What’s For Dessert? Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Happy Cinco de Mayo to you all! If I had really been on top on things, I would have come up with a fabulous Mexican dinner to share. But I didn’t think about that until too late. So all you get is cookies. Sorry. 🙂
But there’s a sneaky side to these cookies… they’re super delicious and secretly nutritious! (Well, mostly nutritious anyway.) What’s so sneaky about these cookies? They’re made with BEANS! ‘What?!’ I hear you say. You heard me! Beans. Yup. But you’d never guess it in a million years when you taste them. And these are healthy enough that I don’t even mind giving them to my kids for a snack occasionally (but then again, I’m the mother who nutritionally deprives her children. ;))
Anyway, this is a recipe that I learned at a Relief Society bean tasting night. (I will definitely post more info on beans in the future… there’s so much to know about them!) Just check out the ingredient list and you’ll see why they can double as a snack as well.

So without further ado, I give you…

Chocolate Chip Cookies– With Beans!

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup white beans (I used 1 (15 oz) can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 8 eggs (1/2 cup egg powder + 1 cup water)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (you can use half white and half wheat if that’s more to your liking, but I use all wheat)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups chocolate chips (I used half semi-sweet chocolate and half white chocolate)
• 1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Mix the beans and sugar together until creamed. (You may want to start with a potato masher to get the beans moving along and then switch to an electric beater.) Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix.
2. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. (If you’re using a mixer, you may want to combine these in a separate bowl and then add a little at a time to prevent flour from flying everywhere). Stir until well blended.
3. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
4. If the dough is too sticky to handle, cover and refrigerate for about 1 hour. Otherwise preheat the oven to 350 ºF and proceed.
5. Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the cookies. But DO NOT over bake these! They do not turn golden brown when done, so try testing them with a light touch on top of the cookie to see if they are done or not. (They are done when they are barely firm to the touch and they will set up more as they cool.) You do not want them to get crisp or crunchy. The perfect time for me was about 11 minutes.
6. This makes about 5 dozen cookies. You can easily halve the recipe. I just make this much so I can use the whole can of beans and not have leftover beans sitting in my fridge. Plus we easily go through all the cookies before they’re no longer any good. 🙂 Which reminds me, just put them in an airtight container or ziploc baggy and store at room temperature. They’ll keep for a week at least.

ENJOY! Oh, and do yourself a favor and do NOT tell your family they are made with beans (at least not until after they’ve tried them). I guarantee you they’ll have no idea that these are secretly good for them! 🙂