And so are these!! Also....
THEY'RE VEGAN!!!
I was at Trader Joe's and saw some coconut oil, and have since been biting at the bit to try it out instead of butter. Unfortunately it has more fat than butter, so I probably won't use it again, but it was a cool experience to experiment with!! Since I made these relatively normal sized cookies, they are 4 pp each regardless if you use butter or half the sugar (which I considered doing, then, after doing the math, I decided it wasn't a big enough fat saver). If you take out the nuts, or halve them, it's going to make a huge difference.
INGREDIENTS:
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (consider using 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup coconut oil (or butter if you're not vegan or want to save on fat)
• 1 tsp. Maple flavoring extract
• 3 TBSP. Egg whites (the equivalent of one large egg)
• 2 & 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, scooped and sifted!
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 bag dry roasted (not salted or anything fancy) macadamia nuts. {let me just say a normal recipe will call for one cup and this is twice, but we love nuts and they have good Monounsaturated fats, but if you want less fat, use half a bag, or omit!}
• 3 bars (1 pack) dark chocolate coarsley chopped
INSTRUCTIONS:
1) In a large mixing bowl beat sugars and coconut oil until well combined.
It may be necessary to scrap clumpy oil off the mixing paddle a few times.
2) Add maple extract and egg whites, beat till combined.
3) Gently scoop flour into measuring cup, do not pack!
Put in a sifter and sift onto silpat or parchment paper.
4) While sifting, sift in baking soda and salt. You can toss out anything that just won't sift in. I take that as a sign from the Universe that I don't need it.
5) I switch to a dough hook, to ease the mixing process. I put the dry ingredients in halves, I don't need to be wearing it!
Let it go, stop to scrap down the sides a few times.
6) Add in chopped chocolate.
7) add in chopped nuts.
8) When it's all combined, if it looks too dry splash in some coconut milk to help it bind.
9) in order to achieve even baking times, I'm methodical about dividing my dough into fourths. Each fourth yields 12 cookie balls, spaced evenly apart on a cookie sheet.
11) TIP TIP TIP: When you've rolled them all out, put them in the fridge to chill for 10 min!
12) Bake for 5 short min. in the middle of the oven.
13) Cooling TIPS:
a) on the pan for 5 min.
b) on a brown paper bag for 10 min.
c) on a rack until ready to store
This helps them from falling apart.
14) Lavish lovings on your adorable puppy as she looks for crumbs to clean up.
So that's them! A pretty decent punch of flavor for 4 pp. I think the man will enjoy them too and won't even notice that they're vegan hahhahahahhahahahah!!!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Pepper and Brooke
