Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
These chocolate hazelnut cookies were a request from my sister and are inspired by the amazing Little Bird Unbakery. All their food is raw and organic, and their cakes are made without dairy, gluten, sugar or soy, so they are THE ultimate guilt free treat.
In particular, they make a raw organic chocolate hazelnut cookie that is essentially like a decadent breakfast cookie. It’s quite a soft cookie filled with oats and hazelnuts and just a little sweetness, so you feel super healthy eating them even when you come across a chunk of dark chocolate.
My interpretation of this chocolate hazelnut cookie is lightly baked because I don’t own a dehydrator (yet!), however, they contain no dairy, gluten or refined sugar, and are full of whole food goodness in the form of hazelnuts, oats, coconut and apple. The recipe below makes approximately 12 large, soft, moist cookies. Enjoy!
Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
100g rolled oats
50g thread coconut
50g desiccated coconut
70g hazelnuts
20g coconut sugar
pinch of himalayan pink salt
100g dark chocolate (I used 72% cacao with no milk products)
250g apple purée (see note below)
1 Tbsp maple syrup
50g coconut oil
Preheat oven to 160°C fan bake, and line two oven trays with baking paper or silicone mats.
Finely chop the hazelnuts (or blend in a food processor) until they resemble coarse breadcrumbs and place in a bowl along with the oats, dried coconuts, coconut sugar and salt. Roughly chop the dark chocolate into bite size chunks, add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Gently melt the coconut oil over low heat and add to the mixture along with the apple purée and maple syrup, and stir well. The mixture should come together and be slightly sticky. Place tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared trays and press lightly into shape.
Bake in preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes or until the cookies are lightly golden. Cool on a rack and then store the chocolate hazelnut cookies in a sealed container for up to 5 days.
Apple purée note:
Either make your own by placing peeled, chopped apples into a pan with a little water and bring to the boil. Simmer until soft and then blend. Or use a good canned apple purée with no sugar or additives e.g. Delish brand.
