chickpea flour chocolate chip cookies

I was just about to write an intro about how chickpeas keep amazing me, but I honestly cannot wait to start writing about these cookies. Ever since I was diagnosed with celiac I have been dreaming of biting into a chocolate chip cookie that has a little bit of crunch on the outside and a soft, chewy inside.  And so, to the kitchen I went.

I’ve been replacing chickpea flour for regular flour in a lot of savoury recipes with great success lately, so why not try it in baking?  Normally, gluten free baking requires a mix of different flours to replace regular flour.  Once you’ve found a mix you like, then gluten free baking can go pretty smoothly.  But let’ be honest: it is so much easier to measure out just one kind of flour, and that is all you’ll have to do to make these cookies!

I will confess that there is one downside to these beauties: you can’t eat the cookie dough.  Uncooked chickpea flour does not have a pleasant taste, but that goes away after cooking it!  I know, I know… why bother making cookies if you can’t eat the dough?  Have faith in me and these cookies.  Once they are baked, they will satisfy your chocolate chip cookie craving, no raw cookie dough required.

If you leave these cookies out on the counter, they get a nice crispy-ness to them.  If you like a softer cookie, place them in a tupperware container.  They’re best served with a glass of cold almond milk.

chickpea flour chocolate chip cookies

makes 24

You’ll never believe that these soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies are made using chickpea flour!  If anyone ever asks where you get your protein from as a vegan, make them a batch of these.  One cup of chickpea flour packs a whole 20 grams of protein and 4.5 milligrams of iron.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup earth balance
• ¼ cup cane sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seeds + 3 tbsp warm water)
• 1 ½ cups chickpea flour, chilled*
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Beat the earth balance and sugar together. Add the vanilla and flax egg and mix well.
2. Mix in the chilled chickpea flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well incorporated. Feel free to get your hands dirty.
3. Add the chocolate chips.
4. Place the dough in the freezer while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I like to form the dough into two long logs so that I can just cut the dough into rounds.
5. Bake the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet for 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool for at least 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling rack.

*Place the chickpea flour in the freezer for about 15 minutes before you start making the cookies.