Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

I had been dying to try out another one of Chocolate-Covered Katie's recipes, and Thanksgiving gave me the perfect opportunity to do it.  I decided immediately to make her Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie, as I am a huge Cookie Monster.  I love, love, love cookies; especially chocolate chip cookies.  Fun fact: chocolate chip cookies were the first recipe I ever made by myself.  I used to make them all the time when I was a kid for my family.  Some of my fondest memories are of me sneaking into the kitchen to steal a cookie in the middle of the night, and running into my dad doing the exact same thing.  We wouldn't say a word to each other, we'd just eat our cookies together in happy silence, chase it with some cold milk straight from the carton, and then sneak back to our respective beds.  

When I saw the recipe healthy chocolate chip cookie pie, I knew I had to make it.  I followed Katie's recipe pretty closely, with only a few small changes.  I served it up at Thanksgiving, and I only told a few people that it was healthy, and I told no one what it was made with.  I was worried that it might prevent folks from trying it.  Well, the pie was a great hit! Everyone loved it and they were surprised when they learned that it was healthy.  Because let me tell you; it does not taste healthy at all: it tastes like a decadent, rich, butter, flour, and egg filled cookie pie...except that it doesn't have any of those things!  So what's the secret ingredient? Chickpeas.  :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

INGREDIENTS

2 Cans (30 oz total) of Chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 C. Quick or Old Fashioned Oats

1/4. C. Unsweetened Applesauce

3. Tbsp Coconut or Canola Oil 

2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp Almond Extract

1/2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 1/2 C. unpacked Brown Sugar

1 C. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 10 inch pie pan (I used a springform pan).

2. Put all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor. Puree until completely smooth.

3. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into the pie pan.

4. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out mostly clean.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Serving Size: 1/16th of Pie

Calories: 214

Carbs: 34

Fat: 8

Protein: 4

TIPS:

* Rinse the chickpeas very well and pat them dry afterwards.

* When you puree everything, make sure everything is very well mixed, with no clumps at all. I pureed mine for at least 5 minutes.

* Make sure the cookie dough isn't warm when you add the chocolate chips! Mine was, and 70% of my chips melted into the dough, so I ended up with a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie (which was still crazy good!)

* Use Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips if you want to keep it vegan.

* You can use White Beans instead of Chickpeas (aka Garbanzo Beans) if you want!

Even the batter is delicious--and safe to eat!