Coconut Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a fire in my oven today, a big fire. I was preheating it to make these delicious treats when all of the sudden I noticed the light on through the door. Only it wasn’t the light. It was flames. I ended up having to use the toaster oven to bake these 6 at a time. Safety tip: if you ever have a fire in your oven, use large amounts of baking soda to put it out.

Moving on, one treat I miss from time to time is a fresh, soft, gooey chocolate chip cookie. I made them all the time in college for my roommates and for cute boys (more often for the latter), but have since strayed from casually whipping up a tasty batch and popping them in the oven. I’m not a fan of using refined white or brown sugars as most recipes call for, and traditional cookies don’t coincide with my attempts to eat a predominately low GI diet, so I can't justify making them.

That is until now. Ladies and gentlemen, I have discovered coconut sugar.
By “discovered coconut sugar”, I mean happened upon it at the grocery store. I was a tad over-zealous about the find and purchased a large quantity before researching it. Thankfully, once I typed it into my computer search engine, I was more than pleasantly surprised with all it had to offer. It has a GI of less than 35, beating out the higher GI values of honey (55) and cane sugar (68). Also, coconut sugar is high in potassium, magnesium, zinc and iron and is a natural source of vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6 and C.


Coconut sugar has a mild sweetness to it. I would describe the flavor as having a creamy brown sugar taste. The cookies turned out incredibly light and fluffy, not heavy like traditional chocolate chip cookies tend to be. If you want to go lower carbohydrates, higher fiber, and even lower GI, substitute some of the all purpose flour with coconut flour*. Really keep a close eye on these while you‘re baking them, as this sugar tends to burn a little faster.

The first thing I had to do was make my own semi-sweet coconut sugar chocolate chips to use in these cookies. This was not as difficult or time consuming as it sounds. I made them the night before so that they had a chance to cool and harden overnight, but they could easily be made an hour before baking and put into the refrigerator for that hour to harden.


Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

12, 1-oz squares of unsweetened baker’s chocolate
¾ cup coconut sugar
1 tbsp coconut oil

In a double boiler, bring water to a low boil. Add chocolate and sugar and stir until chocolate is melted and sugar is thoroughly incorporated. Add in coconut oil and stir until smooth. Be careful not to let any of the water splash up into your chocolate mix, or it will seize and become unworkable.

At this point I put the melted chocolate mix into a squeeze bottle and dotted parchment paper with the liquid. I let the chips cool and set over night. The finished chips have a semi-gritty texture to them, but once they’re baked in the cookie, they have a smooth, non-gritty finish.


Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup coconut sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 ½ - 2 cups coconut sugar chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, coconut sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper or onto a baking stone.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.


Makes 25-30 cookies. May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks.

*FOR COCONUT FLOUR SUBSTITUTION: Use 1 ¾ cups of all purpose flour, ½ cup of coconut flour, and ½ cup of additional liquid such as milk, water, or juice.

FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING (5,200 feet): Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce sugar to 1/2 cup. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes.

I hope you like them.

Larabar Taste-a-like

One of my favorite snacks lately has been the lovely Larabar. I was first introduced to the bar while watching The Biggest Loser. They promoted the bars as healthy, gluten free, whole-food snacks that have no artificial sweeteners or additives. The many-flavored bars range in calorie content from about 180-250, so they make a great mid-day snack.

They truly are delicious, but my overarching concern with the bars is that they are sweetened with dates. Granted, the date brings a wonderful sweetness to the bar that compensates for typical sweetness offered by added sugars or honey. The problem that I have with using dates is that they are extremely high on the Glycemic Index (GI). When considering GI values of food, you should strive to eat foods that fall below a value of 50 (below 40 is even better) to keep your blood sugar levels low and balanced. Dates scale at a whopping 103 on the GI chart. This poses a serious dilemma, especially for anyone hoping for a diabetic-friendly snack bar. Dates are the main ingredient in Larabars, so I wanted to see what I could do differently to lessen the GI impact. I decided to keep a few dates for sweetness, but replace the majority of them with dried figs and prunes. Dried figs score at almost half the GI value of dates, coming in at 65. Prunes are even better, having a GI value of just 29. Both offer high fiber content to any recipe, just as dates do.


For variety during my snacking week I wanted to try a few different flavors: Lemon Coconut and Black Forest (chocolate-cherry flavor). All the bars essentially have the same base (dates/figs/prunes and nuts), so experimenting with different flavors was fun to do.

Lemon Coconut Bars
Makes 8 bars (about 220 calories per bar)

Ingredients
•1 cup almonds
•½ cup dates, pitted
•½ cup black mission figs, pitted
•½ cup prunes
•Zest of 1 lemon
•1 ½ Tbsp lemon juice
•1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
•Pinch of salt


Directions
1.Line a glass baking 8x8” dish with parchment paper
2.Add ingredients to food processor and process until well mixed (about 2 minutes).


3.Press into baking pan.
4.Chill for at least a couple of hours until firm, then cut into squares or bars.

Black Forest Bars
Makes 6 bars (about 200 calories per bar)

Ingredients
•½ cup dates, pitted
•½ cup black mission figs, pitted
•½ cup prunes
•1 cup almonds
•1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
•1 teaspoon almond extract
•½ teaspoon vanilla
•Pinch of salt

Directions
1.Line a glass baking 8x8” dish with parchment paper
2.Add ingredients to food processor and process until well mixed (about 2 minutes).
3.Press into baking pan.
4.Chill for at least a couple of hours until firm, then cut into squares or bars.


I like to use a pizza cutter to cut these. The bars will keep for up to six days in an air tight container or plastic wrap in the fridge, or several months in the freezer.

I hope you like them.