Bri's Black & White Cookies
My little sister, Bri, is obsessed with Black & White cookies. She lives in San Francisco with her husband (who also can't eat gluten like me!) and apparently they can't find gluten free b&w cookies anywhere on the west coast, so her first stop while visiting us in NYC this week was to pick-up a box of b&w cookies for us to munch on all week. I hate to admit this as a New Yorker, but this was the first time I had a b&w cookie and I was hooked!
I rarely consume 'gluten-free' products, because they are usually laced with extra sugar, funky ingredients you can't pronounce and lots of inferior wheat-substitutes like corn, rice, soy and potatoes and my hunch was that these 'gluten-free' treats were no different. So, I added black & white cookies to my Kokobutter to-do list in an attempt to make a more nutrient dense version for all of us to enjoy!
After a terrible day at the office, I came home to my husband who greeted me with a giant hug (knowing I had a terrible day) and he asked, "what would make you feel better?" and I said, "cooking something sweet!" So, after four hours in the kitchen using every dish, pot and utensil in our kitchen, discovering every way NOT to make vanilla icing, and testing my marriage in new ways -- we finally perfected the black & white cookie! And the best part was surprising my sister with a tray of freshly made b&w cookies after they came back from a date in the city. It's SO wonderful having my lil' sis in town, especially since it's an excuse to bake a tray of sweets to enjoy together :)
The cookie recipe comes from Jennifer Robins at Predominantly Paleo (here) and the icing recipe is my own as I wasn't as skilled a chef as Jennifer to be able to successfully make the icing in her recipe.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10-12 minutes for the cookies and 10 minutes for the icing
Yields: 6 cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of almond flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp 100% vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup maple or coconut sugar (I used coconut sugar)
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1 chocolate bar (>80% cocoa content) or use my homemade chocolate bar recipe!
- 1 cup of coconut oil (solid NOT melted)
- 1/2 cup of light colored raw honey
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla, coconut (or maple) sugar, tapioca starch, baking soda and salt
- Blend well with a hand-mixer
- If the dough is sticky, get a small bowl and fill with water to wet your hands as you mold the shape of the cookies. This will avoid losing any of the dough to the sink!
- Divide the batter into six balls and place on the parchment paper
- Press the ball until becomes a thinner disc that's ~1/8-1/4 inch thick depending on how thick you like your cookies. Note the dough will rise and they'll have a cake-like texture.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes
- While the cookies bake, we will make the vanilla icing. In a smaller food processor, combine the solid coconut oil (this is important!), honey and 1 tsp of vanilla. Blend until combined and smooth like the consistency of icing! Leave aside
- When you put the icing on the cookies you will want the cookies to be cool. You can expedite that by putting them in the freezer or fridge for a few minutes or let them cool on their own for 30 minutes
- To make the chocolate icing, take a small saucepan and fill with 2 inches of water and heat on medium-low heat. Using a glass pyrex, heat resistant bowl or whatever double boiling method you prefer, put this bowl over the water and add the chocolate to the bowl. This double-boiler method prevents the chocolate from burning to the bottom of the pan! You can always just put the chocolate directly in the saucepan, but make sure to keep the heat on low to avoid burnt chocolate on the bottom of your pan.
- Once the cookies are cool, take a spoon and carefully ice the cookie with the chocolate first on half of the cookie. Once, you've iced all of cookies with the chocolate, put them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden the chocolate.
- Use the vanilla icing to frost the the other half of the cookies and freeze for another few minutes to harden the frosting.
- Enjoy!
