Q. What do you get when you cross Rocco Dispirito and Joanna Sutter in the kitchen?

A. A HOT MESS!

And by hot mess I mean, Rocco is hot and my kitchen was a mess!

Let’s just say, I made one of Rocco’s cookie recipes three times before I got them right. THREE TIMES!  I nearly turned into a cookie monster after the second batch…and not the cute, cuddly kind that lives on Sesame Street. Next time I’ll just follow the instructions as they’re written the first time it will go as easy as an easy-bake oven. Backing up…

Dr. Oz had the good Chef Dispirito on his talk show the other day making healthy triple chocolate cookies, so, being the good healthy-living blogger that I am, I hunted down the recipe.

The secret ingredients in these good-for-you cookies? Egg whites and white cannellini beans. Before you start gagging, relax, you cannot taste the beans, I promise. And before you reach for your egg white substitute: STOP! they do not work in this recipe. You can make like Michael Jackson and beat it…and beat it and beat it and egg white substitute will not form soft peaks, I promise. Apparently, egg whites lose something in the heating and pasteurization process that keeps them from fluffing. Lesson learned. Twice.

Moving on.

Here’s Rocco’s recipe (shamelessly copied and pasted from the Dr. Oz web site) for…

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 cup canned white cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tbsp light agave syrup (I used honey)
• 3 large egg whites
• 1½ cups granulated sugar substitute
• ¼ cup dark chocolate-covered cacao nibs
• ¼ cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine vanilla, cocoa, cannellini beans, and the agave syrup, and blend the mixture until smooth, about 3 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl halfway through blending.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whip attachment, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually beat in the sugar substitute. Continue to beat the whites until they are creamy and nearly stiff. Add 1/3 of the egg-white mixture to the cocoa bean mixture in the food processor. Blend to combine, for about 30 seconds. In 2 batches, fold the lightened cocoa mixture into the egg whites until they are almost fully combined. Add cacao nibs to the batter. Fold batter until cacao nibs are evenly dispersed and cocoa mixture is completely incorporated.

Drop mounded spoonfuls of batter onto the prepared sheets. Spread batter out to form cookies about 2½ inches in diameter. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the cookies.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the pans one turn halfway through baking. Using a metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

The final result? Light, fluffy, cookies as yummy as Rocco.

Now I really must go tell Dr. Oz these cookies Rocco’d my world!