Want to bake a cookie, but tired of your usual oatmeal or chocolate chip?

Come with me…

Today we are going outside your cookie comfort zone. And I promise deliciousness.

The spicy hint of ginger and the rich chocolate create this chocolate-ginger cookie. And these are naturally grain-free, scoring double points in my book!

This recipe is inspired by my new favorite baking book, Flourless: Recipes for Naturally Gluten-Free Desserts. It’s a baking book I’ve sat and read, cover to cover.

These cookies are proof that flourless baking should be embraced.

Sure, people may be going outside their comfort zone when avoiding recipes that call for all-purpose or wheat flour. But, there are so many grain-free options that are just good as flour…and may even taste better than if you used regular flour.

Here, we are embracing almond flour.

You can buy almond meal/flour or make you own. If I don’t have almond flour on hand, I just blend a big handful of raw almonds in a food processor until it becomes a flour-like consistency. Then. Voila. It’s almond flour.

Enjoy!

Chocolate-Ginger Snaps {grain-free}
Adapted from “Flourless”
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
4 oz. very good quality bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
½ cup ground almonds
¼ unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp sugar (to roll dough balls in)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the almond flour: blend a large handful of almonds and blend in a food processor until it becomes a coarse flour.
- In a mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the melted and cooled chocolate.
- In another bowl, whisk together ground almonds, cocoa powder, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture and fold in until it is all combined.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate about 20-30 minutes, or until the dough is firm enough to roll into balls.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop dough balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place on cookie sheet and using a fork, flatten balls using a cross-hatch pattern. I like to sprinkle on bit of raw sugar before baking.
- Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are slightly firm. Take out and let cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container all week. Or freeze for a month or two.

Make a cookie people won’t expect. And then keep coming back for more.