I think it was a bit of a success! Finally, I said, as my last attempt to bake something interesting were not great. I love cooking, but baking is definitely not my forte so to speak!
So the mission is to find a way how to enjoy a sweet treat with your afternoon tea or as an after dinner dessert, but do it in a healthy way – that means no dairy for me, no refined sugar, gluten free and also nutritious! Gluten free cookie is not a rare find, but can they be tasty?
I was doing some research on gluten free cookies and practised a few recipes like Portuguese almond cake, which turned out to be a bit eggy, but also not really sweet for some reason. I was using one of Paleo Primer recipes. It wasn’t bad, but it was not really a delicious treat. You can smell you have cheated!
After my trip to Mexico I started thinking more about combining raw cacao into desserts (inspired by the fact that cocoa was used by Maya as a currency) – you are to make something almost chocolatey, but no dairy or refined sugar. So with a little bit if further research and my own little tweaks to make it even healthier, here you have it – gluten free cocoa coconut cookies.
If you follow the above guidelines to make these delicious gluten free cookies and measure everything to a T, I do not see why a complete cooking novice can’t do it. After all, I am a baking disaster and I’ve managed!
Gluten free cookies made with almonds and raw cocoa.
Ingredients:
140 g ground almonds (almond meal)
30 g best quality cocoa (raw, organic, you know the drill!)
40 g shredded coconut (could also be desiccated, but expect a bit more chewy texture)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
75 g palm sugar (coconut) or others from natural sources and definitely not refined
2 medium eggs
45 g coconut oil (melt it first)
1/3 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
You would need two mixing bowls:
1. Mix all dry ingredients together.
2. Whisk the eggs, so they are fluffy but not overwhisked (basically, still very much runny).
3. Add vanilla and also cooled but still runny coconut oil to eggs.
4. Mix well.
5. Add wet mix to to dry ingredients and combine together well.
6. Cool the mixture for 30 minutes or more. It really does the trick, so do not be as impatient as me and do something else for half an hour.
7. Preheat the oven just below 200 C.
8. Form small balls (2cm in diameter).
9. Put them on baking tray lined with a greased baking parchment.
10. Press a bit to flatten the cookies. Thinner will dry them out more, thicker will get them moist. You do know how your like your cookies, don’t you?
11. Bake in the middle of the oven for 8-9 minutes. Use the timer please!
12. Cool properly before eating
Did I mention earlier it was easy?
Come on, do it and you can thank me later.
If you need some ingredients for it (i.e. raw cocoa or almond meal, etc), you can follow my steps – I have used Waitrose for most of it, but found really nice organic cocoa at Planet Organic.
Dare to post your creations on our Forum?
Cheers