Chocolate Coconut Cookies...Gluten Free and Paleo!

I've been trying out a few gluten free cookie recipes and while my absolute favorite is Peanut Butter cookies, those don't work for my middle son with peanut allergies. He's been demanding his own cookie recipe and when we found this one in Practical Paleo he insisted we make it. We've made it for dessert and for breakfast and we REALLY like this one.

Chocolate Coconut Cookies
from Practical Paleo
makes 12 cookies

• 2 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted & cooled
• 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 pinch baking soda
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds or 1/2 cup fresh raspberries (optional)
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional but highly recommended!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

Whisk together the eggs, melted butter, vanilla & maple syrup. Stir in the cocoa powder, baking soda and shredded coconut until it's all combined. Fold in the optional almonds and/or chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon, scoop out 12 cookie balls onto the cookie sheet and flatten them with a fork. Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly firm to the touch.
If you want raspberries on top you can add one to each cookie after baking and before eating.

The chocolate chips made these much better in my opinion. These cookies are a bit chewier than I like but 2 out of 3 of my boys found the taste and texture just right and gobbled them up. I ate a few more than I should have myself.

This post was shared at: Clever Chicks, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, This Gal Cooks, A Round Tuit, Homestead Barn Hop, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday
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Delicious Christmas Sugar Cookies made with Spelt Flour

My oldest son loves to eat and bake cookies and this year he talked me into baking Christmas cookies. They are a lot of work but so tasty and fun for the kids. My boys love to cut them out with cookie cutters and decorate with icing so I had plenty of "help."

I wanted to try something a little different so this year I used spelt flour instead of whole wheat. Spelt is an older wheat variety that is higher in protein and lower in gluten. I've been experimenting with it a lot lately and I like the flavor of spelt. These cookies turned out great and were very tasty.

Spelt Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup cane sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups spelt flour
1 tsp cream of tartar

Cream together the oil, butter and sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla. Slowly add the cream of tarter and flour one cup at a time and be sure to fully incorporate the flour without over mixing. Cover the bowl and store in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper for easy cleanup. When the dough is chilled roll it out to about 1 cm thick and use cookie cutters to cut out a variety of shapes. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to cooling rack. Makes 4 dozen. When cookies are fully cooled it's time to decorate with icing!

Spelt Sugar Cookie Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
optional food coloring

And what did I do with all these cookies? I took a bunch to a Christmas party, we ate plenty at home and many more were gifts to the neighbors.

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie?

This post is part of: Your Green Resource

Cookies for the Freezer, Granola for Me

I haven't done a great job keeping up with Crystal's freezer cooking at Money Saving Mom. Partly because my picky family won't eat a lot of the things she suggests and partly out of busyness.

When I saw that today's assignment was chocolate chip cookies for the freezer I rediscovered my motivation. What a great idea for a sugar-holic like me to have frozen cookie balls ready so I just bake one or two per person instead of a whole batch which can lead to me eating A LOT of cookies. 

I used my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe from Smart Sweets e-book. I love this recipe because it uses coconut oil, butter and whole wheat flour and and tastes amazing. 

I rolled the dough into cookie size balls and laid them out on the cookie sheet. I then set them in the freezer to flash freeze before I bagged them. I ended up with two bags of cookie dough for future dessert times. One is just chocolate chip cookie balls and the other bag of balls has walnuts mixed in. My middle son is allergic to nuts so I have to label and bag up the different doughs carefully.

When I'm ready to bake the cookies I'll pull out the desired amount of balls and place on a cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes to thaw then bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until done.

 After I finished up freezing the cookie balls I moved on to making Honey Walnut Granola.

We love this granola for breakfast and snack times but I hadn't made any in a few weeks.

 Then I mixed up some laundry soap just in case I need to wash any clothes soon.

All in all it was a productive afternoon in the kitchen and I also played and chased my little guy around so he wasn't left out of the fun.