What is the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie? For me, it’s long been a cookie that’s buttery and golden-crisp around the edges. A little chewy give in the center. And so many chocolate chips it makes your face melt off.
And now, on this Autumn Sunday in the middle of October, I add two more mandatories. Sea salt. And a kiss of maple.
These cookies are just that. Everything you ever wanted in a chocolate chip cookie. Good-for-you ingredients, no sugar. Gluten-free. Paleo. Egg-free. Golden. Chocolate-chippy. And so, so splendidly perfect.
HOW TO MAKE A PERFECT BATCH
Let’s talk a few details about how you can make these cookies come out right every.time. There are a few secrets that’ll deliver fine little morsels, and I wantycha ta have them. Here are the things that’ll make a difference
- Use Finely Ground Almond Flour. Finely ground almond flour cooks up with excellent texture. Don’t buy the Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour. It’s technically Almond Meal and doesn’t blend up as a good flour should, leaving you with a runny mess instead of nice, crisp cookies.
- Use Tapeline Maple Extract. I am not a lover of maple flavored anything. But, Mapeline extract is like maple-drank-rumnilla-and-turned-into-a-donut. The flavor is sweet and pure. So much better than that nappy fake-maple flavor you get on cheap grocery store pastries and such.
- Use Vanilla Bean Paste. Okay, so Neilsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste has a touch of sugar. But it’s minimalminimal. And the trade-off for having pretty little vanilla bean freckles in your cookies with a simple spoonful of this stuff is worth the smidgen-o’-sugar tradeoff. This is one of those times that easy trumps cwazyhealthy.
- Use Coconut Sugar. If you don’t yet have coconut sugar in your pantry, it’s time.
Gone Vegan? These cookies were made for the low-carb Paleo Eater types, but they’re easy to turn vegan, too. Since no eggs were used in the making of these yummy nuggets, you can easily swap in coconut oil for the butter and maple syrup for the honey. Blam bam.
I’ve included this in the recipe below, but these cookies cook up into two separate options. You have the melty-chewy option. If you like dipping your chocolatey, gooey cookies into a cold glass of coconut milk, you’re going to want to barely cook these babies. You don’t want to crisp or brown the edges. Pull them out at 7-8 minutes flat, and you’ll have that cookie that is begging for a dipping glass.
Prefer a crisper cookie? Let ’em stay in the oven for 9-11 minutes, letting the bottom get crispy and golden brown before removing and cooling to room temp. You’ll have a cookie that rivals Chips Ahoy! only without all that crap you don’t want in your bod.
So healthy, you can eat them for breakfast. So delicious, you’ll want to eat them for dinner.
PERFECT PALEO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
INGREDIENTS:
8 tablespoons grassfed butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 1/2- 1 3/4 almond flour
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon mapleine (or maple extract)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 bag mini chocolate chips
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a stand mixer, beat together butter, honey, coconut sugar, coconut flour, almond flour, extracts and vanilla, and chocolate chips.
2. Beat until well mixed. The dough should follow the beater around the bowl, and be about the texture of playdoh. Add a little more almond flour, if needed.
3. Add sea salt, folding it into the mixture.
4. Roll 1/2 tablespoons of the dough into balls, then flatten and form into cookie squares. They should be about 1/4-1/2" thick. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The cookies don't spread much, so feel free to place them fairly close together.
5. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. For extra crunchy cookies, bake until the edges are very golden brown.
6. Cool before serving. Enjoy!
Makes 24 cookies.