mmmm...chocalmonut chiparoonipans

July 28, 2008 4:35 PM

Cookie Experiment Filter: I'd like to create recipes for chocolate, almond and coconut cookies but some of my ingredients are too expensive for trial & error.

I have coconut flour, shredded coconut, coconut fat, almond meal, sliced almonds, almond extract, vanilla extract, stevia, agave nectar, raw cacao nibs, an 85% dark chocolate bar, eggs, butter, cream, cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, salt and I can get baking powder and baking soda if need be.

I don't necessarily need all three in one cookie. I think chocolate/coconut and chocolate/almond combinations would work. I'm not so sure about coconut/almond but I'm open to the idea. I love marzipan and macaroons and gooey chocolate but I would like to bite into something with some outer crunchiness too.

Complexity is not an issue but I would like to avoid wasting the more expensive ingredients. I'm also not committed to a baked cookie. Actually, a truffle type thing with a crunchy shell might be awesome.

posted by simbiotic to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I've learned the very hard way that it is best to start with a recipe from a reputable blog or book and tweak it carefully. Given those ingredients, I'd start with gluten-free blogs and cookbooks like this one. Often I'll google incredients to find out if people have had success substituting them.
posted by melissam at 5:02 PM on July 28, 2008

Have you thought about actually just making truffles too? Ganache is not hard to do and truffles can be coated in just about anything.

I looked up coconut flour because I'm also interested in using it and most sites say "Use 100% in place of other flours simply by adding eggs (average one egg per ounce of coconut flour). "
posted by melissam at 5:19 PM on July 28, 2008

Coconut-Almond might be tough, personally I think they are both agressive-enough flavors that by pure experimentation alone, it would be difficult to balance them. I have found coconut-pecan to be totally awesome beyond control, however. So if you're not completely invested in the almond idea, it's worth a try. One of the nom-nommiest cookies I ever ate was a basic cookie dough (flour, salt, egg, butter, sugar) with coconut, pecan and lots of vanilla. Crazy.

If almonds have to factor in there somewhere, they are awesome in shortbread. Especially very, very buttery shortbread. Dipped in melted chocolate. MMMmmmm. They're also pretty killer in oatmeal cookies (which would be a good place to put some coconut flavor too, now that I think of it.)

Also I take it from your list of ingredients that you're trying to steer clear from wheat flour (correct me if I'm wrong). If wheat flour isn't a no-go, you might try doing small batches with wheat flour before subbing with other flours and correcting for flavor. Wheat flour = cheap, the canvas upon which you can build future cookie ideas.
posted by brain cloud at 6:00 PM on July 28, 2008

I don't know about coconut and almond alone, but coconut, almond and chocolate work great together - think Almond Joy :)
posted by geeky at 6:11 PM on July 28, 2008

Cookies are an easy experiment, as long as you are not on a diet or trying to eat healthy. Start with a known recipe (the Mrs. Fields fake sounds good for this) and then substitute liberally. The only important things to not change too much are leavening vs. flour ratios and then also be careful of the fat to four ratio to control the flat vs. puffy factor. This type of cookie probably should have zero added liquid, unless you like a big puff. Although, when experimenting and you find the batter too thick or thin, milk and flour are your allies. Sometimes you will make a recipe and it is just right but too flat or puffy. That is easy to correct. Don't be afraid to overload these cookies with the fun stuff, nuts, coconut, etc. You might even want to consider some dry fruit like dried cranberries. I am an all butter type, but my mother who makes much, much better cookies often uses safflower oil, which is far healthier. More importantly, oil and butter have distinct effects upon the texture, butter = flatter, oil = puffier, but just a little.
posted by caddis at 7:58 PM on July 28, 2008

I made cookies that sound like what you're looking for only the other day and they came out great! I used this recipe. Scroll down to brownie cookies. The cookies are made with cocoa, almond flour, eggs, butter and nuts. Some of the ingredient amount seemed to be borked but I halved the recipe and used 1/2 cup cocoa and 1 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds). I hope that's clear. I had ThickenThin not/Starch (a mixture of guar gum and xanthan gum on hand for thickening soups). You might try the recipe without and see how it goes. I think Stevia could be substituted for Splenda granular here without too many problems. The cookies came out very crumbly with a great nutty chocolatey flavor. I might add a bit more cocoa next time. Even my non low carb eating friends loved the cookies. Next I'm going to try replacing the chopped nuts with unsweetened coconut as the recipe suggests. It's really difficult sometimes to get the textural qualities that sugar gives to a baked good right, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well this recipe turned out. It made about 12 pretty large cookies (the halved recipe).
posted by peacheater at 8:06 AM on July 29, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks for these great answers! I'm going to try a non-baked refrigerator cookie/truffle type thing first because I don't have a lot of confidence yet in baking without flour and sugar. I'll definitely be ordering the coconut flour cookbook and reading the chowhound link and post an update.
posted by simbiotic at 9:32 AM on July 29, 2008