These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies are a great kid-friendly snack! Made with chickpeas, sunflower seed butter, pumpkin puree, and chocolate protein powder. Gluten-free, vegan and nut-free.
*Photos and post updated 2018.
I’ve recently been going back into the FMK archives and updating some old recipes and posts – hope you don’t mind! I like to think that *most* of my older recipes are still great go-to’s but typically it’s the photography that is lacking. I find recipes that either need a little visual facelift or recipe tweaking, due to that fact I was still in the beginning stages of my blog learning as I went.
Last year I made these chickpea cookies for my mom’s dance studio open house because she needed an allergy friendly recipe for the kids. They’re flourless, vegan, gluten-free AND nut-free so I was covering all of the bases. When I taste tested one (for quality control reasons, of course) I remember thinking, “Gosh these are so good! But these pictures do not do them justice!”
This recipe was first published in August of 2015 – over three years ago! I can hardly believe it. My photography has come a long way since then and I needed to update the pictures so you could all see what you have been missing!
The recipe was actually great as written. The only thing I added was a touch more cocoa powder!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies
what you need
- canned chickpeas
- pumpkin pureé
- sunflower butter (or nut or seed butter of choice)
- medjool dates
- chia seeds
- vegan protein powder
- cocoa powder or cacao powder
- pumpkin spice – you can use store bought or make it using this simple recipe that uses just 4 ingredients!
- baking soda
- salt
- mini chocolate chunks
- mini chocolate chips
This recipe is best made in a food processor so the chickpeas and dates can really get broken down together. If you have a high powered blender (i.e. Vitamix) then you should be okay to use that instead – you may just need to do some more scraping down the sides of the container.
Everything is processed together until the batter comes together at the end, then you’ll remove the sharp S-blade and fold in the chocolate chips.
The batter is thick and a little sticky, but the cookies will bake up nicely.
These cookies are:
- soft
- a little fudgy
- chocolate-y
- pumpkin spice-y
- nut-free
- kid-approved!
Have questions about the recipe? Comment below and I’ll respond here!
And if you make this recipe, I’d love if you could leave a comment and review on the blog or Pinterest!
Xx Ashley
PrintPumpkin Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies
These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies are a great allergy-friendly recipe. No flour used, sweetened with dates, and made with sunflower butter for a nut-free healthy treat.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 22 cookies 1x
- Category: cookies
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 14 oz canned chickpeas, drained & rinsed well
- 8 large medjool dates, pitted* (about 150g)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seed butter (or other natural nut butter)
- 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
- 2 TBS chia seeds
- 1/3 cup vegan chocolate protein powder*
- 2 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder or cacao powder
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup dairy-free chopped chocolate chunks
- 1/4 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, or a silicone mat.
- In a food processor or high-powered blender, process drained chickpeas until broken down into flour-like consistency. Add the pitted dates and process completely broken down, about 30 seconds.
- Add the sunflower seed butter (or nut butter of choice) and pumpkin puree; process again, about 30 seconds. Add chia seeds, protein powder, baking powder and salt and process until just combined.
- Remove blade from processor bowl and fold in chocolate chunks and mini chips
- Using medium cookie scoop (or a rounded tablespoon) drop cookies onto prepared baking sheet and flatten cookies slightly with palm. Top with extra mini chocolate chips if desired
- Bake cookies for 11-14 minutes, or until tops slightly crack – cookies will remain soft in the middle.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack. Be sure cookies have cooled completely before storing in airtight container in fridge. Cookies should keep fresh in fridge for about 1 week.
Notes
*It’s best to use a chocolate plant based protein powder here. I did not test with whey. If looking to omit the protein powder, I have not tested this way but I suggest using 1/3 cup cocoa powder total and adding in 2-3 TBSP of a flour like 1:1 gluten-free flour or oat flour. I made these cookies in a food processor, but could be made in a powerful blender as well. Just make sure your chickpeas and dates get broken down – you may have to scrape down the sides of the blender often. These cookies aren’t super sweet as written but you could add 2 TBSP of granulated sugar (coconut, brown, cane, etc.) if you’d like. Nutrition information calculated with additional mini chips
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie
- Calories: 113
- Sugar: 9
- Sodium: 161
- Fat: 5
- Saturated Fat: 1
- Unsaturated Fat: 3
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 17
- Fiber: 3
- Protein: 4
- Cholesterol: 2
Keywords: allergy friendly snacks, chickpea cookies, healthy pumpkin desserts
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Megan says
Ohhhh my goodness NEED! These look so good! I have all these ingredients too so it looks like I need to start baking 🙂
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Ashley says
Definitely, Megan! Let me know how you like em! 🙂
Chrissa - Physical Kitchness says
Bless you for making cookies with sunbutter! I have a whole jar of it in my fridge and was wondering if there was anything else I could do with it aside from sunshine sauce. Thanks!!
Ashley says
Oh lovely Chrissa! So glad I could help 🙂
Jennifer says
Hi Ashley! I made these for my littlies (I may have also had one or seven myself…ahem)–one son needs to keep his sugar consumption to a minimum, and the other is allergic to milk and peanuts. 🙁 Bless them. So finding treats is difficult. These were a hit! Question: you mention nutrition info in your post, but I don’t see it anywhere on the page. (Is it hiding from me somewhere?) Could you share it if you still know what it is…? I’m particularly interested in how many grams of sugar you’d guess are in each cookie…Thanks for the recipe and for your help! You made my boys’ afternoon! 🙂
Ashley says
Hi there Jennifer! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment! I am so glad you and your boys have enjoyed these cookies 🙂
And my apologies with the nutrition info. I was using an old recipe card that shared the info but my new one does not. I do still have the info on hand. This is approximate and based on the ingredients I used, as well as counting for the chocolate chunks and chips.
Serving size: 1 Cookie
Calories: 127
Fat: 6
Carbohydrates: 17
Sugar: 10
Fiber: 3
Protein: 4
Hope that helps! Again, thank you for stopping by!!
Marni says
Could these be made without the protein powder? More cocoa? Or …?
Ashley says
I haven’t tried without any protein powder but because the dates and seed/nut butter help hold things together, you should be okay! I’d do 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and maybe just add 2 tbsp of your choice of flour (coconut, wheat, gluten-free, etc.)
Sara says
This recipe looks great! Just out of curiosity, you have an asterisk next to the protein powder but I’m not sure I see where it leads to…am I missing this? Also what do you think about replacing with vanilla protein powder? That’s all I have and I want to make them tonight haha. Maybe do a little less and increase the cocoa powder?
Ashley says
Ah sorry for the confusion there! I fixed the protein powder* – it’s just best to use a plant based protein here. Vanilla will work. And yes I would do what you suggest – lessen the amount of protein powder by maybe just a tablespoon but increase the cocoa powder by 2 TBSP. Hope that helps!
Érica Lima says
Hello! I would like to know the durability it, can I leave how many days before eating? Do you need to go to the fridge? I’m from Brazil.
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Ashley says
Hi there, the cookies should last about 1 week in the fridge. They will keep okay at room temperature, but to be safe fridge or freezer is best. If kept in freezer, they should last about 1-2 months.
Laurie says
These are AMAZING! My 13 year old daughter actually found this recipe a couple years ago and made them for us. They have been a hit ever since! We’ve made them many many times!
Ashley says
So glad you and your daughter like them, Laurie! I appreciate you taking the time to comment and leave feedback 🙂
Laurie says
Make sure to weigh the dates using a kitchen scale. Made this recipe today for the 10th time (love them that much!!!) but I noticed on this new recipe that you have the weight for the dates. It’s definitely MORE than 8 dates. The cookies came out so chewy and delicious. Now I LOVE them even more!!
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Namrata Sethia says
Hello can I have the weight of cooked chickpeas as I don’t have access to canned ones
Will soak n boil
Ashley says
From my research, a 14 ounce can of chickpeas will be about 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas. This article might be helpful – how to dub canned/dried chickpeas