Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews, toddler mom stuff and food chatter

I’m in love.  Seriously, I’ve turned into the cookie monster.  I’m not sure why this is, but every winter I turn into a chocolate and mint fanatic.  My friend Chris made the yummy Nestle seasonal chocolate and mint chip chocolate cookies a couple of weeks ago and I about died and went to heaven when I tasted them.  On the other hand, knowing the ingredients that went into them and also reading the label on the chips tells me that they’re pretty awful for you.  I basically needed a healthy alternative and I’m happy to say I succeeded!  This is going to be a go-to cookie for me all winter.  My whole family likes them- my husband wants to eat them with ice cream!   I decided to develop my own recipe when I was meandering on Goop.com and saw the gluten-free chocolate chip mint cookies on there made by Erin McKenna of Baby Cakes - but they didn’t look how I wanted them to look.  So, I took to the pen and paper and wrote my own recipe like I always do when I bake….and then crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

Through Healthy Yum and Musselmans, I received two jars of applesauce, one regular and one chunky.  The regular version is what I used for this recipe - and it worked perfectly!  This way, the cookie is lightened up a tad and has a little healthy boost as well.  Not to mention the applesauce is yummy.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep at night.  My dad was always up reading and so when he saw me he’d pop two slices of heavy whole grain seedy bread in the toaster and top it off with applesauce.  He sometimes used prune or poppy seed pie filling as well.  Though my son loves his applesauce- he hasn’t quite gotten used to it on toast yet! 

I used real organic sugars in this recipe rather than agave, honey or fruit syrup because my husband can always detect it and usually doesn’t like the end result.  The perfect cookie would’ve used alternative sweeteners - but this is pretty close:)  In the close-up picture of the cookies- they appear a little grainy - they’re not!  They’re very smooth!  They’re not as thick as the Nestle flour version though - but still have a nice chewy thickness hard to find in many gluten-free cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used Musselman’s)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar (I use organic white)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (I use organic brown)
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 1/2 cup oat flour (for gluten-free, you have to grind your own GF oats)
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp xantham gum
• 10 oz chocolate chips (I mixed minis with regulars, but next time will stick with regular)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Warm coconut oil and butter until coconut oil is almost liquid and butter is softened, blend using mixer
• Add applesauce, blend, add eggs, blend
• Add sugars, vanilla and peppermint extract, mix
• In a separate bowl, combine remaining dry ingredients except chips
• Slowly add dry to wet, then add chocolate chips
• Using a small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto cookie sheet
• Bake about 9 minutes - allow to cool on sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. 

I think these make about 7 dozen when using a small cookie scoop.  I always forget to count but 7 dozen sounds about right!