These sweet and salty chocolate chip cookies are a classic and simple treat. They come together in about 25 minutes, so you don’t need to worry about buying pre-packaged cookies again. Also, homemade always tastes better.I like sweets, but I don’t like them too sweet, which is why I’ll often reduce the amount of sugar called for in a recipe. Here, the original recipe called for ¾ cup coconut sugar. However, I opted for ½ cup, which seemed like the perfect amount to me. Depending on how sweet (or healthy) you like your cookies, feel free to use either measurement.
Adding a pinch of salt is an excellent way to bring out the flavor of cookies. Sprinkling salt on a sweet treat like cookies sounds counterintuitive, but it actually might make the cookies taste better because salt helps you to better taste the intense sweetness of sugar.
I almost always use hand-chopped chocolate chunks in cookie recipes instead of plain ol' chocolate chips. When I chop my own chunks of chocolate, the pieces come out in all different sizes. The variety of these chocolate chunks means a surprise in every bite. The pieces often melt more and end up better distributed throughout the cookie than standard chips, which are designed to retain their shape when baked.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with vanilla extract, powder and paste. Vanilla powder is an alcohol-free product that is simply vanilla extract dried with a natural cornstarch base. Vanilla paste is a syrupy concoction made of both vanilla extract and beans mixed with sugar, water and a natural thickener. Both products can be used teaspoon for teaspoon as a substitute for vanilla extract. Generally, where the flavor of vanilla is front and center, I prefer vanilla powder. However, when vanilla powder isn’t available, vanilla extract or paste are certainly sufficient.
Sweet and Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Yield: 12 -14 cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground chia seed (or ground flax seed)
- 2 tablespoons filtered water
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil (melted)
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla paste (or powder)
- 1 ½ cups spelt flour
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ cup non-dairy chocolate bar (chopped into chunks (about ¾ of a chocolate bar))
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ground chia seed and water. Let stand for 5 minutes to thicken.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, coconut sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. Add ground chia seed mixture.
- Using a paddle spoon, fold in the spelt flour, arrowroot starch, baking soda and sea salt until large mounds of dough start to form. Do not over mix as spelt flour is delicate and can result in tough, dry or crumbly cookies.
- Using a paddle spoon or your hands, fold the chocolate chunks into the dough.
- Roll the dough into 12 to 14 large balls (about 2 tablespoons each). Place on a cookie sheet and press any loose chocolate chunks into the top of the dough.
- Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. Do not over bake or your cookies will lose their soft, chewy quality.
- Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the pan. Then use a spatula to carefully transfer them to a cooling rack and cool completely (about 30 minutes).
- Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days, refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.
Recipe inspired by Blissful Basil.
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