Against All Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

While I was in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, my parents and I hosted a drinks and desserts event at our home. I threw Paleo out of the window and made my pumpkin trifle and pumpkin chocolate chip bars, to go with the giant tray of chocolate that my mom tossed together and the blueberry-lime cake and fruit tarts that our friends brought. I wasn't intending on partaking in any sweets (I tried, but it's hard sometimes), but because I knew that my best friend's boyfriend is Paleo as well, I did make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, Because I was feeling a tad lazy and didn't want to come up with my own recipe at the last minute, I use the Real Deal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Against All Grain.

It turned out well. Honestly, the people who came over said that if I hadn't have told them about the whole non-grain aspect of the cookies, they wouldn't have known. Instead of grain, the recipe called for almond flour and coconut flour. Personally, they were a little dry/fluffy for my taste (I'm a chewy cookie sort of gal), but they did taste pretty good. I only got the chance to eat one, because everyone else ate the rest, but I do recommend it.

Some things to note about this recipe...

1. The recipe does include dairy - grass-fed butter and dark chocolate. (The recipe uses both Enjoy Life chocolate chips and dark chocolate.

2. The resulting mixture ended up very sticky. I recommend using two spoons to kind of scoop up the mixture, get it roughly golf-ball sized, and then get it onto the parchment paper-lined tray. I'm not sure how to describe the process that I used, but it was kind of like scooping the mixture from one spoon to the other repeatedly until it formed the shape I was looking for. Yeah, that's a terribly explanation, but that's the best I got without a video. Something to work on?

Vegan Cookie Mix Review

Review: Purely Elizabeth - Oatmeal Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

gluten-free, vegan, free of refined sugar

Should you buy this mix? Probably not.

I recommend a pass on this one. If you stick to a strict Paleo diet, definitely skip this one. To make these cookies, you have to add in oil (olive or coconut), applesauce, and vanilla extract. I went with melted coconut oil and organic, sugar-free applesauce. The resulting cookie was incredibly crumbly, to the point that I ended up eating the cookies with a spoon. The oatmeal flavor is a bit overwhelming for me, so eating more than one cookie at a time wasn't gonna happen (that's one way of eating cookies in moderation).

Now to the Paleo discussion. This cookie mix doesn't comply with Paleo, but it's one of the most Paleo-friendly cookie mixes that I've found yet. Yes it contains oats, millet flour, and garbanzo fava bean flour, which definitely makes this cookie mix fall out of the range of Paleo. However... instead of using regular sugar, this mix is made with coconut palm sugar which is rather well known in the Paleo realm. Additionally, part of the flour portion of the mix contains almond flour. Again, another popular Paleo ingredient. This was a cheat meal buy for me. Compared to the other gluten-free mixes out there, which are made with a mix of corn or rice flour, potato starch, and soy, this is a better choice for Paleo... in theory at least. In execution, it lacked a certain flair... or... well... cookie consistency. Maybe I did something wrong. It's quite possible. Maybe I um, accidentally added too much coconut oil? I don't know. Maybe my oven operates differently from others. Anyways, I'm sure this cookie worked for someone else. But not for me. So I vote no. It's got potential, but I think I'll stick with making my own cookies.

Ingredients: organic millet flour, organic coconut palm sugar, organic almond flour, certified gluten-free oats, chocolate chips (evaporated cane juice, chocolate liquor, non-dairy cocoa butter), dried cherries, garbanzo fava bean flour, organic chia seeds, baking soda, sea salt.

21DSD Day 6 - Traveling

Yesterday was a busy day. I started out by waking up at 6:15 to go to crew practice, then skipping team breakfast to come home, shower, change, and pack. All before heading into work. Yes, I worked on a Saturday. Fortunately, I just put in a half day (which is 5 hours for me) and then booked it to the airport to catch a late flight out to Atlanta.

So how did I prepare for airplane travel? For snacks, I chopped up some carrots to bring with me in a Ziploc bag and I mixed together some raw almonds, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds. I also made some Pumpkin Cookies to bring along. I know what you're thinking... cookies? On 21DSD? Either I'm cheating, or it tastes terrible. Again, I think how it tastes depends on how much sugar you've been eating lately. Since I haven't been eating any sugar for the past 6 days, the Pumpkin Cookies didn't taste so bad. They're more savory cookies anyways.

Pumpkin Cookies

1/2 cup almond butter

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 egg, whisked

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Also, line a couple baking sheets with tinfoil and spread some coconut oil over it, for easy clean-up.

2. Mix together the almond butter, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt.

3. Stir in the whisked egg.

4. Use an ice cream scoop or spoon to place onto the baking sheet.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before trying to remove from the pan.

And that's as sweet as you get for a 21DSD cookie.