How can chocolate cookies be healthy!? My goodness … a great question! As far as chocolate cookies go these have major health benefits and taste good!
Why?!
- These cookies are rich in omega 3, a super strong antioxidant and essential fat which has a anti-inflammatory effect on the body. Omega 3 is essential to treating and to preventing diseases like asthma, psoriasis, reumatism and Crohn’s disease. There are so many inflammation based diseases, keeping inflammation down seems to be the key in many cases.
- Omega 3 has great benefits on the blood and blood pressure.
- Omega 3 has also been used to prevent and to heal cataract, osteoporoses, kidney disease, depression, diabetes, Alzheimers and bipolare disorder.
Plantbased sources for omega 3 are,
- flax seeds
- walnuts
- chia and hemp seeds
- rapeseed- and olive oil
- spinach, broccoli and winter squash
- blueberries
- mung-, kidney- and pinto beans
The cookies are not heated so all the nutrients and antioxidants are kept whole.
And we shouldn’t forget about the raw cacao used in this recipe! Cacao powder has an acidic effect on the body but the benefits out weigh this as far as I am concerned. Cacao is a natural anti depressant, it has a wonderful effect on the happy hormones in the body! It is also a very strong antioxidant, rich in minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium. And it tastes so goooood!
En now for the recipe,
ingredients for about 16 cookies, depending on the size,
- 1/2 cup ground flax seeds, always freshly ground
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- 1 Tbsp. coffee replacer like Damdy Blend or instant coffee, optional
- 1 cup walnuts
- 4 Tbsp. melted raw chocolate, 80% or more
- 1/2 cup apricot pure made of 8 dried soaked apricots or 6 dates and blended in 1/2 cup of water, you can also use date paste or another liquid sweetener
- 10 drops of stevia, for a sweeter cookie, to taste
- 1-2 Tbsp. water if needed
- 1/2 bar raw chocolate, melted au bain marie
- 4-8 walnuts and pecans
- 4 Tbsp. dessicated coconut
Add the walnuts to a food processor and chop them fine but don’t let it turn into a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse it until it forms a dough, not too runny, it should stick together. I formed my cookies with a cookie press/squirt, so my dough had to be a little thinner so I could press it through. You can also make a roll and cut them into slices. If you use the second method, it works better when the roll is placed in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. These cookies can be eaten as it is, after cooling it becomes firmer but it will be a more fudge like texture. Dehydrated the cookies are more chewy/crunchy.
I have tried a few shapes, played around, also added some walnuts and pecans. I dehydrated the cookies to get a more baked texture. It takes about 16 hours, turn once half way through. Dehydrated they get have a longer shelf life, depending on how dry you let them be, between one to several weeks.
To make the dip melt the chocolate au bain-marie and dip the cookies, dried or raw. You can also double dip in desiccated coconut or chopped nuts when the chocolate is still soft. .
The square cookies were filled with fresh raspberry “jam” and J. took them to work as a snack.
These chocolate cookies taste delish with with ice cream or with a sweet smoothie! I used the leftover, if you have any, melted chocolate and covered some brazil nuts and almond with it. Great snack!
These cookies taste sooooo good and are very chocolatey … I’m thinking of filling them with ice cream …. or one with some kind of soft cream filling … I’ll follow up on this!
Have a wonderful day and thank you for reading,
Tina xo
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