Healthy Protein Cookies (Gluten Free)

I made these cookies for the first time a while back when I was experimenting with chickpea flour. I wanted to make a healthy cookie recipe that would be good for the body as well as for the taste buds. I used chickpea flour, coconut oil, mandarins and agave to sweeten it up a bit.

These cookies are quite addictive, neither my husband nor I can stop eating them. They are a bit cakey and I love the mix of mandarin with chocolate.

This year almost half a million tulips were planted around Amsterdam to celebrate the Tulip Festival. In some locations they are already in full bloom and yesterday was a nice sunny day, perfect to go visit some of the locations. I made these cookies again on Saturday and we devoured them when we came back home yesterday. They were a nice treat after biking around town.

This recipe makes about 38 cookies.

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

400gr Chickpea flour

1 ½ tablespoon of Mandarin zest, plus more for garnish

5 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted

12 tablespoons of agave syrup

2 tablespoons of mandarin juice, I just squeezed the mandarins over a sieve

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

For the dipping:

150gr of dark chocolate, melted

Place all of the ingredients for the cookies in the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix until well combined. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can also just mix it using a whisk.

Cover with plastic film and let it sit in the freezer for 30 minutes. It is important that the dough rests and gets cold; it will be easier to shape the cookies later.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line an oven tray with parchment paper.

Once the 30 minutes are up, remove the cookie dough from the freezer.

Take about one teaspoon of the dough and shape it into a ball using your hands. Then flatten it as much as you can, using the palms of your hands. They will puff up in the oven. Place the cookie on the prepared tray. Repeat for the remaining dough.

Bake them for about 6 to 7 minutes, until slightly golden.

Once you take them out of the oven; using a fork, press a bit in the middle of each one to flatten it slightly. Allow them to cool down.

Once the cookies are cold, start melting the chocolate. You can just microwave it for 30 second intervals, mixing it in between until it has completely melted.  Line a cutting board with plastic wrap.

Dip half of each cookie in the melted chocolate. Then place it on the prepared cutting boar. Repeat until all the cookies are dipped in the chocolate. Then sprinkle some extra mandarin zest on top of the chocolate part of each cookie. Allow for the chocolate to harden.  You can keep them in an airtight container for a few days.