PALEO COOKIES

A ‘Killer’ Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

“She’s a Killer, Queen…

Gunpowder, Gelatine

Dynamite with a laser beam…

Guaranteed to blow your mind!

Anytime…”

Yeah, baby. These chocolate chip cookies are that dang good.

“Recommended at the price

Insatiable in appetite

Wanna try?

You wanna try.”

OK. I’ll kill the Queen. (Ha! A Shaun of the Dead film reference and I wasn’t even trying.) But, seriously. Oh yeah, “you wanna try.” And, soon. Most definitely, “Guaranteed to blow your mind!”

This is how it all went down…when I couldn’t get the “Killer Queen” earworm out of my head…

What does a recipe developer do when she’s frustrated over a recipe that just isn’t working and requires further testing? She takes a break. But, she wants a chocolate chip cookie to go with said break. Like a Toll House® Chocolate Chip Cookie. And, she wants it now. Like,immediately. Oh, and it must be paleo. Talk about asking for the Moon!

This is one of the rececpies you will find.

Ingredients

• 3 cups (336 grams) blanched almond flour, such as Honeyville® Farms
• 1 tablespoon (7 grams) organic coconut flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill® or Tropical Traditions®
• 1¼ teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon sea salt or regular table salt)
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ cup (60 grams) organic ghee, melted (you could also use coconut oil)
• ¼ cup (48 grams) organic palm shortening, such as Spectrum®, melted
• ¼ cup (48 grams) organic blonde coconut palm sugar, such as SweetTree®
• ½ cup (168 grams) organic light agave nectar
• 1½ teaspoons unsulphured molasses, such as Grandma’s®
• 2 large eggs (mine were 103 grams total), at room temperature
• 1½ tablespoons pure vanilla extract, such as Nielsen-Massey®
• 1 (10 ounce/283 gram) package Enjoy Life® Semi-sweet Chocolate Mega Chunks, chopped

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, salt, baking soda and baking powder; set aside.

In a small prep food processor, or in a large processor if you will be using it to prepare your cookie dough, combine warm melted ghee, palm shortening and coconut palm sugar. Process mixture for 1 minute to help melt and break down the hard larger coconut palm sugar crystals. Add the remaining wet ingredients and process until well combined, smooth and creamy. If using a stand mixer, transfer wet mixture to work bowl.

Add flour mixture and beat with paddle attachment, or process in food processor, until dough is completely blended and smooth. If using a food processor, scrape into a medium bowl. Stir in chocolate chips. Allow dough to rest, uncovered, for 15 minutes at room temperature. This will allow the flours to absorb the free liquids and become saturated. You will notice the dough will become more solid upon standing and more ideal for portioning and shaping before baking.

Meanwhile, arrange oven racks in center of oven and preheat oven to 350º F. Line two insulated baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Alternatively, place a half baking sheet atop another and line with parchment paper. Using insulated baking sheets will prevent these nut flour cookies from overbrowning on the bottom as they bake.

Drop cookie dough 1 level scoopful at a time using a ¾-ounce cookie scoop onto the prepared cookie sheets. (If you do not have a ¾-ounce cookie scoop, scoop portions of dough measuring approximately 1½ tablespoons each.) Cookies should be about 1½ inches apart—about 12 per cookie sheet. With fingers, flatten tops of cookies for even baking and ideal shape. These cookies do spread during baking, but not as much as conventional chocolate chip cookies do.

Bake in preheated oven until the edges are light golden brown and centers are still puffy, lightly crackled and appear a bit uncooked, about 10 to 11 minutes. Do not bake over 12 minutes or cookies will be too hard and dry.

Allow cookies to cool significantly on baking sheets, about 8 to 10 minutes, before removing as they are fragile straight from the oven. This cooling time will make them more solid and easy to handle. Using a thin metal cookie spatula, carefully transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Keep cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature or freeze.

Notes

These almond flour-based chocolate chip cookies are best eaten when cooled completely. Upon storing in an airtight container at room temperature, the cookies are nice, buttery and chewy just like “soft batch-style” chocolate chip cookies.

TIPS

Why Honeyville® Farms Blanched Almond Flour? Honeyville® Farms Blanched Almond Flour can be ordered online via Honeyville Grain at HoneyvilleGrain.com. This recipe will ONLY work with the superfine milling of Honeyville’s blanched almond flour which makes it more of a true grain-free ‘flour’. The blanched almond flour by Bob’s Red Mill is too coarse (not as fine) for this baking project and is more of an almond ‘meal’. The coarse blanched almond flour will cause the cookies to spread into one large mess in the oven. It is essential to use a superfine milled blanched almond flour, such as Honeyville® Farms available at Honeyville Grain online.

Measuring & Baking Tips

Measuring: When measuring almond flour without a kitchen scale, it is imperative that you “pack” the cup full. Each cup of almond flour should measure 112 grams. This is per the manufacturers of almond flour as well as per Dr. Jean Layton, author of Gluten-Free Baking For Dummies. The only way to reach the necessary weight of 112 grams of almond flour, when measuring by volume with a measuring cup, is to pack the cup. Now, there is "lightly packing" the cup, "packing" the cup or "firmly packing" the cup as a rule of thumb. I would say that simply "packing" the cup is ideal versus either lightly or firmly packing the cup because I conducted tests and weighed the flour after each volume measurement method. I hope this information will give you some guidelines to go by if you do not own a kitchen scale.

Baking: When baking the cookies, you will need to watch them closely if you do not have an oven thermometer to calibrate your oven temperature. Cookies and pastries made with nut flours brown quickly and all too easily they can become over-browned. For this reason, whenever I bake delicate buttery cookies or cookies made with nut flours, I like to double-up on the baking sheets to create an insulated baking surface (or use my insulated baking sheets) and then line the pans with parchment paper. Nonstick Silpat® liners are helpful as well.