These tender cocoa cookies taste like a Ferrari but are as healthy as a Honda. Vroom, cookie, vroom! Hot Italian Cocoa Cookies use olive oil instead of butter and ground flaxseed instead of eggs. Their sexy smoky tingle comes from ground chipotle powder.
My Taster says “excellent” and “you can’t get any better than this.” I say, “Let’s try one more to make sure this is real.”
Mmmm, yes, they are real:
- Real healthy because the ingredients can help reduce your risk of cancer, obesity, and heart disease.
- Real thrifty at just 67 cents a serving (three cookies), using organic ingredients. They still taste like a million euros!
- Real easy because it takes only a few minutes to stir up and bake. You won’t need to wash the beaters of an electric mixer or to wait for hours while the dough chills.
Recipe: How to Make Hot Italian Cocoa Cookies
Active time: 15 minutes. Total time: 35 minutes. Yield: 12 cookies. Doubles or more well. Dairy-free and vegan.
- 1 tablespoon finely ground flaxseed (7 grams)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour (75 grams)
- 3/8 cup natural cocoa (6 tablespoons or 30 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground chipotle
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (110 grams)
- 1/4 cup sugar (30 grams) for rolling cookies
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Heat oven to 325°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Make flaxseed “egg” by microwaving flaxseed and water for 30 seconds on high in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Stir mixture to develop an eggy texture.
- Put flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and chipotle in a medium bowl. Stir with a fork, then stir in brown sugar. (It’s last among the dry ingredients so it doesn’t clump with baking powder or chipotle.) Put white sugar into a saucer or shallow bowl.
- Stir olive oil and vanilla into flaxseed mixture, then pour into flour mixture and stir just until well combined. Here’s a quick cookie hack: Shape dough into two roughly-equal balls, then cut balls into six pieces. Roll each piece between your palms until it becomes more-or-less round, then roll it in sugar and put on the cookie sheet. They flatten and spread as they bake, so don’t crowd them. This cookie hack is faster than dipping out and rolling each ball and reduces squabbles by making even-sized cookies.
- Bake cookies for 9 to 12 minutes, until they start to crack. Remove from the oven and let firm up on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes. Use a spatula to move still-warm cookies to a wire rack or clean brown paper bag to cool. Enjoy some warm. Let the rest cool, then cover and store at room temperature or wrap well and freeze.
Tip
- I developed this recipe while on the second week of the SNAPcut Challenge. I had whole wheat pastry flour on hand because it was the least expensive whole wheat flour I could buy in bulk. I’ve also baked the recipe with my usual white whole wheat flour. The resulting cookies were very good but not molto delizioso, reason-to-live marvelous. Use whole wheat pastry flour if you can.
- Thanks to Beverly @pingjing for the inspiration: her Cocoa (Chocolate) Olive Oil Crinkle Cookies. My version uses organic white sugar instead of powdered sugar, chipotle instead of espresso powder, and makes it vegan by using a flaxseed “egg” instead of a chicken egg. I also skipped the resting period. Alas, Beverly has shut down her blot or I’d give you the link.
