cooking ala mel

healthy recipes and the occasional craft

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Gluten Free Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m a person that eats primarily sweet things.  Fruit, granola, nut butters (I consider these sweet, but it’s probably more likely to do with what I pair them with – toast, yogurt, etc.), yogurt, and then of course there’s ice cream, chocolate, cake, cookies.. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this.  This usually means that I enjoy some type of dessert every day.  A lot of the time, that’s a bowl of ice cream.  This is usually (always) chocolate, and it could be plain, or with oreos, peanut butter, coconut, raspberry.. the list goes on.  But then there are days that I realize that I probably shouldn’t be having ice cream every day.  Those are the days that I end up baking some sort of healthier dessert, or I end up defrosting some frozen strawberries and melting a bit of dark chocolate over top.  As I’ve had dark chocolate ice cream (low-fat, mind you) smothered in dark chocolate peanut butter most days this week, I decided tonight I was due for a change – a slightly more healthful change, at that.

Enter in these chocolate chip cookies made with coconut flour.  High in fiber and protein, coconut flour is light and sweet, with a wonderful coconut aroma – although it doesn’t taste too much like coconut once baked.  I used coconut oil, which has quite a few different uses and benefits, as well as butter (I have a hard time going without a bit of buttery flavor in cookies).  Dark chocolate chips.. delicious, with a few antioxidants to boot.  I also used coconut sugar in these cookies, as a more natural source of sugar than your traditional white sugar.  These cookies, with the coconut oil, coconut flour, and coconut sugar, were bound to have some coconut flavor in them; it really came primarily from the coconut oil.

If you’re a fan of chocolate and coconut, you will adore these cookies.  And even if you don’t, I’m willing to bet you’ll like them just fine, anyway.  They remind me of very subtly of the flavor in Samoas, but that could really just be me hoping; I used to love Samoas, until I realized how awful and full of trans fats they are.  I really ought to make my own version sometime, as many other bloggers out there have.. but that’s another day.

Get ready to be seeing more recipes using coconut flour from me.. I’m finding I quite love it.  I love that the flour itself has a wonderful sweetness to it.  It makes the best waffles (those need to be made again and shared, as well).  One thing you definitely need to have with these cookies, though, is a nice glass of cold milk, be it almond, coconut, lactose-free, or regular old milk.  The coconut flour just makes you want a lot of liquid – it soaks it all up so much.

I also wanted to mention that I created a Facebook page for cooking ala mel!  On there, I’ll probably post a bit about my workouts and things I don’t post on the blog.  Be sure to head on over there and like it!

GF Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
yields roughly 30 cookies
adapted from Chocolate and Carrots

3/8 cup coconut oil (about 6 T), melted
2 T butter, melted
4 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 cup coconut flour
pinch of salt
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

In a large bowl, stir together the coconut flour, coconut sugar, and salt.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, milk, melted coconut oil and butter.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir to combine.  Fold in the dark chocolate chips.  Scoop by the tablespoon onto a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet.  Flatten slightly.  Bake at 350ºF for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned.  Allow to cool on wire racks.  Enjoy.