Healthier Chocolate Chip cookies

I am amidst my 21 day challenge and since I just started after a long month of Christmas cookie eating I am still craving chocolate and sweet. Alex decided to put on her new apron (birthday present) and I decided to look up a new recipe. We made 21 day fix friendly chocolate chip (healthier) cookies inspired by Chelsea's Messy Apron.

 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup oat flour regular (oats blended in a blender)
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats  
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Pinch of Himalayan sea salt
• 1 ½  teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar lightly packed
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Take regular old fashioned oats or quick oats and blend them until they resemble a flour or powder in a blender or food processor.
2. If you don't have quick oats, pulse old fashioned oats a few times in a blender or food processor until they resemble quick oats.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the oat flour (measured after blending NOT before), old-fashioned oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
4. In another bowl, stir together the vanilla extract, large egg, and brown sugar. Melt the coconut oil and let it cool slightly before adding to the bowl (Make sure to measure the coconut oil in it's liquid state). Stir until well combined.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in the dark chocolate chips.
6. Cover the dough tightly and chill the dough for 30 minutes to an hour or until the dough has hardened enough to scoop out cookie balls. (If you chill longer than a day, let the dough sit out for 15 or so minutes so you are able to scoop it into balls). If you don't chill your dough these cookies will be flatter than a pancake! The coconut oil needs a little bit of time in the fridge to firm up again.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Using a cookie scoop (and pack these in the scoop very tightly or they may crumble), scoop out balls of the dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips in the tops if desired.
9. Depending on the size, bake for 7-9 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges. They may look a little underdone in the center, but they are the very best slightly under-baked and they will harden after cooling.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to stay on the baking sheet for another 2 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack.

 

My cookie scoop is about 1 inch in diameter. These firmly packed little balls turned into cookies about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. To make them fit into the 21 day fix program I allowed myself 3 of these little cookies for 1 yellow container and also a teaspoon of oil.

"Healthy" Brownies

If you are having a sweet craving, but don't want to give into it, these healthy brownies will do the trick. They are moist, sweet but not too sweet, and chocolatey! I try to make them as guilt free as possible!

Ingredients

1/3 cup Coconut Flour (or experiment with other Gluten Free Flour Substitute)

1/3 cup Cocoa Powder

1/3 cup Pure Pumpkin Puree

1/4 cup Coconut Oil

2 tsp Pure Vanilla

4 eggs

1/2 cup Pure Maple Syrup

¼ cup of dark chocolate morsels

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Combine coconut flour and cocoa powder
3. Whisk in the pumpkin, coconut oil, eggs, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Blend well.
4. Pour batter into a 9 x 9 greased pan.
5. Sprinkle a handful of dark chocolate morsels on top before putting in the oven. Bake for 28-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let cool completely before removing from pan

Café Laufer

In the town of Kaimuki is a wonderful little German bakery by the name of Cafe Laufer. A few friends and I enjoyed a lovely lunch and desert for Paulette's birthday. I had salmon locks and fresh rye bread for lunch. Paulette enjoyed a lovely shrimp salad. So many delicious cakes, pies, tarts to choose from. We chose 4 to split between us, an Apple Streusel, Banana Oreo Cake, Chocolate Decadence, and a Coconut cake. My favorite by far was the Banana Oreo cake.