Chocolate-Chickpea and Oatmeal Cookies

Some cookbooks are great for recipes and some are great for inspiration. One of the best things about cooking and baking is that you can take so many risks. Sometimes the risks pay off and sometimes they don’t. If you are timid in the kitchen (sometimes I am) I suggest following recipes to the tee…but if you are willing to accept mistakes in the kitchen then you are ready for reaping the reward of the risk. I took a risk with these cookies, had they not turned out I would have wasted 2 cups of chocolate chips… I hate wasting chocolate chips.

When my oldest was young I received Deceptively Delicious
by Jessica Seinfield as a gift. Although I used some of the recipes in this book, I have almost always used it as a jumping point.

I hadn’t looked at this book for a very long time. The other day I pulled it out to look up something when I saw this recipe. Not sure if I had just never seen it or just passed it over because of lack of interest, but I could not believe what a great idea this was. Most of the recipes in this book uses purees which is great when you are feeding a family and a baby, but since my youngest is 5 I don’t have purees on hand so much anymore. This recipe however did not use a puree and I was digging the concept. To the untrained eye the garbanzo beans looked like macadamia nuts, if you chopped them coarsely they would look like a chopped walnut. Hiding nutrition never got so easy/yummy! I did however have to make some changes.

The first change I made was replacing the margarine with applesauce (I don’t buy margarine and this seems to be an acceptable oil substitution in baking). The second real change I made was subbing half of the flour with oat flour. Next, she used a whole 15oz can of garbanzo beans. I was a little worried that too many chickpeas and my kids wouldn’t eat them, plus I had frozen chickpeas in 1 cup increments so that’s what I used.

So here is my adapted recipe:

Chocolate-Chickpea and Oatmeal Cookies

1 Cup AP flour

1 Cup Oat flour*

½ Cup of Old Fashion Oats

¼ tsp of salt

1 tsp of Baking Soda

1 cup packed Brown Sugar (recipe here)

¾ cup Applesauce

2 Egg Whites

2 tsp Vanilla

1 cup Chickpeas (drained and rinced)

2 cups (12oz pkg) of Chocolate Chips

1 cup Walnuts (optional)

* I put Old Fashion Oats in a food processor and blend it up until it looks like course flour and keep it on hand, remember to measure after you blend.

First whisk flour, oat flour, oats, salt and soda together and set aside.

Then you will want to blend the brown sugar and applesauce together until well mixed. Add egg whites and vanilla and mix well.

Now you will want to stir in chickpeas, chocolate chips and walnuts.

Now slowly add the dry ingredients until everything is well combined. Drop on a greased baking sheet by the teaspoon and bake 11-13 minutes. (Jessica Seinfield says this recipe makes 2 dozen cookies, but I got almost 4.

These cookies exceeded my experimental expectations! They were cakey, moist, and chocolaty. Best of all, my kids did not even ask what the white things in the cookies were. The bean was undetectable and I am so excited about my new nutrition boosting secret weapon!

With heart, home and motherhood

sarahliann