Almond Meal ,Chocolate Chip Cookies

From my many food Instagrams' photos, you all know by now that I love me some cookies, especially on Sunday evenings.

Obviously being baked from flour, eggs, butter and sugar they are not the healthiest goodies to be addicted to. My healthy twist thus far has been to simply replace a generous portion of the flour with oats. I still attempted that technique since I my cookie addiction is specific to oatmeal cookies.

Through my continuous researching for healthy options to maintain my  sweet tooth I fell on this recipe. Replacing flour with its gluten free and lower calorie alternative Almond Meal, it still uses brown sugar but healthier alternatives include using artificial sweeteners or even palm sugar.

Other healthy twist include replacing the eggs with either bananas ( a very ripe one) or flax gel.

I have had no experience using flax gel as an egg replacement but I can vouch that banana's work very well.

Not only do the aid the binding of the batter but also add a sweetening factor. This however compromises on the crunchiness of the cookies but if you don't mind the chewiness then it is all good.

I will keep you updated if  I try any of the healthier alterations.

I have replaced the coconut oil with butter ( simply because I did not have coconut oil despite being referred to as a healthier option than butter) and can vouch that it works just fine.

My apologies, the photos are not the best, next time I bake them I will try getting better ones.

Ingredients

1 &1/4 cup Almond Meal

1/4 cup Oatmeal *Optional

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup desiccated unsweetened coconut

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt 

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3 tbs coconut oil ( I did not have that so simply replaced it with butter)

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Method

In a large mixing bowl add the Almond Meal, Oatmeal, Chocolate chips, desiccated coconut, baking powder, salt and sugar.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg until evenly mixed and it has doubled in quantity. Add the coconut oil and vanilla and whisk until blended.

Pour the mixture into the dry mix and mix until just combined. I opted to do this part by hand because it was refusing to bond.

This cookie dough should be chilled for at least half an hour in the fridge. It can even be left overnight

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Shape the dough into balls. I used a teaspoon as my measure in an attempt to keep them equally sized.

Press down lightly to flatten.

Baked for 7-12 minutes or until the edges brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool before the serving .