almond butter Archives - Pamela Salzman

Salted Flourless Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

I swore I wouldn’t post this recipe, but I gave in to persistent begging. I didn’t know the world needed another chocolate chip cookie recipe! But apparently many people could not live without this one. I will admit, these are quite, quite delicious and you can’t always say that about a grain-free, flourless cookie.

The reason I was reluctant to post this is because it is a very finicky recipe. I probably made these cookies 20-24 times and I had a couple of fails. Not inedible fails, but they didn’t look like the pictures you see here. Again, these are totally delicious in every way. Big chunks of melty dark chocolate and crispy flakes of sea salt are always a win in my book. The fact that these are also grain-free/flourless is just an added bonus, especially for all my GF and Paleo students, who seem to be growing in numbers. Although that might just be the post-holiday detox trend. I digress.

The two ingredients that affect the outcome of these cookies are the almond butter and the sugar. You cannot use a runny almond butter or one that is very oily. Once during a class, I had a new jar of room temperature Maranatha almond butter which I may not have stirred properly to incorporate the oil on top. I had oil dripping down my arms while I was rolling out the dough. I knew the cookies were going to be a disaster and they kind of were — very flat, oily and crumbly at the edges. Thankfully, this batter is a snap to make, so I just made another batch quickly with almond butter I had in the fridge. The next round was perfect.

These cookies are slightly softer than traditional chocolate chip cookies, unless you use brown sugar and then they do get a little crispy around the edges. The flavor is spot-on with just the right amount of sweetness. After 2 days, I store them in the fridge. They also freeze well.

Instead of giving you a blow-by-blow of all cookie escapades, let me summarize here:

use cold, refrigerated almond butter;
thicker almond butter is better than thinner;
if your nut butter is thinner, you can add 1 1/2 Tablespoons coconut flour to the batter;
you can make these with sunflower butter, but there will be a reaction between the sunflower butter and the baking soda which will tint the cookies green;
mix by hand (with a wooden spoon) not a mixer;
brown sugar, although a refined and not Pamela-approved sweetener, gave the best results — slightly crispy and chewy;
muscovado sugar was the second best and coconut sugar came in third — see the images in the post to compare;
do not use maple syrup, honey or another liquid sweetener;
you must allow the cookies to cool completely on the pan, not a cooling rack;
I always make 12 cookies, but you can make fewer and just make them bigger.

Ok, that’s all she wrote. Hit me with your questions and let me know if you make them!

brown sugar used here — brown sugar (and peppermint bark instead of chocolate chunks)

Salted Flourless Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Pamela

4.80 from 5 votes

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Servings cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened unsalted almond butter (raw or roasted, make sure it is well-blended)*
½ cup coconut sugar brown sugar or muscovado sugar
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Maldon salt divided
¾ cup chopped dark chocolate about 4 ounces or semi-sweet chocolate chips
optional add-ins: 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder to make chocolate cookies or ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, mix almond butter and sugar until well combined.
Stir in baking soda, egg, vanilla and ½ teaspoon flaky salt until well combined.
Stir in chocolate.
Scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the cookies with remaining ½ teaspoon salt.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely on baking sheet before transferring to a rack. To keep longer than one or two days, store in the refrigerator.

Notes

*If your almond butter is thin and runny or very oily, add 1 ½ Tablespoons of coconut flour to the batter.
Please read the suggestions outlined in the post.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Grain-free Cinnamon Apple Cake Recipe

One of the first desserts I made my boyfriend-now-husband was the Chunky Apple Walnut Cake from The Silver Palate Cookbook. Do you remember that book? Even though it’s from 1982, I still have it on the shelf in my kitchen with more current titles. It was probably the second cookbook I ever bought and still one of my all-time favorites. That Chicken Marbella is legendary!

But I might have won my husband’s heart with that apple walnut cake. It was dense, sweet and chock full of apples and walnut pieces. I actually healthified it many years ago with whole wheat flour, coconut oil and sucanat, with delicious, but still decadent results. But lately I’ve been trying to limit the gluten and indulge in it when it counts (e.g. crusty bread, pizza). After the wildly successful grain-free chocolate zucchini cake (if you haven’t made that, you must!), I decided to do a twist on that and make a cinnamon apple version.

This apple cake is very different from the Silver Palate one, but my husband has also come around to a lighter, more healthful way of eating, especially since we hit 40. When he and the kids went crazy for this grain-free cake, I knew I had to teach it in my classes. It was a big hit there, too.

When September rolls around, it’s not only back to school, but apple season and the Jewish new year, too. This was the perfect week to post this recipe since this Sunday is the first night of Rosh Hashana. Even if you don’t celebrate the Jewish holidays this cake is a delicious treat in a lunch box or after dinner with a dusting of powdered sugar to make it look a little fancier. My husband loves pieces of walnuts or pecans in here, but my son preferred a version I tested with raisins. Either way, this is a more wholesome, clean cake than most out there and who can resist tender chunks of apple enveloped in a sweet and cinnamon-y cake? And you won’t know this is flour-free or grain-free. It tastes as good as “normal” cake no matter how you slice it.

It freezes beautifully and I found out that it even tastes great frozen after I tried to tuck some away so that I wouldn’t be tempted to eat it. Can someone please explain “self control” to me? Who eats frozen cake??? I am planning on making at least one of these for my Rosh Hashana luncheon next Monday and I know I won’t have to worry about leftovers.