Categories: Cookery

Grown up dark chocolate quinoa cookies

I am a cookie person. No better introduction than to just come out and state the truth for what it is. Put a dark chocolate cookie in front of me and wish it goodbye. Better yet, put two dark chocolate cookies in front of me and wish them both goodbye. And if you offer me a cup of tea, you might as well make that three cookies.

Knowing my weakness, I oftentimes find myself fighting off my chocolate cookie cravings because, well…because generally they’re not all that healthy. White flour, white refined sugar and what not, no thank you, not in a cookie, not today, not any day. But yes pretty please to these beautiful babies! Yes to quinoa. Yes to pure, raw, antioxidant loaded cacao powder. Yes to raw cacao butter. Yes to bitter and crunchy cacao nibs that make everything taste better. Double yes to bananas! There’s not a single empty calorie in these cookies, not a single ingredient that is void of nutrients. No no, I made sure these cookies are as delicious and as nourishing as they can be, for purely selfish reasons. I want to enjoy as many as I feel like it and to not feel bad about it after.

Side note. As plans are life’s way of making fun of us, I only got to enjoy one (not a typo, ONE, as in 1, cookie!) from the first batch. And that was only because I rushed towards it, both arms reaching forward, heart pounding, almost shouting ‘save me one’. Hubs was fast to spot them and alas they were just to his liking. All of them freshly baked bittersweet morsels of pure adult pleasure. Thankfully, they’re incredibly easy to make so second batch was in the oven in no time.

These cookies are definitely for the adult palate. They’re only mildly sweetened (feel free to adjust that to your liking) and have a wonderful, light bitter aftertaste from the cacao nibs and the 100% dark chocolate. If you can’t handle 100%, feel free to sweeten that a bit as well or better yet, whip up a batch of raw nutella and smear that all over the cookies. You can be as naughty as you want with raw homemade nutella.

Prep time: 5 mins

Cooking time: approx. 20 mins

Serves: 7

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa flakes
1/3 cup ground linseed
1/3 cup crushed almonds
1 banana, mashed
3 TBSP cacao nibs
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TBSP sweetener of choice (raw honey, pure maple syrup)
Optional: raw chocolate for dipping (recipe here – for 100% dark chocolate simply skip the sweetener and add a bit more cocoa)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 170C and line a tray with baking paper.
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl until you get a sticky dough. Use your hands, get sticky with it, lick the bowl after.
Roll into 6-7 balls and flatten them. Place the cookies in the baking tray and pop it into the oven.
Cook them for anywhere in between 15 to 20 minutes. After the 15 minutes mark, check them. If golden brown, you can take them out.
Allow to cool and enjoy them as is or dip them in chocolate.

Tip: If making chocolate from scratch, make sure you melt the cacao butter over very low heat and temper the chocolate well to make sure it sets at room temperature. These cookies are not that delish if placed in the fridge. Alternatively, take out your favorite chocolate, melt a piece or two (same way you’d melt the cacao butter, slow and low) and dip your cookies in that. Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature.

Note: There’s no way these cookies can be undercooked or still raw, doesn’t matter for how long you bake them. They’re actually good to eat even before oven lovin’ because they’re made with quinoa flakes.

4.5