White Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies
gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, junk-free
Last summer, when I stayed at my sister’s house in Pennsylvania, I winged my first ever batch of white bean chocolate chip cookies. I had brought sorghum flour, ground flax seeds, and packets of Knox gelatin in my suitcase, and supplemented the rest of the ingredients with a trip to Trader Joe’s. Woot Woot to the Trader Joe’s in State College, which was NOT there when I was a student at Penn State!
THEY TURNED OUT SO WELL. You can see my virgin batch on Instagram, tinted green because the picture was taken outside on my sister’s patio, under her green umbrella.
Staying at her house last August was truly one of the best weeks I’ve had in a really long time. These cookies take me back to how happy and alive I was to eat them during my time in Pennsylvania. If you remember, last year I struggled with depression. The hot, Pennsylvanian summer was sunshine to all the dark, struggling places in my heart that felt lost and hopeless. When I eat these white bean chocolate chip cookies, I remember that feeling. I remember joy.
But then there’s the fact that THIS IS A CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE I CAN EAT. That in and of itself is pure delight.
I need to remind you that I have no concept of normal food. I haven’t eaten normal food for over ten years. I eat archerfriendly. I try to limit sweeteners as much as possible because I have insulin resistance. I also have multiple food allergies and reactions. And then there’s the SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) I need to re-test. Let’s forget about the SIBO for now, because these cookies as-is are not SIBO friendly. People, what am I going to eat if I have to embark on the excruciating Specific Carbohydrate Diet with insulin resistance and multiple food reactions!?
Now, these are weirdo cookies, because they’re everything free. That means they are delicate. They work best stored in the fridge and eaten cold. This is how I like them and this is how you should eat them. When warm, fresh out of the oven, they are fragile and tender and can break easily — just like your heart. They taste great warm, but for longevity and texture, just keep them in the fridge, ok?
I put gelatin in my cookies to bump up the protein content. If you are vegan, the cookie recipe should work without it, due to the flax. I haven’t had a chance to make a fully vegan version, but they are egg-free!
Oh, and let’s talk about chocolate chips before I sign out. They are not all equal. I like Sunspire’s dark chocolate chips, way less sugar than Trader Joe’s! Trader Joe’s are cheap, though, but you’re paying for the extra sugar. I also like Equal Exchange’s Organic Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (70% Cacao). Last summer at my sister’s house, I used the Trader Joe’s version because it was easy to find. If you’re using dark chocolate chips, you really should be buying the chocolate chips with the LEAST amount of sugar in them. The ones I’ve found with the least amount of sugar are Sunspire’s… without having to go to the stevia ones that have erythritol in them. Sugar alcohols kill my belly so I avoid those.
I can’t wait for you to try these! This is my only chocolate chip recipe to date. I’m trying to get all of my go-to archerfriendly recipes up on the blog. There’s a long list. I love sharing them with you. Let me know what you think!
White Bean Chocolate Chip CookiesMakes about 40-50 cookiesIngredients
- 1/2 cup sorghum flour (or 1/2 cup ground flax seeds if you want them to be grain-free)
- 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
- 1 package Knox gelatin or 2.5 teaspoon gelatin equivalent
- 1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon stevia
- 5 medjool dates
- 4 3/4 cups cooked white beans (great northern or navy beans)
- 1 cup virgin coconut oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 Tablespoons full fat coconut milk
- 1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
Note: the dough will need refrigerated a little bit before baking.
- Place parchment paper on cookie sheets.
- Preheat oven to 375° F.
- Place sorghum, ground flax seeds, gelatin, baking powder, salt, and stevia in a large mixing bowl. Mix well.
- Chop dates and remove the seeds. This will help them blend better.
- Blend chopped dates, white beans, coconut oil, vanilla, and coconut milk in a food processor or Vitamix. You may need to start out blending only half the white beans and half the coconut oil — blend that well and then add the rest of the white beans and coconut oil.
- Pour blended mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix well.
- Add chocolate chips and evenly fold them into the batter.
- Work the dough into a “log”, wrap in parchment paper, and refrigerate for a few hours.
- Remove dough from fridge. Carefully slice the cookies evenly — not too thin and not too thick. Place the sliced cookies onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheets.
- Bake at 375° F for 15-22 minutes. Baking time will vary depending on how thick you slice the cookies in addition to how thick you roll the slicing “log”. Set the timer for 15 minutes and monitor the cookies after that to determine optimal baking time.
- Transfer to a cooling rack very carefully (or not! They may be fine cooling on the cookie sheet). Cookies are very fragile when warm.
Note: Store the cookies in the fridge once they are cool. Recommend eating them cold, as they hold together well when they are cold.
Curious if you should be eating these White Bean Chocolate Chip Cookies instead of Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies? Dr. Archer can answer that for you!
Dr. Archer offers food allergy and food sensitivity testing in her Snohomish office and can also help you figure out if you need to avoid Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies for blood sugar reasons!
Dr. Archer is a naturopathic physician specializing in food allergies, food sensitivities, SIBO, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, and diabetes. She sees both kids and adults from all over the greater Seattle area. Click here to schedule an appointment.
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Tom
February 19th, 2019 at 6:42 pm
Turn out great. I replaced the oil with 1 cup homemade applesauce. Also added walnuts. Didn’t log them just put on cookie sheet and flatten them. Used spelt flour as it’s all I had.
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