Admit it: More than once, you’ve eaten more cookie dough than you’ve actually made into cookies. There’s no shame in that, but the raw eggs and all the butter maybe aren’t the best things to be eating raw. We’ve streamlined the process and made it mostly healthy. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of brown sugar and chocolate chunks to keep everyone happy.
The base for this innovative cookie dough isn’t flour at all–it’s mashed white beans. Now, now. Don’t worry, there’s nothing savory about this. Pureed white beans just provide a neutral base for all the good stuff. Instead of butter or shortening, we use sunflower seed butter, which you can find in health stores or in the peanut butter aisle. If you can’t find sunflower butter, no worries! Any kind of nut butter–peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter–will do just fine. Try to choose a low-sugar variety to keep this treat from becoming overly sweet.
Also, don’t be afraid to mix up your mix-ins. Add raisins, dried cranberries or chopped dates. Serve it as a dip with pretzel rods or eat it straight out of the bowl–we promise we won’t tell.
Guilt-Free Chunky Cookie Dough
- 1 1/2 cups of Randall Great Northern Beans
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 c. sunflower seed butter (a.k.a. sunbutter)
- 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 5 T. old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 c. chocolate chunks
- 1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/4 c. sunflower seeds
Add first 6 ingredients to a food processor and blend until very smooth. Then mix in the chocolate chunks, seeds and coconut. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Scoop dough out into liners using a cookie scoop. Put muffin pan into fridge for 30 minutes. Serve chilled.
Notes: You can also serve this as a dip at room temperature using pretzels or graham cracker sticks or eat it by the spoonful. No one will ever guess there are beans in it! These store well in the freezer. Feel free to add less brown sugar or substitute it for honey.
Recipe submitted as part of the The Best Cooks Start with the Best Beans Iowa State Fair Contest.
This recipe can be made with either Randall Great Northern Beans or the Randall Organic products.
