May 11, 2021

Healthy Cookie Dough Dip

We wanted to share our healthy cookie dough dip recipe as a lower sugar and lower fat cookie dough alternative. Because let's face it, cookie dough is a timeless treat that brings back so many memories. Dessert hummus became super popular in the past few years and we've had some pretty good ones. We equate this healthy cookie dough dip to a cookie dough hummus of sorts because of the main ingredient - chickpeas! If you were blindfolded and tasted this recipe, you wouldn't know the star of this ingredient is chickpeas. Combined with the other ingredients and blended until smooth and creamy, the chickpeas are barely noticeable.

bowl of cookie dough dip surrounded by pretzels and animal cookies.

Using real ingredients improves nutrition quality

Any nut butter can be used in this recipe, depending on what flavor you want! Cashew and almond butters are more neutral, whereas peanut butter has a stronger flavor. We used peanut butter to make a "peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough dip" and it is so good. Natural nut butters are preferred because they don't have any extra added ingredients like sugar or hydrogenated oils. The ingredients label should say whatever nut and maybe salt, depending on which type you like. You can also substitute a non-nut butter like soy, sunflower seed, or pumpkin seed butters!

Similar to the nut butter, we highly recommend using REAL maple syrup. This is one thing we're a stickler on because the real stuff is SO much better than the fake stuff. The ingredients in real maple syrup are real maple syrup. The fake syrups can have other ingredients like corn syrup, maple flavoring, and food colorings. Another good way to tell if maple syrup is real is the consistency. Real maple syrup is very runny and thin, whereas fake maple syrup is thick.

spoon of cookie dough dip with bowl of dip and pretzels in the background

Recipe FAQ

What nut butter should I use?

Your favorite! Peanut butter will have a stronger flavor while almond or cashew will have a more subtle flavor. If you or someone has a nut allergy, sunflower or soy butter can be used!

What type of chocolate chips can I use?

Whatever you have on hand! We love using mini chocolate chips because they're easy to dip. You can use milk, semi-sweet, dark, or white chocolate chips!

What other add-ins can I put in the dip?

Finely chopped nuts (you want fairly small chunks so they're easy to dip) or pieces of dried fruit. A white chocolate cranberry cookie dough dip with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries would be fantastic!

What should the dip be served with?

We loooove pretzels because #sweetansalty but animal crackers, vanilla wafers, sliced banana and apple, or graham crackers make great dippers!

Should I serve the dip right away?

You can but we recommend letting it sit in the fridge overnight or for least 1-2 hours. This will allow the flaxseed to absorb some of the liquid and the flavors to meld together.

Beans make me bloated - how can I prevent this?

This can happen because of the fiber content as well as volume of beans consumed in one sitting. If your body isn't used to eat a good amount of fiber, you may be a little bloated after eating beans or large volumes of high-fiber foods! We suggest draining and rinsing the beans off before using them. You can add more milk if the mixture is too thick!

A bowl of cookie dough dip surrounded by animal crackers and pretzels, and a spoon of dip on the side

What else makes the cookie dough dip healthy?

Along with using real maple syrup and natural nut butter, the ground flaxseed provides some healthy fats. The flaxseed also acts as a binding agent so that's why we recommend refrigerating the dip before eating. Ground flaxseed is different from whole flaxseed - make sure you buy ground! It will absorb the liquid better and help the dip set. The oats also have two benefits. First, they add some fiber and complex carbohydrates to the dip. Second, similar to the flaxseed, they will absorb some of the liquid and help the cookie dough dip stay firm.

If you try our cookie dough dip recipe, we would love if you could rate and review it below! We also love connecting on social media so snap a photo and tag us on insta @theperfectpear8 so we can see and share it! 🙂