Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies (gluten free, vegan, low sugar)

Every Friday night my family enjoys what we call "treat night".  
We eat our dinner in front of the tv (horrific I know), and enjoy the treats we have been longing for ALL week!  
As you may or may not know, it is Lent for some of us - which means abstaining from certain chosen things for a period of 40 days before Easter.  Some people choose to abstain from things like Facebook, or television, and chocolate seems to be popular.  
Our family enjoys choosing extreme challenges during Lent - like the three years we cut our grocery allowance to $2.00/day per person.  
Well, Friday night treat night is not exempt from Lent.  I was worried the kids would be sad and not have motivation to achieve the goals I've set for them to be able to participate in treat night, but after our first successful week with these cookies I KNOW they are motivated to make it to next Friday. 
They know the leftovers are in the freezer and are counting down the days
until Friday.  
Who could blame them?

Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies



Preheat oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 6 tablespoons water
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil (do not melt)
1/2 cup almond butter (natural)
1/3 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/3 cup natural cane sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a small dish mix together the flax and water and set aside for a few minutes so it can thicken up. Whisk the flax again once thickened.
In a large mixing bowl (preferably stand mixer) cream your coconut oil until light and fluffy. Continue to add the wet ingredients - sugars, applesauce, vanilla and flax mixture. 

Baking with my little "helpers".  Matilda turned the mixer on high after adding the oat flour and we had an explosion of flour in the kitchen.  Fun times.  
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 cups gluten-free rolled oats, processed into flour (just pulse in your blender for flour)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (dairy free)

Add dry ingredients one at a time.  If your dough is a bit dry, add a little more applesauce. The dough should be moist enough to form balls without cracking, but not super sticky.  Lastly, add the chocolate chips.  

I used my ice cream scoop to measure out my cookies (I use it for everything, I wish I had all the sizes).  I filled it half way each time and that gave me roughly 2tbsp sized balls.  Place on the cookie sheet 2-3 inches apart and press down just a bit so it's more of a disc and not a ball.  Bake for 12 minutes.  

Makes roughly 2 dozen large cookies.  It's hard to say - my little helpers ate a LOT of the dough before I had a chance to put it in the oven.  
No raw eggs = cookie dough pig out.  


These are excellent when slightly warm or when completely cooled.  They are not fragile or difficult to handle like some gluten free cookies, so feel free to handle them like a "normal" cookie.  

Happy Baking!


*This is an adaptation of a DELICIOUS cookie from Oh She Glows.  The original recipe uses more sugar than I'd like, so I doubled the batch and kept the sugar the same adding applesauce to sweeten and moisten.  If you'd like to give the original a try, visit her site and try the other recipes she has - it's a new favourite of mine!*  http://ohsheglows.com/2014/02/27/one-bowl-double-chocolate-chunk-cookies/






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