summer 2012: treat tuesday #1, sunflower seed spread cookie dough bites

good morning afternoon!

today is tuesday. treat tuesday, that is.

i spotted today's treat on a sweet little site called pinterest.  
oh, pinterest.
how much do you love that site?!

so today's treat... Sunflower Seed Spread* Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites.
that's kind of a mouthful, isn't it?!

the original recipe created by texanerin, is found here. it calls for peanut butter*. however, since we are a peanut free household , i substituted sunflower seed spread for peanut butter.

you can buy sunflower seed spread almost anywhere these days. we typically buy ours from trader joes or we get the sunbutter brand from target. these two varieties contain some sugar, which the kids prefer. without the kids knowing, i've purchased another brand that contains no sugar and they won't eat it. i think it's pretty good, but it's silly to buy something they refuse to eat, so we go with the sugared versions (3g per 2 tbsp).

baking with sunflower seed spread as a substitute for peanut butter has been easy. the taste and consistency are both great. i've read that sunflower seed spread can turn baked products green due to a chemical reaction, but this has not happened to me yet. just thought i'd throw that out there in case someone tries these cookies with sunflower seed spread and the next day they are green. that would be a little alarming.

so back to the cookies. er, cookie dough bites. if you haven't actually checked out the ingredients yet, you are in for a surprise. these little goodies are packed full of protein and fiber. the main ingredient... chick peas! (aka garbanzo beans, for those of you who are only familiar with this bean as the odd looking thing soaking in what smells like pickle juice at many a resturant salad bar).

what exactly does this mean? well, friends, it means this tasty little treat is not only yummy, but a healthier alternative to your standard peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. it means you can have two for breakfast and not feel guilty!

now for the recipe...

 Sunflower Seed Spread* Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 15 oz can chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons natural sunflower seed spread (or peanut butter)
• 1/4 cup honey or agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt if your sunflower seed spread or peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (i used enjoy life dairy, nut, and soy free mega chips and i added probably an extra 1/4 cup, because well... i like chocolate!)

  
Directions (copied from texanerin's site):

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they're combined. Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky. With wet hands, form into 1 1/2" balls. Place onto a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don't do much rising. Bake for about 10 minutes. Yields about fourteen 1 1/2" cookie dough balls.

a few things i did differently: i put the chick peas in the food processor first, just to make sure they were fully chopped up. you know, because they are chick peas. i also placed the dough balls on directly on my cookie sheet, as i don't have any parchment paper. they turned out fine and didn't stick like i thought they might. finally, my dough bites were not really dough bites. my dough balls were maybe 2 in. and i needed to cook them for about 15 min. the recipe yielded me 10 regular sized cookies. slightly squishing them with a spatula made them look more like cookies, as the way you put them in the oven is the way they come out--the shape doesn't change much during baking. i flattened them a bit once i took them out of the oven.

these treats are really rich, in my opinion. we had them fresh from the oven and they were good and gooey. all i could think about while gobbling it up was that it would taste even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. texanerin and many of her commenters said these cookies need to be eaten warm. mine have been out of the oven for a while and are definitely room temp by now and they still taste pretty good, i think. i thought the dough was pretty yummy, in small amount. it was really sweet, but the cookie itself doesn't taste sweet... just indulgent.

i will definitely make these again. very few ingredients, super easy clean up, and most of all a healthier and delicious treat!

do you think this is something you will make? 

zach drying off the beans

zach chopping up the beans

ben wants in on the chopping fun

before

after

thanks for reading about this week's treat!