I may or may not have eaten four of these the other night. In under an hour.
Not only are these cookies oh-so-delicious, they’re also free of gluten, sugar (except for the sugar in the chocolate chips) and eggs. Almond flour makes them especially nutritious, which is what I may or may not have told myself as I ate (or did not eat) those four cookies. As well as the four that I may or may not have eaten the next day.
This recipe was adapted from Elana’s Pantry. See the original recipe here.
Ingredients:
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour (do not use Bob’s Red Mill)
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup grapeseed oil
- ½ cup applesauce, mashed banana, canned pumpkin, etc.*
- 1 TB vanilla extract
- liquid vanilla stevia, to taste (I use about 30-35 drops)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Add dry ingredients to a large bowl and whisk to combine.
- Combine wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Add chocolate chips and stir.
- Form small balls, place on cookie sheet and then flatten them a bit using two fingers and pressing lightly.
- Bake about 7-10 minutes, until lightly browned.
- Cool, and
devourserve.
*The original recipe calls for agave, which I do NOT recommend. If you use honey, you could use that here. Honey is a rare treat for us, along with most other sweeteners. For that reason, I try to use fruit and liquid stevia.
I’ve developed a mysterious apple allergy (major bummer!), and Mr. Native Texan has a slight allergy to bananas. So for a while I used canned pumpkin. It definitely works, but the cookies will not be as sweet. Use more stevia, if you like, and maybe more chocolate chips. Recently, we went back to using bananas in this recipe and they were So Good. (Which was when I may or may not have eaten four cookies at a time).
Ingredients, Doubled & Quadrupled:
(These freeze well. Sometimes I make them ahead of time for certain occasions or trips, etc.)
- [5 cups; 10 cups] blanched almond flour (do not use Bob’s Red Mill)
- [1 tsp; 2 tsp] sea salt
- [1 tsp; 2 tsp] baking soda
- [1 cup; 2 cups] grapeseed oil
- [1 cup; 2 cups] applesauce, mashed banana, canned pumpkin, etc.
- [2 TB; ¼ cup] vanilla extract
- liquid vanilla stevia, to taste
- [1 cup; 2 cups] Make Your Own Chocolate Chips
Enjoy!
These look yummy! Will be baking soon using this recipe. Nice way to keep my cold kitchen warm these winter days!
Hi Kathleen! What info have you learned about agave that is concerning to you?
Courtney, In my research I’ve come across many who believe agave to be worse than HFCS. This article from Weston A. Price (co-authored by Sally Fallon) provides some info, including this statement:
“Agave syrup is a manmade sweetener which has been through a complicated chemical refining process of enzymatic digestion, which converts the starch and fiber into the unbound, manmade chemical fructose. While high fructose agave syrup won’t spike your blood glucose levels, the fructose in it may cause mineral depletion, liver inflammation, hardening of the arteries, insulin resistance leading to diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and obesity.”
There is a LOT of debate about agave’s merits, but personally, I have chosen to avoid it. We also avoid honey and dried fruit (mostly).
We mostly use real fruit (bananas, etc.), stevia and occasionally xylitol. I’d like to do more research on coconut & palm sugars; are you familiar with those?
Here are some interesting comments from Elana Amsterdam, the GF recipe expert at Elana’s Pantry. Many of her (GF) recipes call for agave, but I believe she recently went paleo and has stopped using agave.
I could say a lot more on the topic of sweeteners……one of these days I’ll write a post (or posts) about it……Do you use agave?
Agave is our go-to pancake/waffle syrup. Practically speaking, agave pours more easily than honey and doesn’t take fridge space like maple syrup. I use honey in the bread machine and for most baking. Last time I was in Costco I bought a big bag of “coconut sugar”…I was curious about it. So it doesn’t taste like coconut, it’s not too sweet, and it looks like dirt so it MUST be good for me.
I used it in an awesome spice cake recipe from Nourishing Traditions last week and also here and there for baking.
We use almond butter and Cooked Frozen Berries on our pancakes. It was definitely a transition from the consistency of syrup, but the whole family loves it now. And I love that the almond butter adds protein to the pancakes.
Hmmm…one of these days I’m going to try coconut sugar…
Totally agree about agave…we steer clear of that!
Hmmm… Wondering why you avoid honey? And do you have any opinions on maple syrup? I really can’t stand the taste of stevia.
Christina, One of these days I plan to do a whole write-up on sweeteners. For now, I’ll tell you that I HATED regular stevia at first. I’m still not a big fan, but I’ve found that Vanilla Creme Liquid Stevia works much better for me. I use it for baking, sweetening hot tea and more. Have you tried it?