Cookie Dough Dessert or Dip

I am most certainly one of those people that prefer the cookie dough to the actual baked cookie. I know many of you out there are going, "Eeewww", including my husband. Those of you who cannot bring themselves to eat raw cookie dough, cake batter, etc, may not find this blog interesting. If you are looking for something that tastes a lot like cookie dough but with no raw eggs, flour, sugar, and, well most of the things that go into cookie dough - this is it!

Yesterday I was in Facebook and saw someone re-posting a post with a link to a recipe called Skinny Cookie Dough Dip. This person had altered the recipe from another site, calling it Healthy Cookie Dough Dip. I didn't bother to go and read the prior post, but printed out the "Skinny Cookie Dough Dip" recipe for later perusal. "Later" came after about an hour as I was craving something sweet.

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, on cracker

What I Liked About this Concept

While not actually able to be termed a RAW recipe as it used cooked chickpeas as the base, the rest of the ingredients do make this at the very least able to be altered to fit a gluten-free or vegetarian lifestyle, and also for anyone who needs to be careful of sugar intake, like me.

I tried to think of another title for the recipe, but could not come up with anything better than "Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough". While healthier, it still packs a punch with calories, having the chickpeas, cashew butter, almonds, walnuts and chocolate chips. The chocolate chips I used were Ghirardelli 60% cocoa; less sweet than many. There are other options out there for anyone needing a completely sugar free variant. I calculated this total recipe to contain 1,644 calories. Dividing the recipe into, say, 25 portions as for making cookies, each portion would contain approximately 66 calories. Since one regular (baked) chocolate chip cookie can contain anywhere from 80 to 220 calories, this is not a bad calorie count. Make it into 30 balls and the count is even better.

Differences in My Recipe

In the recipes on the websites in the links above, this is touted as a dip. First off, it is awfully thick to be touted as a dip, even with the addition of the milk for thinning. Granted I did not add any honey, maple syrup or agave syrup, which would have thinned it a little more. I love cookie dough. For me this is a dessert unto itself. While I photographed the recipe both on a bit of cracker and just in a bowl, in future I would prefer just making small balls. Eat as you go. Yum. 

Both of the above sites had you adding in a little salt and baking soda. Cans of chickpeas do not need any more salt. What the soda is for I have no idea. I don't add baking soda to hummus. Why add it here? These are not being baked. I eliminated that portion of the recipes. I added no syrup or honey as a sweetener, as I mentioned. I used my food processor to make this recipe, not a blender. The only sweetening agent I used was my French Vanilla flavored liquid stevia. I considered leaving out the oatmeal completely. The mixture does not need thickening. Instead, I blended oatmeal and almonds to a fine powder and added them to the mix. I feel this could also be eliminated completely. For now, this is the way I made it and it is really good. So be it. I like walnuts in my cookie dough or cookies, so I added those, making a total of three kinds of nuts in the recipe. Whatever kind of chocolate chips you prefer; I used the Ghirardelli mentioned above.

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Healthier Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Makes 25 - 30 balls of "dough"

1 can (15.5 ounces) chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1 - 3 droppers French Vanilla flavored liquid stevia
¼ cup milk, or nut or seed milk
2 tablespoons raw oatmeal, optional
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, optional
¼ cup raw cashew butter
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup broken walnuts

Drain the chickpeas in a strainer and run water over them for at least a minute. Place the rinsed and drained chickpeas into a food processor and process until fine with the stevia and milk.

If using the oatmeal and almonds, I first blended them to a very fine powder in a Bullet Blender and then added them to the processor. They could be added to the processor at the beginning of the recipe instead.

Add in the cashew butter to combine. Scrape the mixture out into a bowl and stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Divide into 25 or 30 balls as desired. Store refrigerated.

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.