Ok, so I made the name up for these cookies, but honestly, every time I look at them, I'm just reminded of giraffe skin! I mean, look...maybe its just me...I always have animals on the brain.
Now, this is the EASIEST recipe ever! And, it is one of which I've been working on for the last couple of months - ever since we got back from NZ. The kayaking trip we took in Abel Tasman is what particularly inspired me, after our guide Henry had brought everyone a packed lunch, including brownies.....which, obviously, I couldn't eat because of all the wheaty/milky ingredients.
But then, what else did he have in his icebox, but a brown paper bag - exciting stuff right? This bag though was just for me! I was highly embarrassed at being singled out as the gluten free person, but was also pretty hungry halfway through our kayaking day, that I didn't care!
Anyway, in my little brown paper bag, was this cookie-like treat. Myself and Mr. Bakery Den (whom, by the way, had already had two brownies), were trying to work out all the ingredients in what I had been given.
We surmised that it obviously contained ground almonds, probably coconut oil, some sort of sweetener and the nicest dark chocolate chunks. Mmmm.
And, after testing several recipes, I think I've managed to re-create them pretty well!
They are, as if you haven't guessed, Holly friendly, so; gluten and dairy free, and, can be made vegan too by replacing the egg, with one flax-egg 😏. All you need is one bowl, so super easy.
If you're looking for a great elevenses or snack with your afternoon cuppa, give these a try.
Giraffe Cookies
Ingredients
1 large egg (or 1 flax-egg)
50g soft brown sugar
25ml coconut oil (melted)
190g ground almonds
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g dark chocolate (dairy free/vegan)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Pour the sugar and coconut oil in to a mixing bowl, and mix together - you should get a crumbly sort of texture, which doesn't particularly look very appetising at this stage!
Add the egg and vanilla extract and stir through.
Add in the ground almonds, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Mix thoroughly in to the mixture, until it all comes together.
Chop the chocolate in to chunks. You can use chocolate chips for this to avoid having to chop, but I would recommend using dark chocolate, as the flavour with the almond cookie work perfectly together.
Add around 3/4 of the chocolate chunks to the mixture, and stir thoroughly.
Take a tablespoon of the mixture and roll in to a ball with your hands, before placing it on the prepared baking tray.
Continue to make cookie balls with the mixture - somewhere between a walnut (in it's shell) and a golf ball.
You should have enough mixture to make between 10-12 cookie mounds.
Once laid out on the tray, use the remaining chunks of dark chocolate to press two or three chunks in to the top of each cookie. This also helps to flatten the spheres slightly.
Pop them in the oven for 10 minutes - but keep an eye on them as they can over cook/burn on top really quickly, because of the chocolate content.
When cooked, remove from the oven and leave to completely cool. As the cool, the outside will harden and crisp slightly, which will make them easier to transfer to a plate for serving!
For storage, I would keep them on a plate with tin foil over the top. Can be kept for up to 5 days - but they won't last that long!
Hope you enjoy this recipe - if you do try it out, just let us know how it went :)
Holly @ TBD x