Since beginning my new Food Optimising way of eating via Slimming World, I am always looking for ways to reduce my use of processed ingredients and for foods with lower syn values. This way of eating limits all kinds of flours, even wholegrain flours, although the whole grain itself, say quinoa, can be eaten freely in unlimited quantities.
I thought this would be much more of a challenge than it is. For a start, these foods can be consumed, just in measured amounts, but also, it simply opens the mind to new alternatives and discoveries, much like veganism itself.
Baking with chickpeas is no new invention, in fact I baked some peanut butter chickpea cookies Christmas before last and just one look on Pinterest will flood you with recipes.
These cookies however are different to any other chickpea cookie recipe I've ever seen. They use a base of whole macadamia nuts blended into a smooth butter. This gives the cookies rich butteriness and along with the chocolate chips, total decadence but in a much healthier and protein rich cookie than standard.
They can easily be made gluten free using gluten free baking powder, vanilla and chocolate.
For my version, I used creamy marcona almonds as the base, added an extra teaspoon of vanilla and used dark chocolate chips. The result? Bliss. And if you happen to be following a SW plan, just 2.5 syns per cookie when baked into 24 using a tablespoon scoop per cookie!