If you’ve been looking for healthy alternatives to your regular cookies, these vegan wheat free protein cookies are just what you need !! Not only they’re delicious, but they’re also guilt free as they are fully oil free, refined sugar free and gluten free. So run to make them..! I have been making and remaking this recipe for years now, everywhere I go, I make it try for my people, and it’s a YES, every time. They’re soft, nutritious, fudgy.. just give it a go!
INGREDIENTS
I love this recipe because it has very little ingredients, and they’re not crazy hard to find at all. This batch yields about 8 medium cookies or double if you make them small and just use 1tbs of dough for each cookie. I personally like them in the medium size so I use 2tbs of dough for each cookie.
Chickpeas are very nutritious. Having them in this recipe will make these cookies fill you up fast. I love to use them as a carb source to replace wheat, bonus point is that they’re also protein packed. They are also high in fiber content. They have manganese, magnesium, phosphorus. They are known to improve digestive health and weight management due to their high nutritional content. Safe to say we love chickpea cookies !!
Peanut butter also adds extra protein to these cookies. It’s an ingredient packed in vitamin E, selenium, iron, vitamin B6, potassium, calcium and magnesium. As it is a calorie dense ingredient, it also plays a role in filling you up quickly. The combination of chickpeas and peanut butter makes it super chewy and fudgy. I already made these cookies with almond butter, and it turned out amazing as well. Almond butter is known to be slightly healthier as it contains just less unsaturated fats, but really a matter of personal preference and what you have available, I eat both versions. Just try to make sure you use no added sugar/no added oil nut butters!
Agave syrup or Maple syrup both will work. They have different nutritional value, and maple syrup still will be more nutritious as it contains more minerals. The plant of agave contains phytonutrients that may have anti oxydants effects. Maple syrup has higher calories than agave but a lower fructose content. I switch between the two, but usually agave syrup is more affordable. But maple syrup would give more of an earthy taste. Really your choice of using one of the other, they both work for the consistency of the cookies.
Plant based protein powder I use the brand Orgain. I like to use their vanilla flavor, but it’s really a matter of personal taste. Chocolate or peanut butter flavors would work as well, or any flavor really. However, I wouldn’t use fruity flavors. Using a superfood protein powder would make the cookies even more nutritious. All depends of what you want of these cookies.
Baking soda will give a little extra texture to the cookies. I recommend using it, otherwise the cookies may crumble appart more easily.
Salt is essential to add when using baking soda or baking powder for the chemical reaction to happen well. If you omit the salt, the cookies will have a very poor after taste.
Diary free chocolate chips or nuts of choice I like to use vegan chocolate chips from the brand Enjoy Life. Their ingredients are free from most allergens which makes them pretty clean (they do contain refined sugar still). Sometimes when I go for fully refined sugar free cookies I get the unsweetened chocolate chips from Whole Foods. I also have done this recipe already having run out of chocolate chips and using chopped walnuts or almonds instead does the work just fine. Doing a combo of both works great too!
EQUIPMENT
Regarding the equipment, you’ll need some sort of blender or food processor. Make sure the dough is well bended together, use a spatula if needed to push it down. I already made this recipe not blending the dough well, and I didn’t enjoy finding little pieces of chickpeas in my cookies! But when well blended, you couldn’t say there is chickpeas in there. Make sure you have a baking sheet ready to go with parchment paper underneath, or previously oiled with coconut oil.
HOW TO MAKE THESE DELICIOUS COOKIES?
Make sure your chickpeas were soaked and boiled if you’re using dry chickpeas. But if you’re using canned chickpeas, it’s a matter of couple minutes!
1. Preheat oven at 350 Fahrenheit. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper underneath.
2. Blend all ingredients in your food processor of any kind. Make sure it’s well combined, if needed push down with a spatula.
3. Use a table spoon to scoop the dough to form your cookies. Use one table spoon for smaller cookies (note that you’ll remove 2 minutes of baking time if you do so). My version is to scoop 2 table spoons of dough to form one cookie. Option to flatten the cookie a little using a spatula or spoon. They are not regular butter cookies so they will not melt down. The shape you put them in the oven will be the same shape when they’ll come out.
4. Bake them for 13 minutes, or 11 minutes if just using 1tbs of dough for each cookies.
5. Enjoy with a glass of plant based milk!!
OTHER WAYS OF MAKING THESE COOKIES
As you may notice on the left picture, the cookies are a bit more brown. That’s the result when using almond butter. Back when I did this option years ago, I didn’t use baking soda and you can notice the very fidgety texture. If you decide not to use baking soda, they will need a solid 2 hours in the fridge before being eaten. When not using baking soda, the consistency is much more crumbly, it keeps it together less well.
But it was still super tasty. I am personally not patient enough to wait 2 hours before eating those!!
You can also use these cookies for cashew cream sandwiches and it’s so so good! I will share the full recipe of these ice cream sandwiches in a separate post soon.
This is definitely the ultimate vegan dessert and it’s so amazing that it is refined sugar free, oil free, gluten free..
These cream sandwiches (or ice cream sandwiches if you freeze them) are so good for family reunion desserts. Go impress your guest with your healthy goodies! When store bought, these kind of cookie/ ice cream sandwiches have often a high content of sugar and are very processed. A good simple reason to make yours at home 🙂
Thanks for reading, leave me a comment or rate it if you tried it out!
– Nati xx
Vegan wheat free protein cookies
Equipment
- 1 blender or food processor
- 1 Baking sheet
- 1 Spatula
- 1 table spoon
Ingredients
- 1 + 1/4 cup cooked chickpeas raised and drained if using canned
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup agave syrup or maple syrup or any liquid sweetener
- 1 tbs almond milk
- 1 scoop vegan vanilla protein powder or any flavor of choice such as chocolate
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup dairy free chocolate chips unsweetened for refined sugar free version
Instructions
- Bring all ingredients in your food processor of any kind.
- Blend until well combined. If needed, mix and push down with a spatula to make sure chickpeas are well blended.
- Scoop the dough one table spoon at a time. I personally like to use 2 table spoons of dough per cookies. You could use just 1 for smaller cookies. If so, remove 2 minutes from baking time.
- Flatten the dough slightly to get the final shape of your cookies before baking. They will keep the same shape before and after baking unlike regular butter cookies.
- Top with chocolate chips.
- Bake for 13 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool down 20-30 minutes before enjoying.
- Store in a sealed container in the fridge up to 1 week.
