Awhile 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!
{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.
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.
Chickpea Gingersnaps
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.
Hi
Can I sub coconut oil for the butter
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!
hi
Can I sub out the butter? Maybe applesauce or coconut oil?
Any suggestions for a swap out on the mollasses?
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)!
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).
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).
Ooh that is so brilliant!!! Love it, thanks for reporting back Sabina!!
Gingersnaps made from Chickpea flour!!! This is a brilliant recipe, my friend. I love gingersnaps, and will definitely make this recipe of yours. Love the youTube video, by the way.
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!
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!
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.
Yay!!!!!! So happy to hear that, Amy! Were you able to make these without the egg? I’d love to hear how you adapted them if so! And I’m SO excited about chickpea flour–there’s definitely more chickpea recipes on the way. Thanks for the lovely feedback!!
I subbed a chia egg – easy peasy and no difference in texture 🙂
Excellent! Great to know, thanks! 🙂
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
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!!!
Note to self: must try chickpea flour. I can’t believe I have never tried it! Also, that video is great. You should do those more often! (Uh, you know, IN ALL YOUR SPARE TIME…)
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 😉
Oh my, these look perfect! I’ve always been quizzical about chickpea flour — these cookies look like a most fantastic way to use it. (: Pinning!
Thanks Abbie! 🙂 As long as you don’t taste the dough, this is a truly non-frightening way to use chickpea flour. Thanks for the pin! <33
Chickpea cookies sound very intriguing. I definitely love eating some of these and good luck with your finals, Erika.
Thanks so much Linda! I finally finished! *sigh of relief* Hope you’re eating lots of wonderful holiday cookies! 🙂
Love it! The only sweet recipe I have made with chickpea flour (alone) were chocolate muffins but these look quite tantalizing. Did you try a vegan version, bychance?
Eeee! I’m making these asap – in fact, I’ve just got the butter out of the fridge so that they can happen later today.
Woowoo!! Let me know how they turn out for you!! 🙂
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!
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!
Genius! These look like the most perfect cookies ever. Loving your site design girl! Let’s meet up when you come to town!!!
Thanks lady!!!! YES PLEASE I’m finally catching up on email/blog comments post-finals–emailing you now!!
WHOAAAA-I cannot believe you used chickpea flour in these! They just look like classic, perfect, gingersnaps! You’re amazing
I haven’t really tried chickpeas in a cookie before, but I really want to now – these snaps look chewy but soft 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
So unique!
I’m definitely trying these! They look perfectly chewy!
Yay!!! Let me know you like them!! I don’t know if they’ll hold a candle to your ranger cookies though 😉