Dark Chocolate Pecan Love Bites
Be still my beating heart!
I’m thrilled to be sharing my own heart healthy recipe for Dark Chocolate Pecan Love Bites with you today, as we continue our Gluten-Free & Heart Healthy 2013 event this week.
Big hug to Lexie Croft at Lexie’s Kitchen for creating this gorgeous gluten-free heart healthy badge!
Before I divulge my recipe, I thought I would share some of my favorite foods for keeping your ticker in tip-top shape!
- Fruit and veggies, the more the merrier~especially citrus and apples which are high in soluble fiber to help decrease LDL cholesterol, and polyphenol packed berries, which may lower blood pressure and raise level of good {HDL} cholesterol.
- Beans, beans, the musical fruit! Like certain fruits and veggies, beans are a great source of soluble fiber, and also contain a variety of flavonoids which help prevent heart disease by lowering blood pressure, improving circulation, and preventing abnormal clotting of blood platelets.
- Seedy stuff! Flax, chia, and hemp, all provide plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which, although not as powerful as seafood omega-3′s, may also help with heart health. In addition, flaxseed contains phytoestrogens called lignans, which may also help prevent cardiovascular disease.
- Something seems a little fishy to me…Fatty fish such as salmon, mackeral, sardines, tuna, anchovies and trout all provide 1 gram of more of heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3′s provide cardiovascular protection by lowering triglycerides, decreasing inflammation, reducing blood clotting, and lowering blood pressure. To choose fish that are not only heart healthy, but are also environmentally friendly and low in contaminants such as mercury and PCB’s, bes ure and check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website.
- Chocolate~the darker the better! Rich in flavonol, the main type of flavonoid in cocoa and chocolate, research has shown that {a little} dark chocolate {choose chocolate with at least 70 % or more cacao} can be a heart healthy choice.
- Cheers to a glass of vino! What’s even better than a square or two of dark chocolate? A glass of red wine {if you choose to drink alcohol} to go along with it. Another heart healthy polyphenol, resveratrol, makes red wine {in moderation~up to 2 drinks/day for a man or up to 1 drink/day for a woman} another heart healthy choice by helping prevent damage to blood vessels, reducing LDL cholesterol, and helping to prevent blood clots. In addition alcohol, in general, {again, in moderation}, has been shown to raise good, HDL cholesterol, thereby helping to reduce the risk of heart disease. Salud!
And now on to the recipe…
After looking through my posts from the last two months, aside from my Gluten-Free All-Star buddies’ spectacular sweets, I haven’t shared a proper dessert with you in over 2 months.
Heck, I didn’t even make any holiday cookies for you last December 
So, clearly you are way overdue for something sweet and decadent.
Oh, and super heart healthy to boot.
How’s that sound?!
My inspiration for this recipe comes from these fabulous peanut butter chocolate chip cookies over at Texanarian.
If you like peanut butter, you MUST make them.
My version, is equally delicious, yet features a different sort of heart healthy nut~pecans.
Oh, and there are beans and dark chocolate too…
Plus a little maple syrup, and some ground flaxseed…
Gluten-free heart healthy ingredients…
Didn’t I tell you they were healthy???
But, healthy without delicious doesn’t exist in my kitchen, so I promise you they will make your heart beat for joy 
Here’s the naturally gluten-free & vegan recipe…
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw pecans
- 1 cup garbanzo beans, canned, or dried and soaked
- 3/4 cup dark {70 % or more cocoa} chocolate
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus extra, if desired, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine pecans, garbanzo beans, maple syrup, ground flaxseed, vanilla, baking powder,and sea salt in a food processor, and process until smooth, or ~8 minutes.
- Meanwhile chop dark chocolate in to chunks, then stir into pecan/garbanzo mixture. Form dough in to 12 ~ 1-inch balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Press lightly on dough with the back of a spoon, and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove to cool, and sprinkle with sea salt, if desired, before serving.
Start with the dough, which, BTW, tastes amazing “raw” by the spoonful if your power goes out or you just don’t feel like baking. It happens sometimes
After you’ve mixed in the dark chocolate chunks, press out your cookies on a parchment lined sheet…
After you take them out of the oven, try with all your might, to let them cool a smidge before poping one in to your mouth!
Enjoy to your heart’s content!
What are your favorite heart-healthy foods? Have you ever used beans in a sweet dish before?
I love hearing from you! Please click here to join the conversation. And, if you enjoyed the post, I’d love it {and truly appreciate it!} if you stumble, tweet, pin, or share the post.
“Variety is the very spice of life that gives it all it’s flavour.”
William Cowper, 1785. 
LOVE the idea of these! I was expecting a gluten-free grain, but no, chickpeas! As a sensitive soul I would probably use aduki beans (& lose the pretty pale colour) but other than that I would make as you describe. I bet your family loved these. Beautiful ingredients image too
Oh my heavens!! These cookies sound fabulous! Now all I need is a glass of wine with these cookies and I’ll have all my heart-healthy foods in one sitting
Though I have no problem with gluten myself, I love dark chocolate, nuts and good cookies, and these look delicious!
Okay, I must try these cookies! They are so pretty, and I love sneaking things into dessert.
EA will you be my Valentine? I was told to bring cookies to a friend’s house this weekend, these may be my cookie. Done.
Well, I often use garbanzo flour in my baking, but I’ve never used the whole beans before – must try it – not influenced in the slightest by the presence of chocolate in the recipe:) …….. well, okay, maybe a little:-)
These look amazing! I love using beans in sweet dishes. I have a cookie dough snack that I make that reminds me very much of this recipe and a chocolate bean butter that is heavenly on rice cakes. Now can’t wait to try these cookies, too! Pinned.
Okay, I am SO going to make these. I’m not gluten-free, so a lot of GF baked goods have flours that I don’t have on hand. But this? This I can totally do!
Would be able to give the cal/fat/carbs/sugar count for the cookies? Looks yummy.
Hi Kapu! 160 calories, 11 g fat {mostly monounsaturated}, 7 g sugar {I didn’t write down total carbs}, 3 g protein, and 3 g fiber. Hope that helps
Oh my gosh, these sound AMAZING. I am absolutely going to make them! Yum!
I plan to make these TODAY! WOW! they sound and look delicious. Can you suggest a sweetner other than the maple syrup or sugar. I usually cook with xylitol, splenda, erythirol, stevia. Thank you for your hard work in the “kitchen”. This will be a first for me with garbanzo beans.
Hi Jean-thanks so much! I don’t bake much with alternative sweeteners, but I think erythritol might work out well in the recipe. If you do try it out, I’d love to know how they turn out!
Oh my! These looks soooo yummy and I love that you used chick peas! If you’re using dried ones, do you need to cook them as well?
Thanks!
Thanks so much Maggie! And, yes, you could definitely use dried beans, but definitely make sure to soak them first. Funny story…a friend tried my recipe for fried rice, and didn’t realize she had to cook the rice first-came out pretty crunchy
. Enjoy!
These look SO good! I definitely want to try these out. I don’t normally like pecans (wait, we don’t even have pecans where I live – switch that to walnuts!) but I do love a good walnut butter cookie. I’m happy that the peanut butter version inspired you.
Thanks for linking to the recipe!
Thanks so much for the delicious inspiration Erin!!!!
Those cookies look phenomenal! And I have all the ingredients.
I love incorporating chickpeas in sweets for that great protein boost. Thanks to you both!
Shirley
Thanks so much everyone for all your kind comments!!! If you make the cookies, I’d love to know how you like them
I might not make it to the baked cookie stage, the dough does sound pretty awesome
But that chewy bite looks like it might be worth waiting, yum! Thank you so much for participating!
Oh wow, these sound just amazing and I love how good they are for you! What a perfect Valentine’s Day snack … wish I had a few on hand right now! =)
This is just what my heart would have demanded for Valentine’s day ;o) Thanks.
Flavourful wishes,
Claudia
These just came out of the oven and are delicious! Can you really go wrong with dark chocolate? The texture is chewy, does that sound right?
I’ve made these twice – they are amazing!! Love the simple recipe and they are so good. I want to get away from canned stuff, and I read you said soak them first if you buy the dried bagged chick peas, how long, overnight? And if you soak them you don’t have to cook them? Thanks, I’ve never used dried chickpeas before and all other dried beans I’ve cooked after I soaked.
Hi Virginia~Thanks so much for letting me know how much you have enjoyed this recipe. I always love hearing feedback
In regards to using dried chickpeas, I recommend the “quick soak” method which I explain in this post here: http://www.eastewart.com/recipes-and-nutrition/tooting-my-own-horn-my-bean-homework-is-completed/ This method has worked really well for me, and it takes less than 1 1/2 hours. Give it a try and let me know how it turns out!
I did try making these but i didnt use the cup of raw pecans. I used 2 cups of garbanzo beans and the ground flax. I also didnt use the qtr. cup of maple syrup… instead i used a tablespoon and then i added some stevia for sweetner.
I added extra vanilla extract and a dash of vanilla soy milk to get the food processor going.
instead of folding in alot of nuts and chocolate chips …i put just a few on each cookie and topped them with a small piece of pecan.
i know this sounds like it takes away from the recipe but believe me…. for me…it came out GREAT ! I made the cookies VERY small… just one bite and not alot of calories.
my goal is always healthy with as few calories as i can get away with…. and still have it taste good.
but thats just my preference. you may find it blah…. but to me it was wonderful.
and made even MORE so because i could have a few cookies instead of just one.
that dough is fabulous ! I had a terrible time trying to keep from eating it. lol
next time…. i am going to make these as NO bake cookies.
thanks for the recipe.