Cookies worth craving
These soft, gluten-free, reduced-sugar treats have a secret ingredient you can’t taste and would never guess — garbanzo beans
I’ve been baking since the first grade after being gifted a little red Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. Cookies were my specialty almost from the start. Over the years, I’ve had ongoing conversations with people about what constitutes a good cookie. No nuts in mine, thank you very much. And no fruit, except maybe raisins and only if they’re in oatmeal cookies. I’ll eat a hard, crunchy cookie if I have some hot coffee to dunk it in (hello, Oreos and Girl Scout Thin Mints), but my preference has always leaned toward the soft, almost cakelike or chewy variety.
The first time flourless chocolate chip cookies made with garbanzo beans came up on my Pinterest feed, my immediate reaction was, “No, thank you!” But then, the more I thought about it, the more the idea intrigued me, so I filed away the concept to play with someday.
Fast forward a few years: I had revamped my diet, taking myself off most white-colored food to lower my intake of starch. I don’t know about you, but I crave certain things while on a special diet. For me, it’s usually chocolate, and usually in the form of a good chocolate chip cookie. Wanting to stay on point with my diet didn’t mean I couldn’t have a treat occasionally. At the time, I found that the key was making that treat count, having it be tasty while not sending my blood sugar spiking or setting my diet back by days.
With white flour off the table, I thought about adapting my favorite cookie recipe to use whole wheat flour. Then I remembered those garbanzo bean cookies and thought, why not try using beans?
Since the “dough” is primarily garbanzo beans— high in fiber with a relatively low glycemic load— I opted not to seek out sugarfree chocolate chips. Instead, I chose to use good-quality bittersweet chocolate chips that I usually keep in my pantry. As my auntie says, good chocolate chip cookie dough should just be an excellent vehicle for the star: the chocolate chips!
You guys! These babies rock! You’d never know that there was no wheat flour in these cookies, and trust me, YOU CANNOT TASTE THE BEANS! These cookies are super moist, cakey and soft — my favorite kind of chocolate chip cookie!
You’ll need nut butter to help bind the dough. Choose a natural ground butter, not a big commercial brand with added sugars and oils. Better yet, if you own a food processor, make your own. I always have whole almonds, peanuts, walnuts and cashews in my pantry in both raw and roasted, salted varieties. You can make nut butter from either type. Though, when I use raw nuts, I toss them on a sheet pan and toast them in my toaster oven to wake up the oils and enhance their flavor (350 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes, shaking the pan periodically; cool the nuts for 10 minutes before processing). Raw nuts will also need some salt when processing. I love the natural sweetness from the nuts, but you could add a touch of honey, agave or maple syrup if you like sweeter nut butter.
Making nut butter can strain your food processor, so you’ll need to let the machine cool down every few minutes. I run it for 2 minutes on and 30 seconds off until the nuts go from coarse meal to clumpy mess to smooth nut butter. Take the opportunity to scrape down the sides while you’re in the cooling-off period. Depending on your food processor’s power and the kind of nut you’re processing, expect it to take about 6 to 8 minutes to achieve a smooth butter consistency while processing 2 cups of nuts.
Arambula is the food section art director and designer. She blogs at confessionsofafoodie.me, where the original version of this article was published. Follow her on Instagram: @afotogirl. She can be reached at anita.arambula@sduniontribune.com.