These cookies are outstanding, if we do say so ourselves. They are relatively (slow) low carb as well as gluten, dairy and sugar free. What they have lots and lots of is flavor and an awesome texture: crispy on the outside and gooey chewy on the inside. It’s like you died and went to guilt free cookie heaven.
These cookies have literally been life savers and have helped people successfully get off of gluten (get tested to find out if you need to, because most times the symptoms are not at all obvious). They also have helped clients with sugar addictions kick the sugar to the curb for the first time in 70 years. (Yahoo! You’re never to old!) Traci’s mom couldn’t believe she was eating cookies, losing weight and reversing diabetes in the meantime.
Another client literally credits these cookies (as part of a balanced, nourishing diet) as having a big roll in saving her health. After struggling with sugar addiction all her life, she had raging diabetic wounds that could have led to amputation had they not been reversed. Getting sugar out of her diet played a crucial role in helping her heal. Doctors called it nothing short of a miracle. They also helped her go from full fledged diabetes to not diabetic anymore, not to mention the weight loss, normalized blood sugar and a major decrease in inflammation (read here: terrible pain). You go girl!
Once you have all the ingredients, they are quick and simple to make…
We love using wild sprouted crispy pecans (aka “pecan crack”) that we order from the super nice folks at ThePecanShop.com out of west Texas. We cannot recommend them highly enough. Team all this up with pasture eggs and some good fat like virgin coconut oil (not the kind that gets around) or pasture ghee, and you’ve got at treat that feels naughty but nourishes.
The flour is almond and the sweetener is chicory inulin with the option of adding stevia to make them even sweeter. Adding cinnamon bark oil makes them sweeter still, which is a pretty sweet deal given that cinnamon helps balance blood sugar and tastes like a hug from the most snuggly, adoring grandma. The form of chicory inulin we use is Just Like Sugar Baking, with emphasis on the “baking” one, which is not available where we live, so we order it online.
We are leery of the Just Like Sugar “brown sugar” version. It’s all very subjective opinion here. We don’t like the flavor, we don’t know what the “natural brown sugar flavor” actually is, and, besides the absurd price at our local Whole Foods, we’ve had people report not feeling good after eating it. This is not based on science. It’s based on experience. Again, opinion.
We are also leery of the Just Like Sugar Table Top because it is crystalized, and it seems like every time humans take plant matter and turn it into a crystal, it seems to turn out to be a bad idea (white sugar, crack cocaine, you get the picture). We even feel this way about sugar alcohols. Do you think we’re prejudiced against crystals? Let us clarify. We love friends named Crystal and we like salt because it naturally occurs as a crystal and we like to look at crystalline rock formations of all sorts (you know, the power of the crystal kind). We just don’t like highly processed or synthesized crystals in our food.
This recipe started as chocolate chip cookies with our friend Judith, and then Skya had his way with them. Traci wanted a crunchy, delicious cookie that people with sugar, xylitol and even cacao/ cocoa intolerances can enjoy. We made a cinnamon pecan version, but you can use the base to make any cookie flavor you can imagine. Our friend Nicole has made them into lemon poppyseed, raspberry mac nut, banana walnut and more, so the sky’s the limit. The real challenge is using real ingredients, but that’s not too much of a challenge, because the earth’s bounty is vast and abundant.
Because they are fairly high in good fats and have some protein, these babies are pretty filling and, thus, hard to overeat!
Enjoy and we’d love for you to share your cookie adventures with us! What flavors did you make? Send us pictures if you like!
Cinnamon Pecan Cookies (Gluten, Sugar and Dairy Free)
Ingredients
- 3⁄4 cup virgin unrefined coconut oil (alternatives: pastured butter or ghee)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup Just Like Sugar, Baking variety only! (order online; do NOT use the faux brown sugar one they sell at Whole Foods-tastes terrible and terribly expensive)
- Optional: We like a little 10-15 drops pure liquid stevia (or to taste), but it’s not really necessary.
- 2 eggs, preferably organic and pastured (+ local even better!)
- 2 1⁄2 cups almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups sprouted pecans (you must check out thePecanShop.com)
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon (and/ or any spices you like)
- Optional: 4-6 drops cinnamon bark oil, or to taste (we like Doterra or Young Living brands)
Instructions
- Using a spoon and bowl, mixer or food processor s blade, miix wet then dry ingredients. Mix in pecans.
- The original recipe said to refrigerate dough for stand up cookies otherwise you get flat cookies, but that has not been our experience, so we’ll leave this optional.
- Cook on parchment paper or on well greased sheet. Drop dough by spoonful. Make them smaller than you think, because they really poof up and get bigger when you cook them.
- Bake at 375 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, or until they look done on the bottom. Shorter cook time = crispy on the outside and more gooey in the middle (our fave). Longer = crispier and crunchier through the middle (drier)
- OR, make cookie bits, little marble sized dollops, and bake 8-10 minutes. Makes over 100 bites (careful not to overcook or they will dry out).
- These cookies are fine at room temperature, but are oh so heavenly reheated in a toaster oven at 350 for about 2-3 minutes, or enough to warm them through. They taste fresh baked all over again!
- Time saving tip: They may be made in large batches and frozen, then thawed and reheated.
- Variations: Change the nut. Add coconut flakes or shredded coconut. Add oats and a few raisins, raspberries, blueberries or dried mulberries (mindful of sugars, carbs). Add lemon juice and zest instead, or carob powder or cocoa and mint flavoring. Make the base plain without spices and just vanilla and almond extract (tastes like sugar cookies)—super yum! Make them your own!
“They are relatively (slow) low carb as well as gluten, dairy and sugar free. What they have lots and lots of is flavor and an awesome texture: crispy on the outside and gooey chewy on the inside.” Where did you get this information?
Great question. They are dairy free if you don’t use butter. Sugar free because “Just Like Sugar” is just fiber that doesn’t break down into simpler sugars. The almond flour does contain carbs that turn into sugar, but relatively slowly compared to things like grain-based flour, which contain a lot of starch. The fats and fiber actually slow down your body’s digestion of the carbs, which is why we call it slow/low carb. We find this to be more useful than just saying something is low glycemic or low carb. We got the information on how awesome the texture is by making and eating them. Try it, and let us know if you like them!