In my past life, I was really into baking. I loved being in the kitchen, making a mess and pulling together sweet treats. I had visions of spending afternoons with my son and my kitchenaid mixer, baking up all sorts of sweet memories. That vision was, and continues to be, one of the hardest things to let go in light of this lifestyle change. I'm just not in the financial position to get in the kitchen and experiment with grain-free baking every afternoon. As such, I have cautiously approached baking. And one thing's for sure: when baking with caution, go for cookies first! Cookies are very forgiving.
I checked out the recipe in my diet book, and then looked online for some guidance to adapt the recipe to what I had on-hand and my personal preference not to use stevia. Here's what I came up with:
Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 c almond flour
3/4 c almond meal
3/4 c coconut flour
1/4 tsp salt (I add a pinch extra)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 c xylitol (scant)
10 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c dark chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the dry ingredients. Melt the oils together, add the vanilla extract, and then add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough may be a little dry or crumbly. Form into little balls and press onto a cookie sheet. (They won't spread much, so press them into the shape and size you want for the end product.) Bake for 8-12 minutes - they're done when the edges start to brown. I usually bake mine for at least 12 minutes, but your mileage may vary.
There you have it! Grain-free chocolate chip cookies.
A few notes:
- I usually double the amount of chocolate chips I see in a cookie recipe, but in this case doubling it doesn't really improve the cookie enough to justify the added expense.
- You could cut back on the xylitol and add stevia, if that floats your boat. Or substitute honey, turbinado, or your sweetener of choice.
- The almond meal in these cookies give it a lot of texture, which I happen to like. If you want a soft cookie that melts away when you pop it in your mouth, this is probably not the recipe for you.
- One time I made these cookies and forgot the baking soda, and I couldn't tell a difference. I may leave this out from now on.
- My version of these cookies is not truly sugar free, as I use regular semi-sweet or even milk chocolate chips.
