Dec 18, 2013
Peppermint Chocolate Chunk Cookies + a Secret Ingredient!
12 Days of Christmas Cookies: Day 10
This recipe may sound REALLY strange to you because of the secret ingredient. Truth is, I was going for something that would tinge my cookies a slight green color in keeping with a holiday peppermint cookie (I don’t use artificial food color). When I finished making the batter, I looked at it and said… “No.” It was a sickening pea soup green color. I was so disheartened, but I made a test cookie anyway. And then something magical happened in the oven. It turned a beautiful light green after it was baked! But it wasn’t sweet enough. So I had to add more maple syrup and thus more flour. In the end, it wasn’t green at all, and after all that work. If you look very closely at some of the photos you can see just a hint of color. But I’m leaving the secret ingredient in for now anyway. It adds a little natural sweetness and more nutrients…
UPDATE! See addition at the bottom of this post…
Ingredients:
~ dry
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- 2 TBS tapioca flour
- 2 tsp ground chia seeds
- ½ cup potato starch or sorghum flour
~ wet
- ½ cup frozen green peas, thawed and rinsed
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 TBS raw cashew butter
- 1 TBS pure peppermint extract
~ other
- 1 3-4 oz. vegan chocolate bar (which makes about 1 cup of chopped chunks). I used a very dark chocolate which had almost no sweetness but was a perfect counterpart to the peppermint flavor.
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a sharp knife, chop up the chocolate bar into small pieces. You will wind up with lots of different sizes as the chocolate breaks. That’s okay. Make sure there are no pieces that are larger than a standard sized chocolate chip.
- Place the cashews into a food processor and whirl until you have a course flour.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and pulse to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients and process until the mixture comes together in a ball.
- Transfer to a bowl and stir in the chocolate chunks. The mixture will be very sticky.
- Using a small ice cream scoop (about 1.5″ in diameter), drop the dough onto the cookie sheet.
- Press each cookie down with moist fingers to about 2″ in diameter.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Let cool and serve.
UPDATE! One of my amazing readers sent me a message today telling me she made these cookies using kale instead of peas! Since kale is darker than peas, they turned out beautifully! She used 1 cup of frozen baby kale, which turned into about a half cup thawed. Way to go, Jeanne! Here are her before and after baking photos that she kindly sent me … aren’t they gorgeous?!
Healthy cookie trails,
7 responses to “Peppermint Chocolate Chunk Cookies + a Secret Ingredient!”
Leave a Reply
Hello and welcome to my plant-based kitchen! I look forward to sharing many scrumptious and nourishing recipes with you as well as some evidence-based nutritional information. If you see a recipe you like, please share it! Your comments are always welcome.
I do see little hints of green! What a creative recipe. Are you about cookied out?
Haha! Yes, Tami… I was cookies out a couple of days ago! :))
I meant "cookied" See what I mean? 😀
So pretty! And I am a sucker for anything mint and chocolate… Cookie overdose ahead 🙂
Thanks Marie! These are definitely one of my fav's from the 12 days. Great texture and flavor. Enjoy!! 🙂
can i use fresh kale and spinach? if so how much? also, do i have to use all those different flours? i have almond and cashew flours. can i just use those?
Yes, Revi, you can use kale or spinach. 1/2 cup chopped. On the flours… if you just use almond/cashew the consistency will be very different. Those other flours are what give the cookies their texture, which is crunchy. If you don't mind a soft, chewy version then they probably would work fine. Hope this helps!