Tag Archives: honey

Macadamia-Chocolate Paleo Cookies

 

Ready for something different in a Paleo Cookie? How does the combination of macadamia nuts, chocolate, and cinnamon sound? Yes, it is delicious and these Macadamia-Chocolate Paleo cookies are delicious proof!

Macadamia Butter Goodness

Rich and chocolaty with a hint of macadamia nut sweetness and cinnamon spice, these cookies from Nikki Young’s Paleo Sweets are easy to make and incredible to eat.  I have gone on and on before about almond butter being the key to great Paleo cookies in other recipes, but my eyes have certainly been opened up to macadamia nut butter and other nut butters after reading and using Paleo Sweets.  The smell of these cookies baking is amazing, and the taste is fantastic.

Recipe: Macadamia-Chocolate Paleo Cookies
Makes 14-16 cookies

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 325F.
  2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
  3. Roll the cookie dough between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness slightly less than 1/4″. Use a cookie cutter or knife to make cookies and re-roll the dough as necessary to use all of it.
  4. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place cookies with an inch space in between. Bake for 8-10 minutes and allow to cool before serving.

Paleo Cookie Cooking Tips

All ovens cook a little differently.  You will have to watch these cookies as they cook to ensure that they do not get over done or burn.  Since this recipe doesn’t use eggs, I leave these cookies slightly on the under-done side of the baking time.  You want to bake them just long enough to hold together after they have cooled, so adjust your baking time accordingly.  Allowing them to cool in the refrigerator isn’t necessary, but store them cold so that they keep for several days.

Keep in mind that these are cookies made with Paleo ingredients.  You are using the macadamia nut butter and honey to bind the cookie together.  The cookies will retain the size and shape that you make them before they go in the oven.

A General Word About All Paleo Cookies

Since first publishing this recipe, I received one scathing comment about how bad this recipe is.  This person did not explain in detail why these cookies were so terrible to him/her, but they were clearly upset about the results.  I feel that I should state that I have made this recipe 3 times and with the exception of the first try (where I over-cooked them) they have have been absolutely delicious.

If you are new to Paleo cooking, and particularly Paleo baked goods or desserts, you have to realize that no Paleo or Primal cookie recipe is going to taste like it was made by the Keebler elves.  If you ate an Oreo yesterday and eat a Paleo cookie today while expecting a similar taste, you will be disappointed.

There is no white sugar or high fructose corn syrup in these recipes.  It may take some time for your palette to become accustomed to the very subtle sweetness found in most of these recipes.  If you really feel that you need more sweetness I suggest that you try adding another sweetener like Stevia, maple sugar, or Sugar in the Raw, but please give this recipe a shot as-is first.

Paleo Sweets

SInce buying Paleo Sweets about a month ago I have made a half dozen recipes from the book.  This is only 1 of 17 cookie recipes in the book.  I wanted to spend some time baking some of the recipes before making a recommendation.  This is the only dedicated Paleo dessert cookbook that I have found and it is well worth picking up.  With 82 Paleo dessert recipes, a full complement of nut butter recipes, and 17 great Paleo cookie recipes, I highly recommend that you check out: Paleo Sweets by Nikki Young

 

Natural Sweeteners and Paleo Cookies

Fruit is an obvious choice for sweetening Paleo baked goods and desserts. That’s fine for fruit-based cookies and that are supposed to have a fruity overtone, but I just can’t appreciate fruit flavor in something like a nutty or chocolaty snack.  For that reason, I’m going to break down some of the readily available “natural” sweeteners.  I will let you decide how Paleo each of the sweeteners listed is.  Note that I am not including honey or maple syrup (although I wouldn’t hesitate to use either in a non-fruit-based cookie recipe).  I’m only including sweeteners that tend to be flavor-neutral for this post.

Agave Nectar

Sweeter and thinner than honey, agave nectar comes in a variety of grades from light to dark amber (similar to maple syrup).  Yes, agave is the same plant used for making tequila.  For those who don’t know, distilling spirits relies on the breakdown of sugars.  Organic bases (mash) with high sugar content makes for easy alcohol production.

Agave nectar is sweeter than cane sugar with about the same number of calories.  The good news is that you may use less agave nectar to get the equivalent sweetness of sugar and it typically has a lower glycemic index and glycemic load as well.  A downside to keep in mind is that some agave species used to make agave nectar contain steroids with contraceptive effects that could lead to miscarriage.  Pregnant women or women trying to conceive may want to avoid it.

Stevia

I can’t hear the word Stevia without thinking about the funny story of extreme Stevia abuse that Tim Ferriss tells in his book, The 4-Hour Workweek.  If you want to know how not to make a dessert with Stevia (and more about minimalist living and lifestyle design) I recommend checking out Ferriss’ books: The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman and The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.

Anyway.  Stevia is a plant based extract.  It is 300 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories.  You need very little Stevia to add sweetness.  On the downside, it tends to have a strange aftertaste and it’s also a very new product (well it’s been around for years but the heavy mass marketing of it is new).  If it has any major negative medical drawbacks, they are still pretty much unknown.

Sucanat

Sucanat or is a silly brand name for what is basically minimally processed raw cane sugar. Su – sugar, ca – cane, nat – natural.  Sugar In The Raw is another brand name for a similar product.

I traveled to China a few years ago and you could buy sugar cane stalks on the street to chew on.  That’s as raw as it gets and I think it’s a great flavor.  Raw sugar cane contains the molasses normally extracted to produce white table sugar.  So expect that molasses flavor similar to brown sugar.  Treat it like processed sugar measure for measure and note that it contains the same calories and poses the same health risks like tooth decay and blood sugar spikes.

In A Nutshell

I have a cookie recipe that I plan to make two ways.  One with maple syrup and one with agave nectar.  This will be kind of a head to head comparison of two natural sweeteners.  I’ll post the results when I am done.  Stay tuned.

-Chris

Sources: Grist, In The Raw, and Amazon