Today, I want to share my recent successful Dark Chocolate Cookies baking experiment! I followed a paleo thin mint recipe and modified (a LOT).

Original Paleo Thin Mint recipe here. Still want to try this one!

I was at home after dinner, exhausted after a long week and craving sweets. I was so tired and comfy at home, the last thing I wanted to do was change out of my PJs and go to the store to buy either sweets or ingredients so I went to my Paleo/Primal Pinterest board for ideas. There had to be something I had all the ingredients for…

Finally, I found a simple but delicious sounding paleo Thin Mint recipe and the only things I didn’t have were peppermint, coconut sugar (easily subbed with more honey) and chocolate to melt for the coating. ‘I can work with that’. I decided to use cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne for a Mexican hot chocolate flavor instead of peppermint and skipped the coating, but then, once I was in the middle of it… I went nuts.

One thing I wasn’t down for in this recipe was the amount of waiting. The dough needed to be chilled, rolled and cut out and I just wanted cookies NOW, so that wasn’t going to work. At least not this time. (I can be a bit impatient sometimes…) Then I thought, ‘What if I add some egg and baking powder to make them a bit fluffier than they’re intended to be? Then I won’t need to wait!’. I was already mixing in the honey and melted butter with the dry ingredients when I decided that so I just added an egg and baking powder and mixed very well. But now it looked like thick cake batter… (a few more adjustments may turn this into a good muffin recipe!).

To thicken it up back into a cookie dough, all I could think of was to use the ever-reliable, liquid-absorbing coconut flour. I can’t give you a set amount because I sprinkled it until I achieved a cookie dough consistency, but likely no more than 1/4 cup. What’s nice about this is that since you need so little, the cookies don’t acquire a strong or—even mild—coconut taste. Besides coconut flour, I also sprinkled more cocoa powder and cinnamon since they are also dry ingredients but they would actually contribute to the cookies’ flavor.

Some other substitutions I made were: coconut sugar -> more honey, tapioca flour -> potato starch, Himalayan sea salt -> regular sea salt, no vanilla (I was out, but that would make them even better so I’m including it in the recipe), and the butter was regular (not grass-fed).

Once the dough was firm enough to work with, I rolled it into about 1″ balls and laid them out on a baking sheet and put them in the oven. The Thin Mint recipe said 15 minutes but I messed a lot with the recipe and I made them thicker so I thought 20 minutes would be good. They started smelling delicious just 5 minutes in—it helped that I greased the pan with butter!—and after 15 minutes they were about to start burning. However, my oven may be about 5 degrees hotter than it should be…

oven

The way they came out was great, though maybe a bit too dry. A shorter time in the oven might help them stay a bit moister and softer, almost like cakey balls with a firm outer layer if that’s something that sounds good to you. I also wanted to add walnuts but they didn’t work with the original recipe, but then when I decided to change it… I forgot. Again, this is an experiment, so if you try it and tweak it even more, please share your finds!! I’d love to try them!

Next time, I want to add walnuts and some dark chocolate chips! (^ ω ^)

Here’s the recipe!

Makes: 24 cookies
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

Preheat oven at 350° F (177° C)

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients
– 1 and 1/4 cup almond flour
– 1 tbsp. potato starch
– 1/2 cup Hershey’s cocoa powder
– Dash sea salt
– 1 tsp. baking powder
– 2 tbsp. cinnamon powder
– Pinch of cayenne pepper
– 1/4 cup coconut flour for thickening

Wet Ingredients:
– 5 tbsp. butter (melted and cooled a bit)
– 1 egg
– 1 tsp. vanilla extract
– 5 tbsp. raw honey**
**Can substitute 2 tbsp. of honey with other sweeteners: monk fruit, stevia, coconut sugar, etc…. If dry, include with dry ingredients.

Dusting:
– 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
– 1 tbsp. cinnamon
– 1 tbsp. confectioner’s sugar *
– pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
*I know, not paleo, but it’s very little and not all of it ends up on the cookies in the end. You can also skip it or substitute with a healthier choice like powdered stevia.

baked

Directions

  • Mix dry ingredients from almond flour to cayenne, save the coconut flour for later. And remember to include any dry sweeteners you may be using.
  • In a different bowl, whisk wet ingredients well and mix into the dry ingredients.
  • Once the mixture is nice and even, it will probably still be much runnier than cookie dough. Sprinkle coconut flour and mix it in with a spatula—or your hands!—until you get a nice, firm ball of cookie dough.
  • Roll into 1″ balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.
  • Bake for 15 minutes at 350° F (177° C).
  • When done, let the cookies cool completely before dusting them.
  • When the cookies have cooled off, mix dusting ingredients in a bowl and toss the cookies 3-4 at a time until thoroughly coated.
  • Serve and enjoy!

Final

Bonus recipe: for a decadent and safe-to-eat raw chocolate cookie dough for the kids—or grown-ups!—, skip the egg and baking powder and thin it out a bit if it’s too dry—with yogurt, cream, coconut/almond milk, or even softened nut butter. Enjoy!