I made a cookie jar!  Well… “made” isn’t quite the right word.  What I did was recycle an empty giant pretzel tub into a cookie jar.   A pretzel tub that looked something like this:

Pretzel Jar

And turned it into this!

Cupcake!

I won’t be putting any cupcakes in the “cookie jar,” but I thought it would be cute and get the point across.  The point being: here be awesome sweet things.

Om Nom Nom!

Yummy sweet things that make you say “Om nom nom!”

Yum!

And YUM!

Things like cookies!

Les Macarons?

One of these days I’ll make some vegan macarons… but I chose to paint them on the cookie jar just because I thought it would be super cute.  Was I right?

CUPCAKE

Yay cookie jar!  I’ve since covered it with sealer, so it’s all shiny now, too.  Shiny AND cute.  I’m pretty happy.

But, what’s a cookie jar without cookies?    Inspired by the unsweetened chocolate chunks in HEAB’s scookies, and Post Punk Kitchens Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, I decided to make “healthy cookies” for my cookie jar.  I’m gonna blame my recent weird health craze on California living.  I used to scoff at healthy baked goods.  My philosophy was if you wanted some dessert, you should have a proper rich, decadent, fat-filled, sugarry ridiculous something-or-other, and just eat less of it if you wanted to be “healthy.”

But, lots of sugarry foods make me feel all weird and hungover the next day… Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not going to stop making ridiculous goodies all together… I’m just trying to work in the healthier options a bit as well.  So, I’m experimenting with agave and stevia and oat flour and the likes.

Anyway! I present to you,

Cookies!

Wheat-Free Low-Sugar Chocolate Chunk Cookies!   Hrm, that’s kind of a mouthful isn’t it?

inside a wheat-free cookie

They were honestly pretty damn good.  Oaty, nutty, chocolatey, with just a hint of sweet.  The chocolate chunks are unsweetened baking chocolate– dark and intense–and made palatable by the light cookie sweetness surrounding them.   Since the cookies are made entirely with oat flour, they did crumble a bit more readily than your average chocolate chip cookie.  So, in an attempt to improve the binding– and lower the fat content– I made another batch using mashed banana instead of oil.

Banana Cookie

They held together waaay better.  Also, the bananas added another couple hints of sweetness, and the result was a cookie that tasted reminiscent of chocolate chip banana bread.  Win.

Before you throw yourself into cookie making, here is a little note on “oat flour.”  You can probably buy crazy expensive oat flour at your local Whole Foods, or you can be like me and put your oats through a coffee grinder or food processor.  It’s as simple as that!   I used steel cut oats since it’s what we had on hand, but rolled oats would probably work better.

Wheat-Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies

• 1 3/4 cups oat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 tablespoon agave
• 1 tablespoon granulated stevia
• 1/3 cup canola oil  (or 1 cup mashed banana)
• 1 Tablespoon flax meal
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
• (Optional) 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• (Optional) 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add molasses, agave, stevia, oil (or banana), flax, water, vanilla.  Mix together.
4. Chop unsweetened chocolate into small chunks.  Add to mixing bowl.
5. Drop batter onto ungreased baking sheet.  Push down to flatten the cookies if you want to.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Easy Peasy.  God Bless Isa Chandra Moskowitz and her brilliant recipes.

Next time, I’m thinking of trying to make these with peanut butter.  Good idea or what?