Almond and Chocolate Chip Cookies

If I told you these cookies were dairy-free, paleo-approved, gluten-free and refined sugar free, would you believe me? (Don’t worry, they’re still made of food! lol.) Honestly, I’m having a pretty hard time believing it myself as I munch on one now.

Baking in my house sometimes poses a challenge. My mom follows the paleo diet, which discourages consumption of refined sugar and grains, among other limitations (click here to read more about the paleo diet and my conclusions regarding following it in college). Generally, I too try to limit my intake of processed white sugar, so I’m used to modifying recipes to include natural sweeteners, such as honey or maple syrup, in its place. However, not being able to use whole-wheat flour – an ingredient I have no issue with if consumed in moderate quantities – usually requires a bit more creativity.

So, once I found a recipe that met the paleo guidelines (and actually tasted like a cookie!) I decided it was a keeper. I’ve tried many other gluten-free cookie recipes, and I can confidently say that this one is my absolute favorite (my mom agrees 🙂 ). Many of the recipes we’ve tried in the past have either tasted absolutely disgusting or have lead to hard-to-work-with dough that fell apart in our hands or stuck to the spatula. I’m definitely glad the days of searching for a decent recipe are over. Please, for your convenience (and the sake of your tastebuds!), just trust me that these are the best gluten-free cookies and spare yourself! I don’t even miss whole-wheat flour when I’m eating these.

These cookies are simple, delicious, super easy to make (even for lazy and tired college students!) and really filling. They’re such crowd-pleasers that once when I brought them when we were invited to friends for dinner, they were gone well before the main dessert was! I think everyone around the table had at least two (#goals). Also, these cookies just so happen to be kosher for Passover, which is an added bonus to file away for later (I’ll remind you of that useful tidbit of information at a more relevant time, not to worry). Somehow, these delicious cookies are free of basically everything except nuts. If you’re allergic to almonds, I suggest you stop reading before you have an allergic reaction (maybe try my banana muffins instead? So sorry 🙁 ).

This recipe was inspired by the recipe on the back of the Bob’s Red Mill almond flour package.

I modified the original recipe a bit so that it’s easier and faster to make (I can be rebellious like that 😛 ). Though I love baking, as a college student that barely has time to manage her own life, I certainly do not want to spend unnecessary time in the kitchen separating egg whites from yellows or toasting almonds, which were two steps the original recipe called for. I also threw in some cinnamon (feeling so BA for breaking all these rules 😮 )because what baked good is complete without it? Cinnamon has become my not-so-secret ingredient for many recipes (in case you haven’t picked up on that already 😉 ). If you dislike cinnamon, these cookies will still taste perfectly fine without it, so don’t worry if you decide to leave it out (but seriously, how could anyone dislike cinnamon?).

Without further adieu, here is one of my favorite recipes 🙂 .

Happy baking!
<3 Dena

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