Though I lead a comfortable, glutenful life, I feel relieved when I come across a gluten-free recipe that makes such restriction seem sufferable.
It's by no accident that I make these coconut cookies that taste like grown-up, cellophane-free versions of Samoas when brigades of their pint-sized peddlers hit the streets.
To be gluten-free and chock-full of cacao nibs (#trendy #superfood #omg) and one little egg away from being vegan ranks them pretty high on the cookie arrogance scale (where, for reference, a cornflake cookie = 1).
However, with a dough that requires no mechanized equipment and a bake time equivalent to what you may have spent as a Girl Scout (or with a Girl Scout) in a closet looking for heaven, they're kind of impossible to hate.
Almond meal cookies with coconut and cacao nibs
Makes 16 cookies
Adapted from The Sprouted Kitchen
- 1-1/4 cups almond meal
- 1/4 cup sweetened cacao nibs
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (heaping)
- 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 Tbsp. coconut oil, liquified
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond meal, cacao nibs, coconut, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
In a smaller bowl, whisk the egg until it's frothy and lighter in color. Mix in the coconut oil and the almond extract after dabbing some on your wrists.
Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and fold together with a rubber scraper until just incorporated.
Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or as long as overnight if you still have a sleeve of Samoas to finish.
When you're ready for warm cookies, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll the chilled dough into one inch balls and space them out on an unlined baking sheet.
Bake for 7 minutes if you want the centers to remain a fudgy texture (duh, of course you do), or closer to 9 minutes for a firmer cookie.
Give them a fighting chance to cool before milk and cookie time is nigh.