Keto Cookies = Happiness February 07 2018, 0 Comments

Is "Cookieness" a word? It should be. The happiness one derives from making and eating (snarfing down?) cookies. Cookieness. You're welcome. I frequently follow a way of eating that loosely looks like a lazy Keto or a paleo style diet. I don't care much about the terms, and each has legions of lovers and haters. Suffice it to say, drastically reducing simple carbs has its merits if it's done mindfully. A stricter version of Keto would not include these nummy treats, but if you're not currently aiming for the low end (20 grams of carbs per day) but if low carb is 30-50 grams for you, these can fit! Sadly, all my go to cookie recipes are a NO GO.  Happily, I found scads of interesting ways to put together a tasty cookie on Pinterest. OH HOW I LOVE PINTEREST, Click if you'd like to visit my Keto Resources board. The Chocolate Chip Cookie with coconut flour is a perfect recipe for modifying, which is cool, because I seldom follow anything to the letter, and I eyeball ingredients. This will be an estimate on what I did to get the Double Chocolate Cookie of. My. Dreams. 

Low Carb Chocolate Chip Cookies with Extra Chocolate Option
1/4 C Coconut Flour (I use this)
1/3 C Butter (Orignial recipe said 'unsalted', but I'm a kitchen rebel. I do what I want, and there was only the regular salted stuff in my cupboard)
3 tbsp Swerve or other granular sweetener. A Stevia Sugar is nice too if you're ok with some carbs. 
2 Large eggs 
3 Tbsp Sugar free or dark chocolate chips
1/2 - 1 Tsp Molasses
1/4-1/2 Tsp Vanilla, or for fun, Almond Extract
Sprinkling of Salt 
Optional additions I used to make it chocolaty: 
1/4 C Vanilla Protein Powder
1/4 C Cocoa
1 big Tbsp Coconut Oil* 
1 Tbsp Whipping Cream, but coconut milk (the thick stuff) could be great too!
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Preheat the oven to 350 F, Mix dry ingredients minus the chocolate chips well in one bowl or big measuring cup, the wet stuff in another.
 Combine them slowly until you have a nice smooth consistency. Fold in the chocolate chips, and spoon (eyeballing 2-ish tablespoons of batter for each cookie) onto a nonstick cookie sheet, or one with parchment paper. The dough was so soft and fluffy the first time I made them that it was not easy to form them into balls, so I patted them down with a spoon to stop them from being so lofty. Then I made them again and they were very easy to make a ball and squish it a little flatter for a more uniformly sized little cookie. If you enjoy a fluffier cookei, just spoon out the mix and shove it on the pan with little to now squishing. The only difference this second time is a dash more on the protein powder and coconut flour. My 1/4 C measurements were *just a hair* over, and I like it!  
Bake for 12-ish minutes. Once the bottom edges are getting firm, they are done.  

 *You can totally increase the amount of butter for the chocolate version instead of using coconut oil I just really like the taste of both. You just need the additional fat / liquid in order to hold the dry ingredients nicely together.

Dry Ingredients for Chocolate Keto Coconut Flour CookiesDry ingredients

Wet Ingredients for Chocolate Keto Coconut Flour CookiesWet ingredients fork whisked together

Raw low carb cookies shaped and ready to bakeRaw cookies shaped and ready to go in the oven. Unlike regular cookies, these will not spread, so you get the size and shape you put on the pan. If you are making smaller cookies, like I did here, reduce the baking time by a minute or two. 

Finished Chocolate Keto Cookies!Finished cookies look a lot like the raw ones, and are just as delicious.