Has anyone else eaten so much of the cookie dough that they couldn't eat the baked cookies? Or, there wasn’t enough dough left to make the cookies? Not that that has ever happened to me before or anything. *Cough*

The dough is the best part of making cookies, right? Luckily, the point of this recipe is to eat the dough. It is completely safe to eat raw, and is way better for you.

If you're not sold yet, lets dive into why these cookie dough balls are actually healthy for you. Chickpeas, the main ingredient of these cookie dough balls, are gluten free, contain healthy proteins, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. This is a much better option than wheat flour, because wheat flour has been proven to cause a number of digestive problems.

Another great difference in this recipe is the use of coconut sugar instead of traditional white sugar. Coconut sugar isn't a nutritional superfood, but it does offer more vitamins and minerals than white table sugar. Coconut sugar contains small amounts of vitamin C, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron and copper.

White sugar has been proven to cause higher levels of glucose (blood sugar) to enter the blood streams. This is not good for you at all, which is why I opt for the coconut sugar instead

Here is how to make these healthy beauties:

For this recipe you will need chickpeas, protein powder, almond butter, coconut sugar, honey, baking soda, and vegan chocolate chips.

Put the chickpeas, vanilla protein powder,

yacon, coconut sugar, baking soda, almond butter, vanilla and a pinch of salt in a food processor. If you used a can of pre-salted chickpeas, leave out the additional salt. Process the ingredients until it comes together as a fluffy dough, scraping the sides as necessary. It should resemble cookie dough.

Then move the dough to a medium sized bowl. Add the chocolate chips.

Stir in the chocolate chips until they are evenly distributed.

Form into 12 one-inch dough balls. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze until solid.

In a double boiler, or a glass bowl/measuring cup over boiling water, melt half of the remaining chocolate chips. Once the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir in the remaining chocolate chips until they have melted fully. This is called tempering the chocolate. It makes it so when it is at room temperature it won’t be as soft. Meaning you won’t get your fingers as sticky when consuming these.

Take one dough ball at a time and drop it in the chocolate. Remove with a fork, and shake off excess chocolate.

Use another fork to push it back onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze again until the chocolate hardens. This only takes about 5 minutes.

Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough Balls (That Are Actually Healthy!)

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoon Vanilla Rice Protein Powder
• 3 tablespoons Yacon Syrup
• 1 tablespoon Coconut Palm Sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 tablespoons raw organic almond butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• Pinch of Pink Himalayan Salt
• 1 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (mini's work best)

Directions:

1. Combine chickpeas, honey, sugar, baking soda, almond butter, vanilla, and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process until smooth.

2. Remove to a bowl and stir in half a cup of the chocolate chips. Form into 1-inch balls and place on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Freeze until solid.

3. In a double boiler, melt remaining cup of chocolate chips. Dip the balls into the chocolate until covered, then place back on parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Freeze until chocolate has hardened, then store at room temperature.