The best healthy chocolate chip cookies

These are the best. Seriously!

The first time I made these I thought they were great, but the second time when I messed up the recipe slightly they turned out even better. Chewy, chocolatey, and filling, these cookies hit the spot. 

Having made almond flour and coconut oil based slices before, I decided to try and turn the same basic recipe into cookies, and hey presto it worked! The first time around I used little dark chocolate chips, and they were great. The second time around I only had a block of dark chocolate in the house, so I did what every chocolate craving female would do and I smashed it to bits with the rolling pin. 

Once I added the (rather large) chocolate chunks to the recipe I found that the chocolate was too big and making the sandy mixture fall apart. Here's where I hit perfection... I chucked the whole mixture into the food processor to cut up the chocolate a bit smaller and it resulted in cookies which have chunks of chocolate but ALSO chocolate spread throughout the rest of the dough. 

Turns out being a lazy cook who doesn't follow recipes works in my favour (well, sometimes.)

I suggest making a big batch of these, freezing half and keeping the rest in the fridge. Keeping the cookies in the fridge keeps them chewy, otherwise, if you like a softer cookie you can leave them at room temperature for 2-3 days. 

These cookies are dairy free (as long as you use dark chocolate), gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and vegan.

Makes: 12 cookies

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time 15 minutes

Ingredients 

4 cups ground almonds

⅓ cup maple syrup

½ cup melted coconut oil or butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

⅔ cup chocolate chunks or chips

Pinch of sea salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

In a food processor bowl combine the ground almonds, maple syrup, coconut oil or butter, baking soda, vanilla, apple cider vinegar, chocolate chunks or chips, and sea salt.

Blitz the mixture for 3–4 seconds, or until the chocolate starts to colour the dough and the mixture comes together. You can combine the mixture by hand, without a food processor; just make sure you use small chocolate chips so that the dough will hold together.

Roll the dough into 24 balls and flatten with your hands. This dough will not spread in the oven.

Place the cookies on the trays and make sure they are not touching.

Bake the cookies for 12–15 minutes, and remove from oven as they begin to brown.

The cookies will be very soft after baking, so leave to cool completely on the tray.

Notes

Store in the fridge to keep them crunchy. You can freeze these cookies for 3 months; simply take out of freezer 1 hour before eating.

This recipe will work with any kind of chocolate; we encourage you to use dark chocolate, free from unrefined sugars.