The cutest puffballs of a cookie, these chickpea flour chocolate chip cookies just happen to be gluten-free!
While I'm not on a gluten-free diet and thankfully not sensitive to gluten, when I was doing the Elimination Diet, I found myself using a lot of alternative flours. Rice flour, coconut flour, almond flour, and chickpea flour. Y'all...my pantry overfloweth.
Made with chickpea and rice flours, the resulting cookie is puffy and fairly soft, with a little bit of a sandy texture to the crumb. With a hefty dose of chocolate chips. The sprinkling of sea salt on top is the chef's kiss that pulls it all together.
Let's Make Chickpea Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies!
On the back of the chickpea flour bag was a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which got me thinking. A lot. I liked the idea of making cookies with the flour, but wasn't 100% sold on their recipe.
After doing a lot of reading, it seems that too much chickpea flour can have a bean-y taste (not what I'm looking for in a cookie), so I mixed chickpea flour with rice flour.
There's butter in here, too. Yay, butter! And, many of the usual cookie suspects are here as well. I use a bit of arrowroot powder to lighten up the flours a bit.
Use bittersweet or semisweet chips here. I always like to use a mix of the brands I have on hand...even if it's just a mix of semisweet chocolates.
The cookie dough is sticky, so chilling it for a but helps with scooping.
I use a 2-tablespoon scoop for these. To make the cookies look extra pretty, press in a few chocolate chips into the top of each cookie.
And of course, you're going to give each cookie a little sprinkling of sea salt. My preference is fleur de sel or Flalsalt.
Chickpea Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes about 24)
1 1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 1/2 cup white rice flour
1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup salted butter, cut into chunks
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips + more for the tops
flaky sea salt, such as fleur de sel
In a medium bowl, whisk the chickpea and rice flours, arrowroot, baking soda, and kosher salt. Set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla.
In two additions, mix in the flour on low speed. Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough will be sticky. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Dollop the chilled dough onto the prepared sheets using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop. Press reserved chocolate chips onto the top of each portion. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake for 14-15 minutes. The bottoms will be lightly browned, and the tops will still be soft. They'll firm up as them cool. Cool for 2 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Alternative flours...what have you tried and which are you curious about?
