I’ve been following some really cool bikini competitors on Instagram, like @jazzythings and @dallassrae. They’ve really motivated me to start playing around with different ingredients, like nut flours, nut butters, nut milks, and protein powder.
These girls are on really strict diets during competition prep, so the point here is to be able to satisfy a craving with a more nutrient dense, clean version. Check out these waffles and pumpkin cookies!
After seeing things like this in my feed, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I’d planned to order some coconut sugar, among other things from VitaCost, which has all sorts of amazing products way cheaper than brick & mortar stores.
Coconut sugar has about the same calories as regular granulated white sugar, but it also has iron, zinc, potassium, and antioxidants. It’s also a low glycemic food, meaning it doesn’t spike your blood sugar as much as white sugar does. It’s not a miracle food, afterall, it is sugar, but it’s a slightly better option.
WELL, I walked into Trader Joe’s and scoped out the case of new items, as usual, and to my surprise they’ve started selling organic coconut sugar for only $3.99! I snatched that up quickly, and after the cashier chatting me up about what I planned to do with my coconut sugar, I began my little experiment.
I remembered seeing a recipe on Averie Cooks for cookies using coconut oil, so I used that as my base. I amped it up with the addition of cinnamon sugar for a snickerdoodle-like effect.
The appearance of the cookies is a little misleading — since they’re brown, I immediately think chocolate or gingerbread, but it’s actually the brown color of the coconut sugar that’s shining through here.
The cookies don’t really taste like coconut. The coconut sugar actually has a little bit of a molasses flavor. The cookies are soft and chewy, but not as soft as a “soft-baked” cookie. Those aren’t my thing.
This recipe uses mostly oat flour. Oat flour is just old fashioned oatmeal milled (aka ground) into a fine powder, about the consistency of normal all-purpose flour. I used both oat flour and all-purpose flour because I was afraid the oat flour might have a strange texture and I wanted to balance it out. These cookies turned out absolutely excellent, and if you’d like to use all oat flour to make the cookies gluten-free, I think you’d still get a really great result.
I’ve found that coconut oil is very interesting. It has a very low melting point, generally considered to be around 75 degrees, which happens to be around the average “room temperature” homes are kept at. I didn’t know this at first, so it was strange to open my pantry and see its form varying from liquid to solid.
The key to using coconut oil as a replacement for butter in cookies is to make sure it’s about the same softness as room temperature butter.
These Snickerdoodle White Chocolate Cookies came out so incredibly delicious. I was absolutely shocked. Because we all know the “better for you” versions of baked goods are usually: A. loaded with preservatives and chemicals and/or B. not the most tasty. I love this recipe so much that I can’t wait to use it as a base for other flavor combinations.
1. Skip the all-purpose flour and use all oat flour to make gluten-free cookies.
2. Replace the egg with your favorite vegan egg substitute to make vegan cookies.
3. Want a traditional cookie? Use room temperature unsalted butter in place of the coconut oil, granulated sugar in place of the coconut sugar, and solely all-purpose flour. All measurements remain the same.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup oat flour
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 tablespoon coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
In a mixer, cream the coconut oil, egg, sugar, and vanilla for about 4 minutes.
Slowly mix in the flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the white chocolate chips.
Use a scant 1/4 cup of dough to form 14 balls, flattening slightly.
Place them on a plate in a single layer and allow to chill in the freezer for about an hour, until they're firm but not hard. If you freeze them longer and they get stuck to the plate, just heat them in the microwave in 5-10 second intervals until you're able to scoop them off.
When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with oil (keeping with the theme, I used coconut).
Combine the remaining cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Roll or press the cookies into the cinnamon sugar so that it sticks.
Place the cookies about 2 inches apart, as they're going to spread a bit.
Bake for 5-7 minutes, until the tops are just set. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then move to a cooling rack to finish. But don't let them cool too much because they're EXCELLENT when warm. And when briefly heated up after they've cooled.
Adapted from Averie Cooks