Vegan, Gluten Free Cookie Dough!

Gluten Free, Vegan bite-sized balls of cookie dough. What could be better? I have to admit, I always liked the dough better than the baked verison of cookies. But, of course, my mom always told me never to eat it because of the raw eggs in the dough. Make the dough vegan...and you can eat the dough in any way, shape, or form! Make the dough protein packed and free of flours and other glutens and you can eat cookie dough as a snack! But, there's a secret ingredient....

No, you don't need to go get your eyes checked. This dough gets it's amazing texture from mashed chickpeas! Chickpeas have a very bland flavor as they are, so add chocolate, peanut butter, and maple syrup, and you can instantly sell these to your siblings as "normal cookie dough" (it worked, my little brother asked to take some in his lunch!)

I'm getting really hungry writing this, so let's got into the recipe!

Ingredients:
-1/3 cup chocolate chips (vegan if necessary)
-1/4 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)-I use peanut butter that contains 100% peanuts
-1/3 cup maple syrup
-15 oz. chickpeas, drained and rinsed 
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Place the chickpeas in a food processor and pulse into the chickpeas appear like tiny grains of sand? (Maybe not the representation-I'll include a picture :))

2. Add the rest of the ingredients accept the chocolate chips and pulse until combined. Transfer to a bowl. The mixture may still be crumb-like. Press down on the dough with a  rubber spatula to fix this. Fold in the chocolate chips.

3. Form the dough into small bite sized balls. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and put in the freezer for about 30 minutes, until firm. (side note-who would have thought that the freezer had amazing lighting, totally had a photo shoot :))

You can now enjoy your cookie dough! :) Store the leftovers (if there are any) in an airtight container in the fridge. Keeps for a few days.