At some point in my Autoimmune journey, I realized that what I ate (or didn’t eat) was directly linked to how I felt. Gluten and sugar were the top offenders, and as good as I felt when I didn’t eat them, the temptation of consuming a warm chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven did me in EVERY SINGLE TIME! And then I would feel like crap for 24-48 hours after. I had to figure out a way to resist the temptation of cheating. It wasn’t worth it. I knew it wasn’t worth it, but I had no willpower in the moment, and then I would always spend the next 2 days in pain and regret.
I was talking with my Aunt Sheryl about this very issue one day, and she said, “I might be able to come up with something that would be a great substitute!” I thanked her and got off of the phone with very little expectation that anything yummy would result. I had tried all of the “healthy/diet” cookies and they all tasted, well… They just weren’t GOOD! They all tasted like compromise.
Two weeks later, she stopped by my house on her way through town and she brought me the container that in hind sight, that started something fantastic. She had been playing with some ideas since we had talked and brought some cookie dough for us to bake up. My expectations were low, but the dough on it’s own tasted pretty good, so I pulled out the baking pans and preheated the oven.
As they baked, they smelled so good!
When they came out of the oven, they LOOKED good!
When they were cool enough to taste… HOLY CRAP! They tasted like a GOOD cookie!!!
We then started pulling out all of the ingredients, made another batch with a few more tweaks, and those were even better!
It’s hard to explain how impactful having a really good substitution for a food that has so many emotions, events and memories associated with it is. When you are staring down the future, knowing that you will likely never be able to eat that food again, without it causing serious physical consequences is HARD. As my Aunt and I talked about all of this in my kitchen, with a glass of milk in one hand and a freshly baked cookie in the other, more ideas started coming and at some point in the next months, we knew we wanted to share these recipes with the world.
Why? Because it’s more than a cookie. It’s memories. It’s the ability to feel good without having to feel like I am missing out. It’s healthier. It’s freedom from pain.
This is the cookie that started it all. Someday we will be publishing a cook book full of recipes that support healthier choices that don’t taste like compromise.
Please let me know what you think in the comments! We are always tweaking and trying new things and we would love your feedback. <3
Happy baking!
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Jenni’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar free dark chocolate chips
1 cup freshly ground almond butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp coarse sea salt
1 large egg
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine all ingredients together, mix them well, and then refrigerate until cold.
- Place cookie balls (1.5 – 2 tbs) on to parchment lined baking pan 2 inches apart.
- Bake at 350 for 11-14 minutes
Tips
- This cookie dough stores very well in the fridge! I have personally kept mine refrigerated for up to 2 weeks and the cookies still baked up perfectly.
- Once the cookies are baked, they are still wonderful after they have been frozen.
- Because this cookie dough doesn’t have any gluten in it, and we have found that the better it is blended, the better the cookies turn out. Don’t worry about over stirring the batter.
- The color of the cookies once baked will be slightly darker than a traditional cookie.
- You can substitute the almond butter with the pre-ground off the shelf, but the texture of the cookies will be slightly different.
