Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
From The Miller's Daughter cookbook, these chocolate-flecked cookies are made with chickpea flour, tahini, and brown sugar for a brilliant twist on peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. The texture is crisp at the edges and soft-centered with oozy puddles of chocolate throughout.
When a cookbook author uses a headnote to tell you to bookmark a page, I’ve learned to do it. That’s exactly how I found myself baking these brilliant Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies. Emma Zimmerman enthusiastically included the recipe in her new cookbook, The Miller’s Daughter: Unusual Flours & Heritage Grains: Stories and Recipes from Hayden Flour Mills. The cookies are made with chickpea flour, tahini, and brown sugar for a brilliant twist on peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. The texture is crisp at the edges and soft-centered with oozy puddles of chocolate throughout.
The Miller’s Daughter
I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Emma’s new book before it was released. Emma and her father run Hayden Flour Mills on the outskirts of rural Phoenix, Arizona where they champion rare, near-extinct heritage flours and ancient grains. If you’ve only ever baked with all-purpose white flour, exploring the world of grains and flours like the ones Emma and her father grow and mill can be a complete game-changer. Creatively, it opens up a world of flavor and depth. Environmentally, growing these grains improves crop diversification and reduces mono crops. And, eating a diverse range of grains and pulses helps to keep your microbiome happy. So, big wins on many fronts.
The Miller’s Daughter cookbook has chapters on: White Sonora, Heritage Bread Wheat, Farro, Barley, Einkorn, Corn, Durum, Chickpeas, Oats, and Rye.
We were heading east last month with the Airstream and my hope was that maybe we could visit Emma and the mill as we would be in the general vicinity of Phoenix. But the winds were SO BAD the whole time we were towing that we had to drive extra early in the mornings when the winds were calm and stayed parked as much as possible aside from that. It made “winging-it” with our schedule difficult. And although I didn’t get to congratulate Emma in person, she was kind enough to send me the book which arrived shortly after we got home.
And I'm so glad she did! If you love baking and cooking with unusual flours, whole grains, and the like as much as I do, I suspect you’ll love this book. The story of how their mill came to be is an inspiration for anyone thinking about starting a passion-driven business in the food space. Also, Emma’s dress game is exceptionally strong.
Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies sit in the chickpea chapter, and rival some of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve had. They’re sophisticated on the flavor front, and when baked to golden-edged perfection, the texture is a journey in itself. You get a bit of snap at the edges once the cookies have cooled, and dense chewiness as you work toward the center of the cookie. If you love a good chocolate chip cookie, I have to second Emma’s sentiment and encourage you to give these a go.
A Couple Tips
- Chocolate: Use a good dark chocolate chip here, or chunks. I used Guittard 63% extra dark chocolate baking chips, and they were just right. I don’t love “perfect” chips in my cookies, so I gave them a quick chop before folding into the batter. Bingo.
- Freezing: These cookies freeze well. So, if you end up wanting to bake a bunch and save some for later just set them out on a counter to come back up to room temperature. They also bake beautifully from frozen dough, just tack on a few extra minutes to your baking time.
- Size: Emma bakes these bite-sized, using 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. After a few batches, I’ve landed on 3 tablespoons of dough per cookie as my preferred size for this recipe. It’s the size of my favorite cookie scoop, and gives me the texture I like in a cookie like this. Play around & experiment!
Links and Inspiration
If you're looking for more inspiration and ideas of how to explore these amazing flours and grains, here are a few links to point you in the right direction.
- Hayden Flour Mills on Instagram
- Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce of Bakeshop in Portland, Oregon
- Super Natural Cooking - the first in the Super Natural Cooking series.
- Mother Grains by Roxana Jullapat
- Tartine Book No. 3: Modern Ancient Classic Whole by Chad Robertson
Please let me know if you make these! Or if you try any other recipes from Emma’s book. The next recipe I’m going to make is the Saffron Strawberry Galette with Messy Rye Crust. Then I plan to jump into a few of the savory recipes. If you're looking for more after baking these, here are some ideas. Happy baking!
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
- David Lebovitz's Great Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
- Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies
Or explore more favorite cookie recipes - I especially love the classics like these shortbread cookies, these limoncello macaroons, the best chocolate cookies, these ginger cookies, or these special snickerdoodles.
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Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
A couple things before you jump in. First, you want to be sure your tahini is well-blended. It tends to separate in storage. As Emma says in her tip, the tahini should be the consistency of honey, “dripping off the spoon but not runny.” If your tahini is on the dry side, stir in a small splash of hot water.
- 1 1/2 cups / 210 g chickpea flour
- 1/2 cup / 60 g all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup / 115 g unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups / 325 g dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup / 50 g granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup / 130 g tahini
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup / 170 g dark chocolate chips
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Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line two cookie sheets with parchment baking paper.
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Combine the flours, salt and baking soda in a large bowl.
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In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars on high speed until smooth. Reduce the speed and add the tahini, egg, vanilla, and the 2 tablespoons of water, then mix on high speed until pale and fluffy. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until combined, then gently mix in the chocolate chips.
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Scoop out in 3 tablespoon balls of dough and space them evenly on the prepared baking sheets. Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes (to reduce spreading during baking), then bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes or so - until the edges of the cookies are golden. If the cookies have puffed up in the center give the cookie sheet a strong tap on the countertop to flatten them. Cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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The cookies are best (so good!) the day of baking but will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Or freeze the baked cookies (or any unused dough). Emma says, “as with peanut butter cookies, they become quite firm after day one.”
Makes about 20 cookies.
Adapted from The Miller’s Daughter: Unusual Flours & Heritage Grains: Stories and Recipes from Hayden Flour Mills by Emma Zimmerman (Hardie Grant Books 2022).
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Hey H, Yes to Hayden Flour Mills and this cookbook and these cookies! I get the most amazing tahini chocolate chip cookies from Arise Bakery at our Farmers Market here in Humboldt! So excited to make my own! Question: any thoughts of substituting wwf or apf for the chickpea flour? Recommendations: if you love fresh milled flours I'd also recommend Cairnspring Mills in Washington and Carolina Ground! I'm here for the small mill whole grain fresh milled flour revolution!
I made a vegan GF version of this with home-cultured plant butter, applesauce as the egg substitute, and a GF all-purpose blend. I also used sprouted chickpea flour as that is what I had on hand. Utterly delightful! They probably weren’t a textural match for the kind with all the good stuff, but truly lovely nonetheless.
This chickpea chocolate chip cookie recipe is simply delightful! I loved how effortlessly delicious and creative this plant-based treat is. Great job bringing out such rich, enticing flavors! Truly impressive!
Ha! This recipe has the two main Hummus ingredients in a cookie form! I’m intrigued! Have you experimented on this recipe with any sort of GF flour in place of the all purpose? Asking because I was thinking of good GF cookie recipes for friends on a GF regimen.
Hi Koko - I haven't tried this, but if you do, please report back!
I specifically bought garbanzo flour for this recipe. I love all things Heidi Swanson and this did not disappoint. Even with my own tweaks, the cookies still taste delicious and the heart of the recipe is intact. I was worried when I tasted the dough as it was terribly bitter and I worried my tahini was bad but my suspicions are on the garbanzo flour tasting bitter before being baked as these turned out splendid with just the right amount of sweetness. My only tweak was 2/3 cup of monk fruit sweetener + 1 Tbs of molasses in place of the sugars.
These cookies could become a problem! I made them even healthier so I don't have any excuses not to eat them either. It's only me in the house who will eat any sugar at all and I'm not afraid to experiment (but I do make just half a recipe to try it out at first). Here's what I did for those who might want to know. For my half recipe, as long as we were using chickpeas I used 2 T. aqua faba for the 1/2 egg. I used only 1/4 Cup coconut sugar and the 1/4 Cup white sugar, but added 1 tsp of molasses in case I would be missing something by not using brown sugar. I also used spelt instead of AP, and used half butter and half coconut oil. My tahini was probably too dry, but with the melted oils (moved to a hot climate!) I was afraid to add more moisture so left out all the water. I froze them a bit too long the first pan (in the toaster over) so they didn't spread at all, but they taste amazing. 2nd pan is getting more crinkly. I used my favorite cookie scoop that is just shy of 2 Tablespoons and would have made a perfect dozen cookies if I hadn't tasted the dough a few times. So glad to have a cookie that is heavy on the protein, but just realized even with my sugar reduction it's still 2 teaspoons of sugar per cookie! Will cut the white sugar in half next time as with the chocolate chunks they really don't have to be that sweet, and I'll be glad to have another batch for the freezer! Thank you!
I have used Date Syrup instead of sugar (s) and it adds richness- maybe a wee bit more healthy to all who questioned using too much sugar.
Heidi, I love the look of these and will definitely give them a try. I am sure my grandchildren will love them. I like the idea of swapping out some of the white flour but there is still the issue of quite a lot of sugar. Brown sugar, white sugar, raw sugar, it's all sugar and I would like to remove at least some of it. Any suggestions for possibly maple syrup, coconut sugar or agave? Thank you
Hi Anniem - I think you'd be best off going with a cookie like this one, it is flourless, egg-less, oat-y, without refined sugar - Nikki's Healthy Cookies. Or experiment, with reducing the sugar in the Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies by 20%, evaluate, and go from there.
My dough was megawatt oily - I wonder if this was my tahini? I stirred well, but I can imagine they vary quite a bit. I portioned the cookies out and am going to refrigerate them overnight to see if that will help. I'll report back. The dough tastes like a cookie dough truffle!
Hiya:) how would you tweak this for Gluten free?
Hi! I would suggest swapping in a favorite GF flour blend for the small amount of all-purpose flour in these cookies. That would be a good place to start. Let us know how it goes!
I've followed you for years before you left San Francisco. Your pizza picture drew me back in and into premium membership. Don't know if I'll ever make the pizza but I like the idea I might. How could I make that when I live alone?Please don't tell me I can make if for a party or I could freeze it when I have no control with over eating leftovers. Your photos and descriptions and in this case specific instructions are always a joy. Thanks for enjoying what you do.
Hi Barbara - thanks for the note! The recipe as written makes two generous personal pizzas. You could always divide it into 3 or even 4 smaller dough balls. And bake them off over the coming week....Give it a go!
These sound wonderful - I love the taste of cooked chickpea flour. I do wish they had a lot less sugar. Any thoughts on how much the sugar could be reduced and not have the cookies fall apart?
Hi Nan - I'm not sure, it would take some experimenting. If you do a round with less, please let us know how it goes.
Can this be made with margarine instead of butter? Did you try this with GF flour?
Hi Shayna - I suspect you could do a version with coconut oil, but I haven't tested it. Same goes for the GF flours. I think it's likely you'd have success with a one-to-one swap on this front because the ratio of APF flour to chickpea flour is relatively small. Please let us know if you give it a try!
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