cookies, and b) can't eye out 1 1/2" balls, i just went for a size that would fit onto my pan. they won't flatten, so i pressed mine down a bit to make them flatter.
then, bake.
and ohhhhhhh how your kitchen will smell like heaven alive. peanut butter and chocolate. i promise you there is no trace of chickpea anywhere. if i weren't constantly reminding of the chickpeas, and how HEALTHY my cookies were going to be, i'd just be a kid, sitting in front of the oven, waiting for cookies to be done.
since my cookies were bigger (probably more like 2" or 2 1/2") i think i spent 20 minutes baking. and even still, they needed time to sit and harden up... and even then, they were still a bit gooey. hey - i love me a gooey cookie. just be prepared. when these came out, they were heaven. i ate 4. and then remembered i was probably od'ing on chickpeas. they are odd - you definitely can't pass them off as normal cookies - but they are delicious. i even used them as workout snacks - HEALTH FOOD, remember??
and yes. i use dollaram kitchen tools. and yes. in absence of a baking sheet (i moved across the COUNTRY people.... priorities!!) i use my pyrex for every baking need.
here's the recipe below. i'll definitely make these again. i may even try to freeze, and then bake again to warm up... see what happens.
ingredients
1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter or almond butter (do NOT use regular peanut butter... it will be too oily. must be natural)
if your peanut butter is salt free (mine was), you will also add a pinch of salt
1/4 cup honey (you can also use agave and maple syrup instead)
1 teaspoon baking powder (if you need yours to be grain free, you can use 1 part cream of tartar/1 part baking soda/2 parts arrowroot)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
directions:
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. Bake for about 10 minutes.
but, since i'm now - what i like to refer to as - a mix between martha stewart and kanye west (i only listen to rap when i cook. it's my thing), guess i should probably share EVERYTHING I COOK EVER (note: not to worry. i cook MAYBE once every 2 weeks. example: today i ate a slice of tofu microwaved with honey garlic sauce, some sprouts, some hummus, and hot sauce. gourmet. i know).
i'll admit, i wanted to share this one mostly because it's one of the only things i ever cooked that got compliments. and YES the people eating them HAD been drinking all day. and YES they were all biased because i was sitting in the room, staring at them while they ate, greedy for approval. but nevertheless, i remember the words 'these are AMAZING' coming out of someone's mouth. so, take that.
the inspiration to make these came from this post. when i stumbled onto this beauty... chickpeas? in cookies?? i can pretend cookies are health food? duh. no contest.
so when i finally ended up reunited with my food processor, and managed to slip some cookie ingredients into the weekly grocery shop, i had a mission. make chickpeas into believable cookies.
for something like cookies (i don't DO cookies) i had to admit, i was nervous. i have a tendency to burn, scorch, misjudge size, water down, and do all sorts of bizarre things to baked goods. i think the only successful thing i've ever managed in the baking form, were some tomato rosemary scones i made for a bake sale once.... and i am fairly certain that was a result of the absence of sugar from the end product. so this one - baked goods (cookies, no less), involving chickpeas - was daunting. but. there was the tempting prospect of something i could pass off as healthy, that involved chocolate. so, here i was - faced with chocolate, peanut butter and chickpeas. and nowhere to go but forward.
so, start slow - preheat the oven. 350°F / 175°C. easy enough. then - since all i had was a vegan chocolate bar - i smashed up my chocolate bar. either with a hammer, or in the food processor. i'm sure there is some sort of special trick to this, but... pff. i just slammed a few chunks into the food processor, and hit 'pulse' until they resembled similar sizes and shapes to chocolate chips. i also have a habit of assembling all of my ingredients so they're all in one place while i get started. i've been known to start a recipe, and end up without one of the essential ingredients, so this is my way of making sure i'm not an idiot, and actually HAVE all the stuff i need.
then, chickpeas. i make my own chickpeas in a slow cooker, but this recipe specifically said canned chickpeas, so that's where i went. luckily i had a can sitting in the cupboard that i knew i'd never use for anything else. i opened, drained, and rinsed, then i let them sit on a towel to dry out a bit. am i the only one who is completely and utterly disgusted by the gooey liquid that beans are packed in?? *shudder. i tend to rinse any canned beans an excessive amount - probably don't need to run them under water 8 times.
once the chickpeas were dried looking, i threw everything (except chocolate) into the food processor - chickpeas, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, baking powder and a pinch of salt... maybe a bit more than that - i like my sweet things with a bit of salt too. process the bejesus out of it all - open the processor a few times to scrape down the sides, make sure all the chunky chickpeas are all smooth. i only had chunky peanut butter, so i ended up with some chunks in my cookies - i didn't mind them. if you want smooth cookies, go smooth peanut butter (seems like rocket science, right? ask me how long it took for me to realize why my cookies wouldn't go smooth. i don't want to talk about it). blend blend until as smooth as possible.
it was super thick. borderline, i was worried that my processor may break. so anticipate that. that means you're ready. wet your hands (this is vital), get out your baking sheet (i don't have a baking sheet yet), and start scooping. i'm sure those fancy pants bakers out there have an ice cream scoop for uniform size and shape cookies, but i use the old 'this looks about right' method. ancient. passed down from generation to generation. really fancy. the recipe calls for 1 1/2" balls, but since we're all human, and a) like big cookies, and b) can't eye out 1 1/2" balls, i just went for a size that would fit onto my pan. they won't flatten, so i pressed mine down a bit to make them flatter.
then, bake.
since my cookies were bigger (probably more like 2" or 2 1/2") i think i spent 20 minutes baking. and even still, they needed time to sit and harden up... and even then, they were still a bit gooey. hey - i love me a gooey cookie. just be prepared. when these came out, they were heaven. i ate 4. and then remembered i was probably od'ing on chickpeas. they are odd - you definitely can't pass them off as normal cookies - but they are delicious. i even used them as workout snacks - HEALTH FOOD, remember??
and yes. i use dollaram kitchen tools. and yes. in absence of a baking sheet (i moved across the COUNTRY people.... priorities!!) i use my pyrex for every baking need.
here's the recipe below. i'll definitely make these again. i may even try to freeze, and then bake again to warm up... see what happens.
ingredients
1 1/4 cups canned chickpeas
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter or almond butter (do NOT use regular peanut butter... it will be too oily. must be natural)
if your peanut butter is salt free (mine was), you will also add a pinch of salt
1/4 cup honey (you can also use agave and maple syrup instead)
1 teaspoon baking powder (if you need yours to be grain free, you can use 1 part cream of tartar/1 part baking soda/2 parts arrowroot)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
directions:
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. Bake for about 10 minutes.