Dark Chocolate Molasses Cookies

See the other very similar recipe, too.  

My niece came to visit. Whenever she comes we cook a lot! She likes good food and I like to cook. She likes to cook, too. Win, win, win!


I found this recipe right before she arrived and I knew I had to make it!  I love molasses.  I love it with dark chocolate!!  And ginger!  (Hrm, is that foreshadowing a change I might make to the recipe in the future?) My niece is gluten-free so I love finding fun new recipes to try with her!

Here's the recipe as Vegan 8 created:

Ingredients

    • 1 cup blanched almond flour (for a nut-free option, see note below)
    • 1/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
    • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

    • 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
    • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
    • 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp creamy almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free)
    • 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    • 1/2 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips

(Note
To make this recipe nut-free, you can use raw, unsalted sunflower kernels and grind them up in a food processor into a fine flour and use that in place of almond flour. For this option, increase the flour amount to 1 1/4 cups sunflower "flour", as it tends to be lighter in baking. Use sunbutter in place of the nut butter.)

Instructions

1.Pre-heat an oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, add the syrup and whisk in the flaxseed well and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour (or sunflower), tapioca, baking powder, cocoa and salt together and whisk well. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Next, stir in the molasses, almond butter and vanilla into the reserved flaxseed mixture and mix well. Pour over the flour mixture and stir for a couple of minutes until it all comes together and thickens up. It should be sticky and fairly thick. If it is on the runny side, add a touch more almond flour.  Add chocolate chips.

5. Drop by large spoonfuls onto the prepared sheet pan and slightly smooth/spread out the batter with the back of the spoon to about 2 inches wide, about 1/4 inch tall. This will ensure even baking. Make sure to space each cookie 1-2 inches apart from each other, as they will spread a lot when baking. They will be large and beautiful! Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cracked on top and slightly firm. I took mine out at around 9 minutes. They will crisp up while cooling. If you prefer them a bit crispier, cook for another minute or two. Cool 10 minutes on the pan before transferring them to a cooling rack.

The original author recommends making them into sandwiches with almond butter (sunbutter for nut-free) in between 2 cookies. Keep them stored in the fridge to hold the sandwich shape best!

My notes:
The cookie dough is VERY sticky. I only was able to bake about 10 cookies per sheet. I doubled the recipe. I used almond butter.  I did not use blanched almond flour, I just made almond flour in my blender with regular almonds. Next time, I may try using a little oat flour by adding another 1/4 of a cup of flour to the recipe.

(Some other thoughts) I may use some of the almond "goop" that is frozen in my freezer and adding a little oat flour to counteract the extra liquid. I would like to add some dried ginger to these cookies as I think it would give a nice zing. (I probably won't put ginger in all the cookies as my husband and one of my daughters don't like it.)

I doubled the recipe and I'm glad I did. We loved the cookies!  I'll definitely keep doubling it! Next time, hopefully I'll get some pictures. I made the cookies really fast on Sunday morning before we went to the beach and I forgot to take picts. Note these are EVEN more awesome when they sit in a container and get warm and then you take them out at the beach and they are very soft and the chocolate is melt-y! We liked these so much we never got around to making them as little cookie sandwiches.  I bet they'd be awesome!