It was an absolute pleasure to get together with my fellow healthy baking-loving friend, The Healthy Beard, for an afternoon of getting creative in the kitchen. We had so much fun making, decorating, snapping and eating a selection of delicious but healthy chocolate treats. Here’s the first of our three recipes, a collaboration which we’ll be doing on a regular basis – exciting times!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup oat flour (we used gluten-free Quaker Oats, blended to a flour)
- 1/4 cup cacao powder (we used Graze)
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar (we used The Groovy Food Company)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch of baking powder
- 1/2 tin unsweetened cooked apples
- 3 tablespoons nut butter (we used Pic’s Peanut Butter)
- 2 tablespoons date nectar (we used Beloved)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted (we used Lucy Bee)
- 50g dairy-free vegan chocolate (we used Free’ist no added sugar), diced into small chunks
For the coating:
- 75g dairy-free vegan chocolate
- 1 tablespoon date nectar
- 1 x pack air-dried apple crisps (we used Nim’s), diced
- 4 tablespoons cacao nibs (we used Kaizen Living)
Get baking!
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and and grease and line a large baking sheet or two smaller ones.
- Mix together the flour, cacao, baking powder, cinnamon and coconut sugar in a large bowl.
- Place the cooked apples, nut butter, date nectar and vanilla in a blender and whizz up until smooth.
- Pour this into the dry ingredients along with the melted coconut oil and mix to form a dough. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
- Now divide the dough into about 6-8 balls and press onto the sheet to form cookie shapes. Bake for 10 minutes then leave to cool on the tin.
- Once cooled, melt the chocolate for the topping and stir in the date nectar. Coat 1/2 of each cookie with a layer of chocolate, then sprinkle with the diced apple crisps and sprinkle with cacao nibs. Place in the fridge to set for at least 15 minutes.
- Now enjoy!
Keep any remaining cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 days in the fridge.
Look out for our other recipes from the two of us coming soon! Follow The Healthy Beard on Instagram and Twitter for tasty vegan updates 🙂