Paleo Chocolate Orange Cookies.

While I'm not celiac or gluten intolerant, too much wheat based food plays havoc with my digestive system. Usually keeping bread and most baked goods to a minimum is enough to avoid a sluggish digestion process, but after suffering the consequences of nearly a week of chaos and junk food being the go to, I'm more determined than ever to get more wheat out of my diet. Thankfully I have a friend who is truly gluten intolerant and has spent years trialing out different wheat free recipes. She sends me those that have worked out best for her, so I don't have to make so many failures.

I’m slowly building up a menu of wheat free meals and snacks so I can drop more of the wheat based foods. This is a cookie recipe that I've tweaked to my own tastes and to get the texture and cooking time right. I think the original came from a Jamie Oliver cookbook. It's made it into my menu because everyone in the family likes them.

I'm going to list all the main ingredients by weight as I find this the easiest way to make the mixture up and it doesn't need lots of extra measuring cups or pots, just an extra couple of spoons; which would still have been needed anyway.

INGREDIENTS

70g coconut flour
85g tapioca flour
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons cacao or carob powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100g coconut oil
180g maple syrup or honey
½ teaspoon vanilla powder or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
Zest and juice of one organic, un-waxed orange
180g dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C for fan forced, or very efficient ovens. Line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper, or a similar alternative; I use silicone baking sheets.

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients, then add and combine the wet ingredients, leaving the chocolate until last. The chocolate can be in drops ready to go, or you can break or cut up a bar of chocolate. Big chunks are best in my opinion!

Once all the ingredients are fully combined you can cover the bowl and put the mixture in the fridge for about 15 minutes. This results is a dough you can roll into balls and flatten slightly on the trays. Alternatively, you can take the impatient route, if it’s not to runny, and just blob the mixture onto the tray with a spoon. The mixture should divide into 12 and it makes a large cookie. Either way you do it seems to yield the same result. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden.

When in the oven the heat always makes them spread out and its easy to burn the edges, so you may need to experiment with the temperature and time. I find my oven gets it right at 160°C for 15 minutes, but a minute too soon and they are still runny in the centre. Once cooled they can be stored in an airtight container and will apparently keep for 5 days in a cool pantry. Mine never last that long.

This recipe is dairy free, however you can replace the coconut oil with butter or ghee. If you can find a dark chocolate without refined sugar, then the recipe is also refined sugar free. The original recipe doesn't use the orange, so if you just wanted chocolate chip then increase the oil back up to 150g.

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