Walnut Brownie Cookies
It has certainly been a hot minute since I’ve posted! I think my last post was just over 1 year ago, and in the past year my views on nutrition have changed considerably. I’ve veered away from my mostly plant-based principles, and have moved towards refined sugar-free, lactose-free and gluten-free as my core principles in recipe development and most importantly for overall gut health.
If you are interested in reading about gut health in depth, I will be writing a post about it’s importance, how being out of balance can affect you mentally and physically, and how you can get on the right track to healing. The post should be coming out sometime next week.
In the meantime, let’s get cooking!
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This cookie recipe is great because it’s free from a few major allergens and trigger foods (gluten, eggs, lactose) and remains super tasty. The texture is very brownie-like and they have a great punch of intense chocolate flavour from the cacao.
A note on cacao: Cacao differs from cocoa in a few key ways that makes cacao richer in nutrients than cocoa. During processing, cacao has been heated to a much lower temperature than cocoa, and therefore retains notably higher levels of protein, fibre, magnesium, iron, and levels of antioxidants that go through the roof. Also, because it has been processed at such a low temperature, it is still considered to be a “raw” food. Cacao is the purest form of chocolate, and has a much deeper, more intense chocolate flavour than cocoa. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with using cocoa (if it hasn’t been cut with sugar), but you will reap significantly more nutritional benefits from using it’s more flavourful, nutrient dense, antioxidant rich cousin.
The steps are fairly straight forward. I’ve taken the liberty of photographing each step for you to make it even easier to follow, and so you know what they should look like at each step along the way.
You should get 24 cookies out of this recipe. Sometimes I like to make mini bite-sized cookies so I’ll aim for 36 - that’s cool too! Whatever you want to do. Just be aware that if you make the cookies small, they will cook 1-2 minutes quicker.
When the cookies are done you want to see that cracking in the surface, but they should still be quite squishy to the touch. When baking cookies, my rule of thumb is to take them out when they still look slightly underdone, because they will harden up as they cool - and you don’t want any burnt bottoms or rock hard bites.
*makes 24 cookies
Ingredients:
4 flax or chia eggs (4 tbsp ground flax or ground chia + 9 tbsp water)
1 cup quinoa flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup raw cacao powder
¼ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp sea salt
1 cup coconut sugar
2 tbsp honey
2/3 cup oil of choice (coconut, olive, sunflower)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (or nut of choice – hazelnuts & sliced almonds are nice as well)
Preheat oven to 350℃.
In a small bowl, prepare your flax/chia eggs. Set aside.
Mix the quinoa flour, rice flour, baking soda, cacao powder, xanthan gum and sea salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Whisk together coconut sugar, honey, and oil in a small bowl for a minute or so until mixed and homogenous. Add vanilla and flax/chia eggs and whisk again until creamy.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just mixed. Add chopped walnuts and stir until there are no dry spots & walnuts are dispersed throughout the dough.
Refrigerate dough for 10-20 minutes.
Form dough into 1-inch balls and slightly flatten. Arrange on prepared cookie sheet with 2 inches of space between cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes (and no longer), until cracks are visible on the top of the cookies and they are slightly browned on the edges. Do not over bake! We do not want crispy cookies!
Let cool for a minute on the cookie sheet and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
