Paleo(ish) Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on | January 9, 2009 | 20 Comments

So posting a recipe for me is a first. Lately, this site has been going in a completely different direction that what I had originally intended for it to go when I started it. My initial thinking was that it would become a community supported collection of “idiots at the gym” postings and stories. Hence the domain name, “fitnessfail”. The more I tried to go down that road, the less it felt right. While I’m sure that the more out there examples of “the fail” will still be a feature here, it just felt a little too small minded to mock the misguided, rather than trying to put something useful out there. I won’t speak for the other people who write for this site though, they’re still free (and encouraged) to be as sophomoric as they like, provided it’s entertaining.

Anyway, I’ve become a fan of eating Paleo-ish. I do have some trouble getting sufficient calories for my training volume in, but my performance has improved, as have my blood lipid profiles. The “ish” is because I think a lot of people miss the spirit of it and become dogmatic. This isn’t for me. I don’t eat grains or legumes with any regularity – but the occasional piece of pizza isn’t going to kill me. Likewise I kind of get a kick out of people obsessing over whether the milk they put in their coffee “is paleo”. I personally don’t care and I might venture that the zealots are missing the big picture. In my opinion, if a few tablespoons of milk is the worse thing I’m putting in my body, I’m doing pretty damn good.

I put Splenda in my coffee too. Feel free to clasp your hands over your ears and run from the room screaming if you like now.

That said, recently my girlfriend and I spent a week ice climbing in upstate New York. We wanted to cook ahead of time to save money, and have food that we actually enjoyed. Here is one of the recipes we used, this is one of my favorites, I can barely tell that the cookies aren’t made with flour. The original sources of these recipes are long since lost to me. If anyone knows of them, I’d love to contact the authors to let them know I’ve used their work here, and give them proper credit for their creations.

Paleo(ish) Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almond meal/almond flour
¼ cup chocolate chips
¼ cup granulated splenda (you could use honey, or sugar if you have a serious problem with artificial sweeteners)
½ tsp baking soda
1 egg

Directions:

Mix the dry ingredients (Almond meal, chips, splenda/sugar)
Add all other ingredients and mix throughly.
Use the mixture to form small “dough balls” on a greased baking sheet. Use around 1 large kitchen spoon (1tbsp or so) for each one. The batch should make around 15. Obviously if you make the individual cookies too big, they won’t cook correctly.
Bake at 350F (preheated) for about ten minutes, until they start to brown well. They won’t look like they’re done. Touch them with you finger to check if they have hardened. It will be obvious (by touch) when they’re done.
Eat. (cooling optional)

When made using Splenda, these are around 70 calories each, mostly as fat from the almond meal. They’re also really good frozen.

Tweaks and feedback are welcome if any of you guys decide to try this. I’d also like to know if you want to see more recipes on here, of if there is already a glut of blog sites providing them.

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Comments

20 Responses to “Paleo(ish) Chocolate Chip Cookies”

Tom Parker - Free Fitness Tips
January 10th, 2009 @ 1:57 pm

I’ve read about almond meal being quite a good flour substitute on a number of fitness blogs now. I will have to get myself some.
Amy
January 10th, 2009 @ 9:45 pm

I’d not even use any sugar at all, just let the chocolate chips be the sweet part, or use dried fruit instead of chocolate chips. I’m with you for not being dogmatic about any dietary approach.
Wed WOD - Sprint 400M, This Is CrossFit Addiction | crossfitaddiction.com
April 7th, 2009 @ 8:07 pm

[...] Paleo Cookie recipe [...]
Haley
April 8th, 2009 @ 6:45 am

Great recipe. I made it with raw honey and 62% dark chocolate chips. Even non-paleoers were impressed. Thanks for sharing.
Nik H
November 11th, 2009 @ 1:22 am

Hey mug,
You can try our Paleo Treats. I won’t guarantee they’ll be cheaper than $1.40 ea (they aren’t), but they are damnably delicious and you don’t have to fuss with making them. All organic all paleo ingredients. Pre-packaged, mega-awesome, and delivered to your door with 3 day shipping. Pretty rad.
Cheers,
NFH
Georgia
April 23rd, 2010 @ 1:12 pm

I just made these with raisins instead of chocolate chips. They are delicious and I can’t wait to have my one-year-old try them. What a great way to get good nutrition into him. I have two comments/questions:
1. Any tips for making the balls without getting the dough all stuck to your hands? I think I lost out on a couple of cookies just with the stuff sticking to me instead of the balls.
2. Do you flatten them first? I’m okay with little “balls” instead of cookies, but some people may find that a tip-off that these are “healthy cookies”!!
cmason
April 23rd, 2010 @ 8:23 pm

Georgia –

glad you liked them.

I usually scrap them onto the backing sheet with a spoon and a fork. It sticks a little bit, but keeps them from making quite as much of a mess. Scoop out a spoon full then scrape it off with a fork, it helps keep them all the same size as well.
I usually do try to flatten them a bit, as you said, you don’t want them to seem “too healthy”
Gypsy
June 3rd, 2010 @ 9:11 pm

These were delicious. I added a little sea salt just to make it more traditional and used a custom blend of non-bitter stevia/erythritol as the sugar, so the only sugar was in the chips. 15 and 6 yr old ate them up! I’m also just realizing there was no type of oil/butter called for. I wonder what if that would spread them out more or make them less ‘bready?’ Thanks for posting.
Lindsay
June 8th, 2010 @ 12:53 am

The original post for this recipe came from Clearlake Crossfit

http://clearlakecf.squarespace.com/recipes-zone-and-paleo/post/970243
cmason
June 8th, 2010 @ 6:32 am

Thanks! I think I stumbled onto it somewhere else – since I’ve never been to that site before. It appears this recipe has been rather widely disseminated then. I’ll shoot them an email and see if they came up with it originally, or if they know the source.
Laura
July 31st, 2010 @ 8:59 pm

I just made these with 2 Tbsp honey as the sweetener, substituted a mixture of dried cranberries and raisins for the chocolate chips, and added 1 Tbsp of coconut oil. I melted the coconut oil and honey together first for ease of mixing. I also added a little sea salt.

They turned out lovely, very cookie-like; the addition of solid fat is what makes a cookie more “bread”-like, I think.

Having tasted it, I would spice it a little with cinnamon/nutmeg perhaps, to make an oatmeal-raisin-like cookie, or add a little orange peel to bring out the cranberry note. If you just leave in the chocolate chips I think you’ll get a pretty authentic chocolate-chip cookie with the other mods I made.
TIffany
February 8th, 2011 @ 4:05 pm

I used natural unsweetned cocoa (about 3-4 tbsp) and added chopped pecans (I didn’t have chocolate chips in the house to use). They came out DELICIOUS! Thanks for the recipe!
Angel
March 3rd, 2011 @ 2:07 pm

I made these last night and they are delicious and can be entirely paleo with a couple easy swaps. I used coconut sugar for sweetener, and non dairy no sugar added carob chips from whole foods. They tasted almost like store bought cookies, but were also a slightly bready. Any tips on that?
cmason
March 3rd, 2011 @ 11:34 pm

Glad you liked them Angel. I’m afraid I don’t have any suggestions on the bready taste – that was actually something I always liked about them.
Leigh Garcia
March 10th, 2011 @ 9:28 pm

I just made these cookies tonight (but used stevia instead of splenda). They’re DELICIOUS– my family devoured the entire batch within minutes! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Ana
April 1st, 2011 @ 3:38 pm

I usually mix flours when baking, like almond meal and coconut flour. Slightly less paleo but good in moderation are sweet potato flour and tapioca flour. This should help with the “breadiness.” Coconut oil(about 1 tbs) or applesauce(2-3 tbs) work well to get the cookie texture as well. I have a similar recipe I use and it’s well-loved by paleo and non-paleo eaters alike.
Nico
April 4th, 2011 @ 7:11 pm

I am makin thee right now on a wim. I’ll update with how they turn out! Im really excited!
Nico
April 4th, 2011 @ 8:08 pm

They turned out to be pretty damn epic. They didnt look perfect, but its not about look. Its how they taste and boy were they delish! Thanks for the recipe!
cmason
April 4th, 2011 @ 8:24 pm

Glad you liked them Nico.
I agree, the don’t look terribly appetizing – more like little blobs. But they taste amazing.
addie
May 4th, 2011 @ 6:32 pm

stumbled upon organic coconut sugar at a store here sold in bulk. It has a low glycemic index. For a treat, I would suggest substituting the sweetener with this. Comes from the flower on the plant, not the coconut itself.