Naturally Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies
Our little cottage on the hill is currently undergoing some rather dramatic renovations. Our lounge room looks like an enormous sandpit and I can fit my arm through some of the cracks in the walls. Safe to say it is rather uninhabitable at the moment.
Thankfully for us, my mum and dad are putting us up at their house. The change of routine has Miss 2 a little out of sorts, and she tells us daily that she misses “our little mountain home”. That said she is thoroughly soaking up the extra love and attention from her beloved Nanny and Obi!
She is particularly excited by Nanny and Obi’s television, something we don’t have at home.
Anyway, according to her the cookie monster is a rather fantastic fellow...and she has spent quite some time impersonating him with pretend cookies.
Naturally this got me thinking about real cookies, chocolate chip cookies to be exact. So we got baking, and these Naturally Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies were born.
To say that my little cookie monster was thrilled would be an understatement. Ecstatic would probably describe her reaction better.
They are truly-ruly delicious and I sincerely hope you enjoy them as we have!
GLUTEN FREE, GRAIN FREE, DAIRY FREE, SOY FREE, EGG FREE, REFINED SUGAR FREE, VEGAN, PALEO
Recipe (makes 20 cookies)
I have divided the ingredients of this recipe into the order that they are ‘blitzed’ in your food processor (or high speed blender). The ingredients for the ‘second blitz’ are simply added in on top of the preceding ingredient list. These biscuits are whipped up entirely in your food processor, no bowls necessary! Easy peasy!
FIRST BLITZ
100g raw cashews
100g pecans
½ tbsp chia seeds
60g desiccated coconut*
50g coconut sugar
2 tbsp tapioca flour (starch)
½ tsp bicarb soda
SECOND BLITZ
1 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
TO FINISH
Dark chocolate chips (the amount you use is up to you)**
*When sourcing my desiccated coconut I ensure that I buy a variety containing only 100% coconut (with no nasty preservatives)
**If you are making these cookies for someone with specific dietary restrictions you will want to be mindful of the ingredients in your chocolate chips. Mine contain only cocoa butter, cocoa mass, and unrefined cane sugar.
Method
Preheat the oven to 160C (or 170C if your oven tends to run a bit cool) and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Place the first lot of ingredients in your food processor (or high speed blender) and blitz until a lovely buttery crumb forms. You may need to scrape down the sides of your processor a couple of times between blitzing to achieve the desired texture.
Now place the second lot of ingredients into your food processor, on top of your crumb mixture, and blitz until well combined.
Now roll your cookie dough into 20 even sized balls and place onto your prepared baking trays.
Press each ball flat with your fingers; you want your cookies to be 1-2cm thick. Now tidy up the edges of the cookies with your fingers so that they are nicely rounded.
The cookies will need to be at least 3cm apart to allow for a little spreading while they bake.
Now press your desired amount of chocolate chips into the top of each cookie…my little cookie monster thoroughly enjoyed ‘helping’ (AKA eating chocolate chips and cookie dough) at this point!
At last place your cookies in the oven for 12-15 minutes. I suggest checking them at the 12 minute mark, if they are lightly browned on the edges, remove them. If they haven’t browned yet then give them the extra few minutes baking time. Do not expect them to be firm and crispy when you take the out of the oven, this will happen once they have cooled.
Upon removing from the oven leave your biscuits to cool on the tray for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Please keep in mind that your cookies will be soft and delicate upon removal from the oven, but fear not, they will firm up to the perfect consistency upon cooling.
Enjoy!
