After drooling over a photo of grain-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies posted by my friend Jehan on Instagram, I decided to put my own twist on a healthy, garbanzo bean-based power cookie. If you’re gluten-free, garbanzo bean flour is just about the best “alternative” flour out there. Unlike other bean flours and substitutes like almond meal, it doesn’t need to be combined with regular flour.
Not convinced? Check out this nutritional tête à tête:
Garbanzo Bean Flour:
- 1/4 cup contains 110 calories
- 6g protein
- 18g of carbohydrate (of which 5g is dietary fiber)
- 10% of the daily value for iron
Whole Wheat Flour:
- 1/4 cup contains 110 calories
- 4g of protein
- 23g of carbohydrate (of which 4g is dietary fiber)
- 6% of the daily value for iron
Brown Rice Flour:
- 1/4 cup contains 140 calories
- 3g of protein
- 31g of carbohydrate (of which only 1g is dietary fiber)
- 4% of the daily value for iron
Let’s all clap for the heavyweight champ: Garbanzo Bean Flour!
These power cookies are full of protein, dietary fiber, vitamin E, iron and a delicious kick of sea salt, dark chocolate and your favorite natural nut butter. If you’re constantly on-the-go, this is the perfect snack to tuck in your purse, backpack or hipster messenger bag for a healthy pre- or post-workout way to (re)fuel your body.
Chocolate Nut Butter Power Cookies
What You’ll Need:
- 3/4 cup natural almond or peanut butter (raw, unsalted)
- 1/3 cup raw honey (+2 tbs hot water)
- 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups garbanzo bean flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt (to spring on top)
How to Make Them:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
- In a KitchenAid mixer or food processor, mix your nut butter, raw honey and water until smooth. Add in apple sauce, egg and vanilla extract and blend again.
- Slowly fold in the dry mix, blending as you go.
- Mix in the chocolate chips with a baking spatula. (Don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t look like the typical cookie mix. It is meant to be very thick and sticky.)
- With wet hands, form into 1″ balls. Place balls 1″ apart on a piece of parchment paper. Gently press down on each with a fork, criss-crossing imprints if you want to be fancy.
- Sprinkle each cookie with a few grains of coarse sea salt (if you’re into the whole salted-sweets crazy like I am:). Bake for ~10 min.
If you try this recipe out, let me know what you think. The dough can be hard to work with but these tasty power cookies are worth it!