I love chocolate. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I think chocolate should be its own food group. The thought of giving up chocolate was the one thing that kept stopping me from eliminating sugar from my diet for more than a year. Eliminating flour is hard, alcohol not so fun (I like a glass of red wine here and there), sugar seemed tough, but chocolate was a no-go. I had to find a way to get my chocolate minus sugar or it wasn’t happening.

 

Enter sugar substitutes (and there are many!). But they’re not all so good for you, and I didn’t want to replace the sugar with a chemical that was just as bad or worse for my health. That eliminated sucralose (Splenda), aspartame (Nutrasweet), and saccharin. That left stevia, xylitol, and erythritol. I’ll write a more detailed post on sugar substitutes sometime, but these three are safer than the others. Organic stevia is my favorite since it is an herb, but it’s hard to substitute equivalents for sugar in recipes because you use such small amounts (it’s SUPER sweet). The sugar alcohols (erythritol and xylitol) are low on the glycemic index, they are derived from natural substances (xylose or corn), and and very low calorie. However, it’s best to get organic erythritol to avoid GMO corn, and consumption of large amounts of sugar alcohols can cause bloating, gas and other GI upset. But for a small cookie (or two!) sometimes – this was a good option for me if I wanted to avoid sugar.

 

So when I found this almond butter based cookie recipe using coconut sugar, I thought I’d substitute xylitol and see what happened. Sometimes baking with the sugar alcohols (particularly erythritol) can give a funny cold sensation in the mouth when you eat the pastry, but I find that with chocolate, that’s not there at all. I shared this cookie with Auntie A (who’s not a chocolate lover or a sugar freak) and she loved it! She is a chewy-brownie fan (as opposed to a cake-brownie fan), and that’s what this cookie will remind you of if you don’t over bake them.

 

So in celebration of the upcoming Tea Talk on Extreme Eating, here’s a sugar free Paleo and Keto cookie recipe that you can try out for yourself! If you want to try a sample, come to the Tea Talk  – I’ll have some there! See the link below to grab your spot before they’re all gone…

 

Chocolate Brownie Cookies (no flour, no sugar)

Based on the recipe for flourless paleo chocolate almond butter cookies at ambitiouskitchen.com

Yield: approximately 30 cookies using a small cookie scoop

 

Ingredients

1 cup plain almond butter (runny and smooth)

1/2 cup xylitol

two eggs, lightly beated

1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark for extremely dark chocolate cookies, but you can use what you like)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp melted coconut oil

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/3 cup stevia sweetened chocolate chips (or use dark chocolate chips if you can’t find them)

Fancy flake sea salt for sprinkling on top

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 

Put all ingredients in a bowl except the chocolate chips.

 

Mix well. Fold in the chips.

 

Scoop (or mold with your hands) dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. I used a small cookie scoop for this size cookie.

 

Slightly flatten each ball with your fingers and sprinkle with a little fancy salt. Not too much or it’ll be overwhelming!

 

Bake 7-8 minutes – don’t over bake!

Let cookies set on the sheet for 5 minutes and then allow to finish cooling on a rack. Enjoy!

 

If you want to get your spot to the Tea Talk, go to this link to hold your space!