Craziness.
When I made cupcakes the other day, Pre-Husband was all about the chocolate ones. But he wanted to eat them without my sloppy raspberry topping because he apparently doesn’t like “chocolate with fruit.”
WHAT?!
This was coming from the man who happily eats literally everything. Affectionately referred to in my home as the “human garbage disposal.”
Like, you don’t think chocolate-covered strawberries are good?
“Well, I guess I’d eat that.”
You guess?! These are things I need to know about you before we wed in three months! Who doesn’t like chocolate-covered strawberries? Or, or raspberries? Are you crazy or something?
“No, I… I just like them this way because they taste like brownies.”
Slightly more acceptable. But, you’re turning my cupcakes into brownie muffins and totally messing with my whole scheme here.
Oh, well… why don’t I just make you brownie treats that are fruit-free? Like, well, brownies. Or cookies?!
“COOKIES!”
Cookies it was. Brownie cookies. With no added fruit to offend the taste of my future intended.
Brownie Cookies: Grain-free, Sugar-free, Fruit-free.
These are not very sweet-tasting cookies. And it’s probably not the most kid-friendly recipe. The cacao nibs are a little intense as well. I no longer despise them like I did eating them out of the bag, but the bitter crunch is still a little shocking to me, even in the cookies. But if you really dig dark chocolate and the taste of cacao, you’ll probably love it.
You’ll need:
- Large mixing bowl
- Stand or hand mixer, or stick blender
- Baking sheet
- Unbleached parchment paper or silicone baking mat
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 small banana
- 1/2 cup fat (softened butter, ghee, coconut oil)
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon real salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon organic coffee (like, already made to drink. Not coffee grounds.)
- 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup cacao nibs
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
Instructions
Beat the eggs. A LOT. My new trick is using a stick blender for this. When you’re baking without baking soda, you want to make sure you fluff up the eggs as much as you can.
Then, use that stick blender to mix in the banana til it’s smoothly blended with the eggs. I almost always add in a banana to any baked goodie I’m making with coconut flour, since it helps to add back in moisture. Coconut flour is very drying in most recipes.
Add in the fat, honey, salt, vanilla, coffee (I learned recently that coffee brings out the flavor of chocolate really nicely, and if you just use a little, it doesn’t taste like coffee), cocoa powder, and cacao nibs. Blend until it’s smooth.
Then, slowly mix in the coconut flour, allowing it to “settle” in the mixture as you go. You may need more or less than 1/2 a cup. But for this recipe, I was aiming for more of a batter-like consistency than a dough-like one, since all my attempts at coconut flour cookies have shown me that they do not rise, spread, or otherwise change shape in the oven hardly at all. I don’t want ball-shaped cookies. I want flatter, cookie-shaped cookies. So I make the “dough” thinner for cookies like this.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Check the bottoms to see if they’ve turned a little darker in color. Hard to see from the top since everything is brown!
So, are you on Team Brownie or Team Chocolate With Fruit?
Because I think these would have been better with a thumbprint full of raspberry jam. Don’t you?
[disclosure: cmp.ly/5]
Oh I would happily eat these, but I would NEVER request chocolate sans fruit! I think the dollop of raspberry (or strawberry) jam is perfect!
These look interesting. I prefer my chocolate without fruit.
I think these would be good with dried cranberries or cherries too!!! I can’t wait to try this recipe!!!!! Thanks, Emily!!
Team Chocolate. Fruit is yummy on its own. Or with vanilla. But not chocolate. Not even too much of team chocolate fan. LOVE vanilla.
Team chocolate with fruit. Dark chocolate and raspberry is my absolute favorite.
Team chocolate with fruit! I don’t like chocolate alone very much, but chocolate dipped strawberries are to die for. Even better is orange with chocolate!
Looks good! Although, a banana is technically a fruit!
yum!! i’d have to agree with you on the added fruit. looks great!!! 🙂
i wanted to comment on your about me page and say your life sounds awesome!! especially your “off the grid house” thats way too cool! 😀
looking forward to reading!!!
Team chocolate, but considering switching… you say that these aren’t that sweet, nor kid friendly, which makes me concerned that I’ll make them and they’ll sit untouched for days… only to get moldly and end up being a waste of my precious ingredients.
So for this particular recipe, I’ll switch teams. Consider yourself lucky!! 😉
Yep. same here. Like Fruit & Like Dark Chocolate. Just NOT togather. So……. Team Brownie for me. 😀 yea !
I’m team Choco-Fruit….but I pledge an even greater allegiance to team Choco-Nut!! :.D
Oh my husband would join you on that team! Haha.
We have been on GAPS for over a year. I have started to allow my 8 year old daughter to try some cacao nibs. She LOVES them and I have to really limit them. She has been eating a little pinch or two plain to make sure she didn’t react to them. Now that I know she is ok with them AND that she likes them, I used them on a baked good this week. I made banana coconut flour mini muffins that I added some blueberries and cranberries to the mix and then I topped the mini muffins with a sprinkle of nibs. Next week, for something extra special for New Year’s Eve, we are going to have our first actual chocolate desserts with cacao powder being used. These cookies look fantastic and can’t wait to try, although will probably cut the honey to 1 to 2 Tablespoons. The banana will make them more than sweet enough. Also, if you want some crunch, but don’t care for the nibs, you could probably sub in chopped walnuts.