I have been making almond milk for my one year old for the past couple of months. We are dairy free in our household for many reasons (ok, except for the occasional Andy’s treat), one being that almond milk has a TON more calcium than cow milk. I love the fact that you can not only make your own homemade almond milk which is FAR better than even the healthiest store bought kind, but you can also use the pulp that is left to make your own almond flour (or you might see it labeled as almond meal in the store). And it’s all so easy! But the downside is that if you have an almost toddler who drinks as much milk as mine (I say almost because she is ALMOST walking on her own and to me that is when she will no longer be a baby *tear*), you are making it ALL. THE. TIME. And it leaves you with almond flour coming out your ears!!! Thankfully, there are so many awesome recipes these days using almond flour. Many vegan and gluten-free recipes use almond flour so hopefully it won’t be any problem using all this stuff up!
I’ve baked with almond flour before and had amazing results. These Blueberry Almond Meal Muffins are still one of my favorite muffin recipes. When I came across this recipe for almond meal cookies with chocolate chips and coconut, I had to try them and they turned out so good. When I say so good I mean the kind of good that I can probably never make them again because my husband and I ate them in like, two days. All of them. Eeek.
They reminded me of a cross between a super soft, thick graham cracker cookie and an almond joy. I mean…kind of delicious. The ingredients are nutritious and if you can limit yourself to just one or two then you’ve got a perfectly suitable (and in my opinion better) substitution for a run of the mill chocolate chip cookie. So if you’ve never used almond flour before, I definitely recommend starting with this recipe!
Enjoy!
Original recipe here.
P.S. Mine didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as theirs!
- 1¼ c. Almond Meal
- ½ t. Baking Powder
- ¼ t. Salt
- ½ c. Shredded, Unsweetened Coconut
- ⅓ c. Sucanat or Coconut Sugar (I used Sucanat and processed mine in my Vitamix dry attachment until it was finely ground)
- 1 Large Egg
- 3 T. Coconut Oil, melted
- 2 t. Pure Vanilla Extract
- ¼ c. Bittersweet/Dark Chocolate Chips (I would chop them next time for finer pieces..the big chips made it a bit difficult for the cookies to hold together)
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and coconut. In a small bowl whisk together egg, coconut oil and vanilla. Stir wet ingredients into dry until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Shape dough into 1½-inch balls, place on baking sheets and press down slightly with the palm of your hand.
- Bake until edges begin to brown, 7-10 minutes (mine took 8), rotating pans and switching racks halfway through. Let cool completely on wire racks and store in an air-tight container.
