A Skeptic's Review: Chickpea Cookie Dough

Spoon University|March 28, 2014 10:29 am EST

You may have heard of this weird chickpea treat, but were probably too skeptical to try it. It's essentially chocolate chip cookie dough, except not really at all. It's not even meant to be baked. I, for one, rejoiced at finding pictures like this ...

Courtesy of chocolatecoveredkatie.com

... because it appeared I had finally found the human equivalent of Oliver's feast in Oliver & Company, which has been a dream of mine forever.

Courtesy of giphy.com

Aside from reminding me of the best Disney movie ever (I mean BILLY JOEL? Come on), I wanted to try the chickpea cookie dough dip because it seemed to offer cookie dough free from the usual concerns:

1. I will only put down the spoon 1,000 calories later.
2. I will die from salmonella like my mom said I would.
3. I will think I'm dying from salmonella like my mom said I would because of my horrible stomach ache.

But this seemingly miraculous recipe presented a few concerns of its own:
1. It will taste like chickpeas and chocolate.
2. It will taste like chickpeas and chocolate.
3. It will taste like chickpeas and chocolate.

All, of course, valid. But I put my faith in the author of the recipe that I used, who ensured that after taking the dish to a party, everyone ate it and didn't believe her later when she revealed the strange ingredients.

The recipe is really simple—all you need to do is measure out the ingredients then blend them together.

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: NONE!!
Total Time: 5 minutes

Servings: 1 bowl of cookie dough, enough for 8 small servings or 4 normal ones

Photo by Abbie Ginis

Ingredients:
1 can of chickpeas, well rinsed and drained
1/8 teaspoon plus 1/16 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon plus 1/16 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons peanut butter
about 1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2-3 tablespoons oats

Directions:
1. Mix everything together in a blender. If you have a food processor (yay you!) use that.

Photo by Abbie Ginis

I used a blender (because I'm in college) which worked out okay. It wasn't as smooth as, say, cookie dough, but I don't think the texture would have been vastly different from a food processor.

Photo by Abbie Ginis

Now, enough suspense—time for the verdict. Chickpea Cookie Dough: joke or jackpot?

All in all, the dip is fair. Does it taste like chickpeas? Actually, no. But does it taste like cookie dough? Also a no. My nut butter of choice was peanut butter, which I thought would be the most likely to overpower any chickpea flavor. It overpowered all flavor, though, so the end result was PB & chocolate. There are worse things.

Left, courtesy of chocolatecoveredkatie.com Right, photo by Abbie Ginis

My biggest problem with this recipe isn't the taste at all. I'm skeptical about it being so much healthier than regular cookies that the vaguely strange flavor/consistency is worth it. The nutrition facts may seem better (note: use fresh nut butter for healthiest results) but at least if I go the traditional route I'm cognizant of every cookie I stuff in my mouth (be it 2, 4, 10...).
I measured nutrition facts based on a serving size of 1 Toll House cookie and 1/8 of the chickpea dough (though I ate at least 1/4, like, immediately).

Bottom line: I'd rather make a batch of Toll House cookies. If eating the dough is really important, I'd go for pasteurized eggs. Or just embrace the stomach ache because, if I'm being honest, it's the only thing that keeps me from taking an entire batch to the face.

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