Gooey Chocolate Cookies

Firstly, an apology for being a little quiet recently. I’ve got loads of awesome posts to share with you in my head but with a holiday, horrible cold and this horrendous heat wave in the last few weeks I’ve not been able to get the ideas from my head onto the page. But last night I decided it was cool enough to cook and after a week or so of watermelon for dessert whilst on holiday (our waiter always trying to convince me to have something else) I was craving a good cookie.

I’ve always been a biscuit lover and could easily go through a pack of Tesco value Bourbons or shortbread despite how many times my dad’s cookie cop cookie jar telling me to ‘STOP!’ and ‘Move away from the cookie jar’ which normally ended up in me smothering the little snitch until I’d polished off the Jamie Dodgers 😛 Anyway, since cutting the refined sugar,
gluten and dairy I’ve been yet to find or make a good cookie. The ones I’ve made have been really nice, don’t get me wrong, but they are always end up being quite solid and difficult to get your teeth into. So I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands and have a little experiment to make the softest, gooiest vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free cookies out there. And if I do say so myself, the result was pretty darn good. You’ll have to try it for yourself because I think mine are going to disappear pretty quickly with my brother loving their softness and mum calling them ‘the best biscuits you’ve made yet’. I’m using cups for this recipe rather than grams, I find it so much easier as it’s super lazy and you just fill up the cup instead of measuring everything out super accurately with scales, it really saves time and effort. If you don’t have cups you can get some from amazon from as little as £2 (they’re a seriously good investment with how Americanized recipes are becoming) but you can also do it by filling up a standard sized mug but obviously it’s slightly less accurate.

Gooey Chocolate Cookies:

Makes: 11 Cookies

Takes: 30 mins

Costs: approx 34p each (Total: £3.72). In comparison: Tesco Cookies 20p each, Tesco finest cookies 38p each, Millie’s cookies 58p each.

Allergens: Hazelnuts. I’ve added crushed hazelnuts, purely because I had some in the cupboards and you get a nice Nutella flavour, but you could simply leave these out or add Cacao nibs, different nuts, or try some dried fruit.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Coconut Sugar
• 1 Cup Buckwheat Flour
• 1/3 cup of Raw Cacao Powder
• 1/3 cup of Hazelnuts
• 5 tbsp Coconut Oil
• 2 1/2 tbsp Milled Flaxseed mixed with 6 tbsp Water
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• Sprinkling of flaky sea salt ( Maldon Salt is of course the best…It’s from Essex :P)

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1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. First, mix the Coconut Sugar and Coconut Oil in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl mix your Flaxseed with water and leave it to set a bit for a minute before mixing it in with the Sugar and Oil mixture.
4. Sift in Buckwheat Flour and Cacao Powder and add the normal salt and baking powder and Combine well.
5. Crush the Hazelnuts using a rolling-pin or pestle and mortar if you have one and stir them into the mixture.
6. Place the mixture in the fridge to chill for 5-10 mins.
7. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Then place well spaced tablespoons of the cookie dough mixture onto them. Flatten the tops slightly but not completely and sprinkle a little flaky sea salt on each cookie.
8. Place in the preheated oven and bake for around 12 mins.
9. Leave to cool on cooling rack and Enjoy!

You should end up with a yummy caramalized shell and a gooey soft inside with a rich chocolatey taste and crunchy hazelnut pieces.I had one warm out of the oven and it was so good but please don’t burn yourself. You could also serve these warm with some ice cream (you can see my vegan chocolate ice cream recipe here) to make a great desert.