Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (egg free & nut free)

Paleo chocolate chip cookies that taste like soft Chips Ahoy? Made from plantains? You bet!

For all of you trying to stick to your healthy January plans, getting back to those good habits we gleefully forgot about over the holidays, this is what you should make when you are craving sweets and cookies. Because they taste sinful but are made of fruit!

For this recipe you want ripe yellow plantains. The ones I used are yellow but were not fully ripe. Its up to you, for a sweeter cookie, but more sugars, go for really ripe ones that are almost black. 

Peel the plantains, chop the fruit into smaller chunks and put 7 ounces into your food processor. (I started with a blender but it didn't work well with my semi-ripe plantains. So you will see I scooped it all into my food processor.) A vitamix would be awesome here. 

Measure various flours and sugars and baking things on top of the plantains. We have arrowroot, coconut flour, vanilla, cinnamon (optional), baking soda, coconut oil and coconut sugar. And chocolate chips, seriously. 

 

If you dont have arrowroot powder, tapioca powder or cornstarch will work in a similar way. 

Coconut sugar is one of those things, so delicious and good for you as sugars go. I love to bake with it and these days you can find it at most grocery stores. Maple syrup, honey, or cane sugar can all be substituted in the event you have eaten all the coconut sugar in your kitchen. It happens!

I love to use the mini chocolate chips I feel you get more chocolate in each bite that way. These vegan Enjoy Life ones are tasty. When I don't have those I use a bar of really dark chocolate, one that is so minimally processed, like 80% cocoa solids. The bar can be chopped up easily with a knife to get the 3 tablespoons of chips.  (Wait to add the chocolate until after all the blending, ok!

So there is the big mess of baking stuff.

(it got too messy to show in the middle here, so it was moved to the food processor.)

Now we are happily blending the life out of everything. We want it smooth. 

*Note: if it looks really dry during blending add some almond milk or something like that. start at 1 Tablespoon and add no more than a 1/4 cup. 

We are looking good! It is thick but without chunks. 

Sprinkle and fold in the glorious chocolate. (Seriously, what did humans live for before we got our hands on chocolate?) I wont tell if you put in even more chocolate. 

Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. 

A small ice cream scooper for cookies is perfect here! This one scoops 1 and a half tablespoons. Use one of these or two spoons to make dollops of cookie dough on the paper. Keep them a consistent size so they cook at the same rate, I think 1 to 1.5 tablespoons if perfect. 

Press down the scoops to flatten the cookies. They don't melt much in the oven.

Dampen two fingers with water, to avoid cookie dough sticking, and press on the top of each cookie to flatten it, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of an inch. So it is short. 

Bake at 375° for 10 - 12 minutes. 

The cookies with soften, puff and then sink. They have pretty cracks and the centers will set. 

Let cool on the hot pans for some minutes. When the cookies are warm you can sort of taste the plantain flavor. Once they cool, the same plantain flavor is all gone.

Soft Paleo Plantain Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 14 cookies

7 oz peeled ripe plantain

2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder

2 Tablespoons coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

3 Tablespoons coconut sugar

3 Tablespoons coconut oil

3 Tablespoons chocolate chips (or more!)

(up to 1/4 cup milk if necessary for mixing)

Note: I always regret it if I don't make a double batch of these! 

Earl Grey Infused Peaches

 

Peach season is nearing the end as farm stands turn over to apples and pears. This is how I ended up with a few not-so-perfect peaches. A little overripe, a little splotchy maybe, but still a good fruit. This is a quick trick to gussy up lackluster stone fruits. Such as the ones which don't quite ever ripen and those which ripened to fast...it's hard to be a fruit. Last year I did loads of jam making, the favorite of everyone being Peach Earl Grey Jam, this is a quick rif on that and it only takes 10 minutes at most, and far less sugar.

Brew Earl Grey Tea, you need 1/2 a cup. Dice a few peaches. Get a spoon of sugar

Put tea, peaches and a spoonfull of sugar together in a saucepan. Turn up the heat, make it boil.

Turn to a simmer for about 5 minutes. The liquid reduces a syrup and peaches are tender and infused.

Serve in all types of luscious ways; in yogurt with chia seeds like I did for breakfast. 

On vanilla ice cream for desert. 

As an accompaniment to plain sponge cake. 

On waffles. 

In oatmeal. 

Mixed into rice pudding even!

Ill note that I prefer to leave the skins on, when I have organic peaches which haven't been sprayed.  This is different, I know a lot of cooks like to skin their peaches, but I believe the skin has wonderful flavor and I find the textures appealing.  Plus it is probably filled with vitamins, that's what I was told as a child. (If they are not organic and you want to remove any pesticides the peaches can be skinned by a quick poaching.)

Earl Grey Infused Peaches

 

2-3 peaches

1 tablespoon honey or raw sugar

1/2 cup Brewed Earl grey tea

Brew the tea, steeping for 4 minutes. Wash and chop the peaches. Place into a small saucepan. Add the honey and tea. Turn on high, bringing the liquid to a boil. Stir occasionally, keeping the liquid at a low boil. In 5 to 10 minutes the when the tea has cooked off, the remaining liquid will have become syrupy and the sugary peaches will begin to sizzle, turn off the heat.   

Keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge. 

Morning Tea & Reading: a Sunday Ritual

Sunday morning has always been a special time carved out for reading. Anytime before noon it is acceptable to be curled up, doing no work, simply reading and indulging in my best cup of tea. Sunday mornings are sacred in our own way, we read the New York Times and the Boston Globe all morning, passing sections back and forth, pointing out articles. We read out loud the best parts and discuss.

As children we started with the (oh so special!) comics. We slowly graduated to the entire breadth of the paper, which is a great excuse for lounging and reading until noon. Now living three blocks away from my parents I begin my Sunday morning reading at my own house and inevitably travel over there before the morning is over for more reading, especially when my sister is in town. 

Sunday is also the best day of the week for really taking time to enjoy the best cup of tea. For me it is Earl Grey from Upton Tea Imports, made in a glass tea pot, served in a china tea cup with my favorite miniature creamer (unsweetened hemp milk) next to it. It is nice to take time to enjoy special something special and thoughtful for oneself.

I was especially excited today to dive into my haul of new and used cookbooks I acquired over the last two days on a visit to Maine. I will write about the phenomenol cookbook store very soon. But, see all the books, a dozen of them! All full of promise...

 (the blender cookbook from 1961 and ABC of Casseroles is sort of a joke.) But look at it, each letter of the alphabet has a poem about casseroles. Im not kidding.

The beautiful gray book in the top photo, Good Things in England by Florence White has a cheerful end paper. 

This is a new reprint of her 1933 compendium of British cookery. Between the wars she was urging her countryfolk to stop trying to cook like French people, as it does not suit the British taste at all. ... "Anyhow, we must not become a weak inferior imitation of any other country, however great or friendly, or however much we may admire its people and their ways."  

I love the book, the soft gray cover and the early typeset. Like reading an antique book but the binding is oh so solid! Without any delay she tells how to make a correct cup of tea. I checked, my cup of tea was well made according to Ms. White. Although I steep mine for 4 minutes before removing the leaves.

There are 370 pages full of historical recipes, 1399 to 1932. Documented from houses of Queens, lords, normal folk and down to odd specialties from the Isle of Mann like Limpets and this "Dumb Cake" which reads: 

" 'This cake,' says Mrs. Cashen, or Peel Castle, 'must be made of flour and water without any leaven, and is mixed and maked in the hot turf ashes. A piece which must be eaten walking backwards to bed. A number may join in the performance and they will dream of their future husbands.' "

I will skip the doubtful Dumb cake as it seems I already have a suitable husband. However, this book has me all excited to make english muffins and try a few other things also. I will post them here!