Oatmeal and chickpea flour cookies

May 13, 2011  •  Category: ,

 

In the Lebanese kitchen, chick peas and lentils are the King and Queen of legumes; you will find hundreds of dishes using these two.


I grew up snacking on grilled chickpeas or kdaameh; even now, if you browse inside a Middle-Eastern market, you will find grilled chickpeas sold in pound bags next to almonds, pistachios and dried fruits, andcandied grilledchick peas coated in colored pastel sugar.

However, unlike, say, Indians or even Italians or Southern French or Persians, we do not use chickpea flour. There are a few things I have been wanting to make, like the French socca or the Italian  farinata or the Indian boondhi laddoo.

Where does one find chickpea flour? In Indian markets, definitely. Online, in health food stores, in  Middle-Eastern markets.

Question? Do these taste like chickpeas? NO.

You cannot detect the flavor of chickpeas in these cookies. They are sweet (not too sweet), rustic and moist and chewy with a faint taste of butterscotch. These cookies are full of fiber from the combined benefits of oats and chickpea flour.

Interested in the nutritional value of chickpeas? Click here.


INGREDIENTS:

  • 3  cups of oatmeal (organic if possible)
  • 1 cup of chickpea flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt, baking powder and baking soda
  • 1 banana, mashed
  • 1 Large egg
  • 1/3 cup of date molasses (can substitute grape or carob or apple)
  • 2/3 cup of brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter (can substitute oil)
  • 3 tablespoons of tahini
  • 1 cup of dark chocolate, chopped in small chunks (or chips) (4 ounces of chocolate or 124 g.)

NOTE: Instead of chocolate, these cookies would be wonderful with chopped raisins or dates or dried apricots.


METHOD:

  1. Place 2 cups of oatmeal in the bowl of a food processor. Process until it looks like flour. Add the chickpea flour and pulse to combine. Add the salt, baking powder, baking soda and cardamom and process to combine well. Transfer to a bowl and add the remaining cup of oatmeal and mix with a spoon to combine. Place the chocolate on a cutting board and cut into chunks with a sharp knife. Set aside.
  2. Place the stick of butter and the brown sugar, date molasses in the bowl of the food processor; process to combine and until it looks like a rich caramel. Add the egg, tahini, vanilla and mix until the mixture is creamy; add the banana,  flour mixture and pulse to combine and finally add the chocolate chunks in a few pulses. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cover and refrigerate for on hour or longer.
  3. Place parchment paper on baking sheets and mounds of cookie dough formed with a cookie dough scooper. Preheat the oven to 350F (180 C) and bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are puffed up but still very soft; check the underside; if it is browned, remove them from the oven. Cool a few minutes and serve.

NOTE: These cookies are moist (from the molasses and brown sugar); however, the next day they are still chewy but begin to lose their moistness; so the best way is to bake them as needed and keep a few balls of dough in a ziploc bag in the freezer.

 

 


Comments

28 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. Rosa says:

    A very interesting combination! I’m sure those cookies are extremely enjoyable.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

  2. Diane says:

    Bet these are good there is such an interesting combination of flavours here. Diane

  3. Jumanah (Healthy Liv says:

    What a genious recipe!!!! I have never thought to use chickpea flour in cookies!

  4. Angie's Recipes says:

    Oatmeal and chickpea..I love the combination! They must taste really good.

  5. Belinda @zomppa says:

    I love your imagery of King and Queen – lovely, as our these cookies!

  6. Amanda says:

    Thanks for this one, Joumana – I’ll be giving it a try.
    I have a choc-chip cookie recipe somewhere that has pureed, canned chickpeas in it that I sometimes make for my kids. They know that the cookies aren’t quite what they expected, but have yet to work out what it is that’s different.

  7. Victor says:

    Love your description of these cookies. Interesting combinations.

    Do you know if chickpea flour is considered gluten-free?

  8. Susan says:

    They sound healthy and delicious – a wonderful combination!

  9. pierre says:

    ça doit être top avec des abricots séchés !!pierre

  10. Faith says:

    I love oatmeal cookies and these look great. The chickpea flour is a wonderful way to add so much nutrition…great idea, Joumana!

  11. Erika says:

    I have found your blog thanks foodgawker and I can say that I love it ;))))) Great recipes and lovely pictures!! I’ll surely come back as soon as possible to visit you again :))) Have a nice day, Erika from Italy

  12. Caffettiera says:

    Interesting, I never thought of using chickpea flour in cookies. I love it for dumplings and all sort of savoury things. Thanks for the idea!
    I just discovered grilled, salted chickpeas as a snack. They are used also in Southern Italy but I have to say the Middle East ones are better. They are very filling, I love them.

  13. Claudia says:

    I just ordered chickpea flour last week and it came yesterday. I think it’s fate.I know I will make these.

  14. Maria @ Scandifoodie says:

    I love using chickpea flour in baking. These cookies sound so yummy, I can’t wait to try them!

  15. Magic of Spice says:

    What an original cookie recipe, they look wonderful 🙂

  16. Eleonora says:

    These cookies are soooooo good! Thanks for the idea.

  17. Satutatu says:

    This looks like an incredible recipe – I just found a shop that sells chickpea flour and I was trailing the internet for tasty sweet but healthy recipes and this sounds like the best so far! Can’t wait to try it, but I have one important question:
    – How much oil (or applesauce) if I want to substitute the butter?

    • Joumana says:

      @ Satutatu: That is a valid question, i should have noted the volume of oil. I’d say 1/2 cup, since it is equivalent to 4 oz of butter/ can you use shortening?

  18. Jessica says:

    These sound wonderful, but I can’t eat banana. Is there something I could substitute? applesauce, possibly reduced a bit?

    • Joumana says:

      @Jessica: Sure, applesauce would be a fine substitute! Let me know if you decide to try it. Cookies are pretty foolproof anyway. 🙂

  19. Claire says:

    Oh my, just made these with dates and they are delicious. I left out the sugar and added more cardamom. Yum!

  20. Shaneya says:

    This is the second time I’m making these cookies! Such a wonderful healthy treat. I used chopped peanuts with dates and coconut oil with sesame oil instead of the butter ! A great vegan option without the egg as well 😁

  21. Jennifer R Williams says:

    So, I’m munching on the first one of the first batch I made of these, and I really enjoy them! Enough that I’ll likely make them again! Now, I didn’t follow the recipe strictly, so I’ll share what I did in case anyone is interested.

    First, my store didn’t happen to have any bananas that were ripe, and I always use ripe or even overripe bananas for baking. So you know what I used instead? Believe it or not, banana BABY FOOD! Technically, it was banana, zucchini, and amaranth, all of which I’ve had in baked goods before, so figured they’d be compatible flavors. I used 4 ounces, since Google says that’s the weight of the average banana.

    Second, I just used plain old molasses, because date molasses wasn’t readily available to me. I’m going to find some though, for the next time around, because I’m curious as to the taste.

    Next, I used coconut sugar in place of brown sugar, because I had a lot around. Again, those with brown sugar may taste different than mine, but it seems to have worked overall. And for those to whom it’s of interest, coconut sugar has a much milder effect on blood sugar.

    Lastly, I did use dark chocolate chips, but just stirred them in rather than pulsing them in. This is something I might do as the recipe says next time, again, just to note the difference.

    Overall, my experiment worked, and I’m glad to have come across this recipe! Thanks for it!

  22. Kathleen Murphy says:

    wow!

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