Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Dark Chocolate. Oatmeal. Coooookieeees!!!!! (said in the slightly creepy voice of Cookie Monster from days of old). Nom, nom, nom, nom… I made a purposeful pause in my day to go ahead and make a mess. I needed dessert. Seriously NEEDED some dessert. It’s the perfect opportunity to convert one of my old favorite recipes into something more healthy yet it tastes ever as good as I remember. Maybe even better. Plus, it has sneaky veggies in it which I’ll never leak to the press (a.k.a. my kids). Better to keep that under wraps.
I keep reading numerous articles about how great dark chocolate is for you. The less sweetened the better. Maybe because I really want it to be healthy and therefore unconsciously seek out articles that hail its benefits. Who knows. It’s darn good and so I will eat it. In mass quantities. In these dark chocolate oatmeal cookies.
This recipe was actually an easy swaperoo of ingredients. It’s mostly oatmeal already so as long as you use certified gluten free oats, you can keep it gluten free if that’s how you roll. I switched out the butter for palm shortening (you can still use butter if you want) and the sugar was swapped for maple syrup and then I added some finely grated zucchini. Pureed pumpkin or finely grated apple would also work swell. Sweet chocolately goodness, I must have another! You too? I thought so.
- ½ cup palm shortening (or unsalted butter)
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey
- ⅓-1/2 cup finely grated zucchini - place in a towel and squeeze out as much water as you can (or use pumpkin puree or grated apple)
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour (or use ½ cup oat flour)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon pink himalayan salt
- 1½ cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
- ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, cream together palm shortening and syrup.
- Add egg, vanilla and zucchini and beat well.
- In separate bowl, combine coconut flour, soda, salt and cocoa and then add to syrup mixture.
- Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips.
- Drop by spoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet (or use parchment paper or Silpat).
- Lightly press cookies down so they are flattened discs.
- Bake for 13-18 minutes.
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