Last week I went down to London to celebrate my Mother’s 96th birthday. My one sister, because of her “new” diet, wasn’t eating gluten or sugar so the question to me was could I please bring a dessert she could eat. I was up to the challenge and I made both recipes which she was happy with. Most of the cookies were eaten before we arrived!
Chocolate Chip Cookie
I buy the chocolate chips that are sweetened with stevia (health food store in Mindemoya or another store that carries them) and buy the oat flour. You can make oat flour, simply by putting oats in a blender and blend on high until finely ground. I can’t get it as fine so I just buy the flour. I don’t like the taste of tahini so I used natural peanut butter.
- 1 1/4 cup oat flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup tahini or your choice BUT it needs to be natural
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking pan with parchment paper or oil the sheet.
In a bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking soda, and salt.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Add the tahini (or nut butter), maple syrup and vanilla. Combine the wet ingredients a little before incorporating them into the dry ingredients and mixing well. Fold in the chocolate chips. Don’t worry about overworking the dough; it won’t become tough.
Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, gently flattening the disks with a fork. To keep the fork from sticking dip it into some water.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the bottoms have browned. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet before removing them.
Gluten Free Chocolate Date Brownies
The flour you need to use in this recipe is called Paleo by Bob’s Red Mill. I did some research and made my own. I have included it in the recipe. The chocolate that I used for the icing are the same chocolate chips sweetened with stevia. A trick that works well is to empty the can of coconut milk into a bowl and let it sit in the fridge overnight. This will make it much easier to skim the cream from the liquid.
PALEO FLOUR:
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 cup arrowroot starch
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch
Mix altogether and store in the fridge.
BROWNIES:
- 12 ounces of pitted dates about 2.5 cups
- 1/4 date water
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup melted coconut oil
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup Paleo flour mix (Bob’s Red Mill or your own)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9 x 13 inch with parchment paper or use oil.
Soak the dates in boiling hot water for about 15 minutes. Drain them but save 1/4 cup of the liquid.
Add the dates to the food processor and the 1/4 cup saved water. Process until smooth.
Add the eggs, vanilla extract, coconut oil and cocoa powder. Process until well blended.
Add the flour, salt, and baking soda. Blend again then let the mixture sit for 5 minutes so the almond flour can absorb some of the liquid.
Pour into the pan and bake 40 to 45 minutes. Depending on your oven temperature it may take less time. Check with a toothpick or cake tester.
Remove from the oven and let cool before icing the brownie.
CHOCOLATE ICING:
- 8 ounces chocolate chips, stevia-sweetened (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 8 ounces (1 cup) coconut cream ***solid part not the liquid
Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave. Add the coconut cream and mix until well blended. It should be shiny and smooth. Spread overtop of the brownie. Let cool then serve.
