Recipe: Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since I stopped regularly baking with wheat flour over a year ago, one of the things I've tried to do is find an alternative paleo, primal, or, at the very least, gluten-free recipe to replace chocolate chip cookies. I often enjoy the treats that I make, including almond butter and coconut flour cookies. However, it wasn't until recently that I found a recipe that passed muster with my son, who can tell immediately whether the cookies I bake are "healthy" or not. (And unfortunately he prefers the non-healthy kind.)

This recipe is very quick to make, with simple measurements and no elbow grease required to "cream" the butter and sugar substitutes (melted coconut oil and honey mix quite easily together). It also has no eggs, so even eating the batter is pretty safe. My son makes this with me and he always asks to lick the spoon.

Some of my changes: I use dairy milk because I usually don't have almond milk at hand, and I also use semi-sweet chocolate chips. My cookies look more like the traditional wheat flour cookies and different from the original, which is likely because I flatten mine into the traditional cookie shape before baking, and because we use different almond meals/flours (mine is the blanched almond meal flour made by Honeyville Farms). I'm sure it would taste just fine without the almond meal being blanched.

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Running to the Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 cup almond flour/meal
• 1 Tbsp almond milk (or other nut milk, or dairy milk)
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips (use more as desired)

Method

Preheat oven 350F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper if desired. Except for chocolate, mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Stir in chocolate. Drop batter in 1 flat Tbsp at a time, leaving 1.5 to 2 inches between each cookie. You may roll the dough into a ball first, then flatten into cookie shape with palm once on the cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottom edge starts to darken.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool and solidify for 5-10 minutes, as the cookies will be very soft right after baking. The longer you let them cool, the firmer they will be. I prefer them a little soft and chewy, so a 5- to 10-minute cooling period is just right for me.

Enjoy!

xo, Gladys