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Chickpea Gingersnaps

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gingersnap1Awhile back, I had the opportunity to develop some recipes for the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. I was so excited to partner with them since I’m already fully in love with all things chickpea flour. This was my favorite recipe that I developed and I’ve had quite the time sitting on it–but now that holiday cooking baking seems in full swing, this seems like the perfect time to share it!

gingersnap2{Find tons of dry pea + lentil recipes on their site!}

Chickpea flour is truly one of the most versatile, awe-inspiring flours I’ve discovered during my journey of exploring alternative flours. These gingersnaps were inspired by this one time I brought chickpea flour chocolate chip cookies to a potluck and one of my friends asked if they were gingersnaps. It was a simultaneous *headdesk* AND total light bulb moment–there IS a subtle spice to chickpea flour that lends itself extremely well to spice-laced gingersnaps, so after 3 to four million trials, I landed on this recipe.

These are lightly spiced–I’ve never been a huge ginger cookie fan, so the spice level is relatively mild–soft, with just a slight chew (…or crunchy, if you over-bake them). If you really LOVE ginger and want some extra textural contrast, try adding some candied ginger.

Chickpea Gingersnaps // The Pancake Princess

And now, back to finals studying. No notes for today–these are very straightforward cookies (though warning: they require at least an hour of chill time and do NOT eat the raw dough. It tastes like barf. But the finished cookies taste delicious.)

PS. You can see a very short video of the making of these cookies here.

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Chickpea Gingersnaps

Soft, delicious, gluten-free gingersnaps made out of chickpea flour. Requires at least 1-hour chill time and are best enjoyed fresh.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups chickpea flour
  • 2.5 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon each: ground cloves nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon each: fine sea salt baking soda, baking powder (gluten-free, if necessary)
  • 6 tablespoons butter at room temperature
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup molasses
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 3-4 tablespoons granulated sugar for rolling

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients (flour through baking soda).
  • In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add the egg, molasses and vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined.
  • Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing only until just combined.
  • Refrigerate the dough, tightly covered with plastic wrap, for at least one hour, or up to a few days.
  • Before you start forming the cookies, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll level tablespoons of dough into balls. Do not try tasting the raw dough--chickpea flour tastes terrible raw.
  • Pour granulated sugar into a bowl and coat each ball evenly with sugar before placing on an ungreased baking sheet.
  • Bake for 10 minutes, or until set around the edges, but still slightly soft in the middle. Let cookies cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Best enjoyed fresh.

Notes

Reader Amy tipped me off that you can sub a chia egg for the regular egg in this recipe and the texture will be unchanged!

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    • erika

      Hi Sam–you can sure give it a try, but I don’t know it they will turn out exactly the same since I haven’t tried it. If you do, let me know how it turns out!

      Reply

    • erika

      Hi Dana–I’m so sorry, there seems to be a lag between when comments are left and when they show up on my blog! I would probably sub maple syrup or honey in for the molasses, but you’d use a bit of the dark, smoky flavor. Google also says that dark corn syrup or 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar or 3/4 cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup water would also work. Hope this helps, even though this comment is super delayed (my apologies for that)!

      Reply

  4. Ana

    Perhaps chickpea flour is an acquired taste in sweet baking, but I found these tasted awful. The texture was good and resembled that of a typical ginger biscuit, but the taste was comparable to Russian caravan tea (which I find reminds me of smokers breath).

    Reply

  5. Sabina

    Great recipe! I substituted coconut sugar (1:1) and the recipe worked. I made coconut brown sugar (mix 1 cup coconut sugar with 1 tablespoon molasses; measure 3/4 cup brown sugar from this).

    Reply

  7. Sophia

    It took me about a week to get around to baking a batch of these and now, past midnight on a Saturday evening when I really should be packing my bags for my trip home for the holidays tomorrow afternoon, I have just pulled the first batch out of the oven and these cookies are wonderful! I made them rather large so only got about 2 dozen cookies out of them (increasing the baking time to 15 minutes) and I also added some chopped crystallised ginger to the dough because I had some at home and WOW, these cookies are delicious and the texture is wonderful! I love finding recipes with chickpea flour that just work and this will definitely be going into my chickpea flour recipe rotation!

    Reply

  8. Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom

    I need to try chickpea flour . . like now. I’ve seen a few recipes that I want to try and these gingersnaps look amazing!!! thanks for the note re: the cookie dough (to someone who might have taken a bite!) 🙂 and love the video! so you don’t have to lightly press down the cookie dough balls before you bake? these look fabulous!

    Reply

  9. Amy

    I made these the other day, and Oh. My. Gosh. As a gluten-free vegan with allergies to rice flour (and not a fan of nut flours), I struggle to find recipes that I can eat and that taste good. These and GF chickpea flour chocolate chip cookies from another site are singularly the best cookies I’ve had. I had to get my husband to freeze them because I was in danger of eating the entire batch. I’d love to see more chickpea flour recipes on here; it’s a great GF flour and very versatile.

    Reply

  10. Nancy @ gottagetbaked

    Omg that raw dough barf line just about killed me. I actually laughed out loud to myself and then looked around to see if anyone heard. Erika, these cookies look perfect. I loooooove gingery, spicy cookies so I’d be all over these (after amping up the flavours). I’m not adventurous enough to start using different flours but every time I visit your blog, you inspire me to do so. Kick ass on your finals, my friend! I hope they pass quickly so that you can relax and enjoy the holidays to the fullest. xoxox

    Reply

    • erika

      Hahaha love you Nancy! I need to work on upping my tolerance to love those super spicy, gingery cookies! My palate is hopelessly unsophisticated sometimes. I just finished finals and am home and thrilleddd!!!! Thanks for the super kind words, as always, my friend. Happy holidays!!!

      Reply

    • erika

      WHAT?! Chickpea flour is one of the greatest things ever!!! Get yourself some, this instant! (Pretty please :)) And thanks for the feedback on the video–if I could choose, I’d definitely spend my time making these videos instead of doing b-school 😉

      Reply

  16. Sarah @ SnixyKitchen

    Wow – I’ve never tried turning chickpea flour into something SWEET before, but you’ve totally inspired me. Also – bahahahaah I love that you warn us the dough tastes like barf – I’d totally be the one to taste the dough and throw it away thinking I’d messed up. GOOD LUCK WITH FINALS!

    Reply

  17. Katie (The Muffin Myth)

    Nice! I love the flavour of chickpea flour and it’s got so much great nutrition, so it’s totally perfect for these cookies. I’m a mega ginger flavour person, and I’ve got a jar of stem ginger in my fridge that needs to be used up, so I’m gonna dice a bunch of it up and add to these cookies. Yum!

    Reply