Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Christmas always means treats lurking at every corner, cookies, cakes, squares and pies. It’s like all of a sudden everyone wants to get fat and they want you to come along for the ride. So being the health nut that I am, I “try” to make my go to dessert options with a cow crumbs twist; gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free but still delicious.

But keeping things healthy AND delicious takes you having to walk a fine line between delicious and ewwwwwww, and for some reason I can’t seem to wrap my brain around sweets made with beans, and believe me I’ve tried. Sadly all of my attempts have been epic fails, and if i’n being honest they kind of makes me want to…

So I ask you this… Is it wrong that I want to leave beans where they belong, which is out of my brownies???

There was a time not too long ago where I jumped on the bean brownie bandwagon when all I really wanted to eat was baked goods like Nanaimo bars and short bread cookies covered in icing and cherries. BRING ON THE SUGAR PLUM FAIRIES!!!

But my stupid fairies were doing pirouettes with boring beans. And Christmas is a time for giving, and who wants to give someone bean filled treats? Seems like a cruel joke if you ask me.

So this year if you’re going to make someone an edible gift maybe skip the beans and make some of my chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies instead. I promise all the plates will be licked clean, and Santa will NOT put you on his naughty list.

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. flaxseeds ground + 2.5 tbsp. water
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup almond butter
4 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup coconut oil melted
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup AP GF flour
1/3 cup dark chocolate

Measurement 2 tbsp per cookie
Makes 16 cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

First up lets get your flax egg going cause that will need to sit for a minute or two, in a small bowl mix your ground flax and water and set aside.

In a large bowl combine all of your wet ingredients along with your spices and mix well. In another bowl mix up your dry ingredients and your dark chocolate. Once your flax egg starts to get thick mix that into your wet ingredients and then combine the two bowls together.

Now I’m not going to lie this cookie dough is like a booby trap for your hands, just when you thought things could not get stickier I have found a way, so the less you touch it the better. It’s kind of like a science experiment because it stuck to my hands but oddly enough slide right off of my measuring spoon… Oh science.

I found it helped when I put the dough into the freezer for about 10 minutes before trying to shape the cookies.

So once out of the freezer measure out 2 tbsp of dough for each cookie and press down ever so slightly, I split them evenly between 2 sheets because they will spread out a bit.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes and allow to cool completely.