What’s absolutely smack-bang awesome? Chocolate! What’s even more fanfreakintabulous? Chocolate Chips … nature’s way of saying “lovely human, you don’t have to choose between a few sneaky squares of choccie and a cheeky baked good come dessert time … you can have the best of both worlds and it can be GOOD TIMES”!
I love working with Absolute Organic Chocolate Chips (NOT SPONSORED). Although they have a little cane sugar, they are 70% cocoa, have far less sugar than regular chocolate chips and are made with honest, natural ingredients – no milk solids or emulsifier soy lethicin here my friends. Plus, I do love the whole “chocolate is rich in magnesium” excuse … it never hurts to have another reason to feel EVEN BETTER about indulging in the humble choccie treat.
The biccie dough is super simple to make and requires no special equipment (yes that’s right, a recipe that doesn’t use the Vitamix … you’re welcome). It’s a simple combo of blanched almond meal, banana flour (so yes, it’s gluten and grain-free), rapadura sugar, seaweed salt, vanilla bean powder, egg and organic butter, plus of course the chocolate chips.
These darling biccies are soft and chewy, just like a chocolate chip cookie should be and will make your house smell all kinds of wonderful. Thanks to the rich butter and caramel-y rapadura sugar, these cookies taste absolutely ridgy-didge, they aren’t a “well aren’t these nice for a healthy cookie?” sort of situation. They are are more of a “mmmm … buttery, chocolatey, moorish goodness get around me (insert all the drools here)” type scenario.
Bottom Line: forget the fact that these cookies are full of beneficial fats, quality protein, dietary fibre and resistant starch, fat-soluble vitamins and magnesium. They are a delicious treat that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It’s just a bonus that they’re relatively nourishing.
Chocolate Chip “Awesomeness” Cookies
- 2 cups blanched almond meal
- 1/2 cup banana flour
- 125g organic unsalted butter, softened
- A pinch Seaweed Salt
- 1/2 cup rapadura sugar
- A pinch vanilla bean powder (optional – could sub for a splash of a quality vanilla extract)
- 1 (quality – at least free range and preferably organic) egg, lightly beaten
- 1/2 dark chocolate chips (70%), no added nasties, ingredients should read; cacao butter, cacao powder, cane sugar. That’s it.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Fan-forced and line a large flat baking tray with toxin-free baking paper (as usual, I love to recommend the “if you care” brand).
Chop butter into small cubes and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the almond meal and 1/4 cup of the banana flour. “Rub” the butter and flours between your fingers until a stiff dough comes together. This is where you get to inject some sweet lovin’ into the mixture (some would say that this I should the secret ingredient to all ace recipes).
Add sugar, salt, vanilla (if using) and continue to rub/knead in to the dough until everything seems evenly distributed. Fold in the beaten egg and dump in remaining 1/4 cup banana flour and give the mix one more knead until you have a stiff dough again.
Fold in chocolate chips and roll heaped tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on the prepared tray. Flatten the balls gently with the palms of your hands and if this makes the edges a bit untidy, use your fingers to press the rounds back into neat looking circles (see photo).
The biscuits won’t spread too much but I still only did 6 to a tray just in case and cooked two batches (they only take 10 mins per batch after all so 20 minutes all up is no probs).
Bake for 10 mins per batch (this recipe makes 12 cookies so two trays in total if you do 6 cookies to a tray) and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Once completely cool, store in an airtight container for up to a week or freeze for up to a month – yum! Cookies anytime … yes plez!
Notes
For a lower sugar option, replace chocolate chips with cacao nibs. They won’t be as traditional but are a great option if you really need to keep sugars low, perhaps you’ve got diabetes or perhaps a fungal infection where the fungi are using sugar as an energy substrate.
Banana flour is a flour made from green bananas that have been dried and powdered – it is a brilliant source of gut-friendly resistant starch and brings a lovely texture to these moorish cookies