Paleo Chocolate Macaroons with Mint

Made with raw honey and coconut sugar

This recipe is dedicated to my friend Margaret and anyone else who is following a grain-free, gluten-free, low sugar or paleo diet. Although, the beauty of these cookies is that everyone is gonna love them, whether they follow a certain diet or not. In fact, I am gifting these little delights for Christmas because they came out so good! 

gluten-free, paleo Christmas cookies!

They are simple to make and the ingredients are nice and straight forward. Best of all, because they're sweetened with raw honey and coconut sugar, which have lower glycemic indexes than white sugar, you won't feel that post sweets binging malaise. Not to mention coconut sugar and raw honey add a punch of micronutrients -- like magnesium, potassium, zinc, and B vitamins. 

The mint in these cookies comes from the chocolate that I dipped each macaroon in once they were cooled. I used a Divine 70% Dark Chocolate with Mint bar. This bar does have some sugar in it-so if you're not willing to splurge a tiny bit for the holiday I would recommend melting unsweetened carob chips with a little mint extract instead (I bet that would be delicious too!) Also, if you can't get your hands on coconut sugar just omit it and use 1/2 cup honey instead of 1/4 cup.

Paleo Chocolate Macaroons with Mint 

(adapted from Againstallgrain.com)

You'll Need: 

3 cups shredded coconut 

½ cup cacao powder

1/4 cup raw honey

1/4 cup coconut sugar

3/4 cup coconut milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 free-range egg white

dash of sea salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees 

Combine the coconut, cocao powder, honey, coconut milk and coconut sugar in a bowl.

Beat the egg white with a small pinch of salt until soft peaks form when you lift the whisk. 

Fold the egg white into the coconut mixture and mix until fully combined.

Place small balls of  the dough on an oiled or parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes, checking for doneness after 20 minutes. Cool on a wire cooling rack.

Once cooled, melt chocolate (or carob and extract) over a double boiler and dip the bottom of each cookie in. cool again on a cookie sheet in the freezer and then store in an airtight container for up to a week.