Day 2 of the NuNaturals products giveaway! To refresh your memory, here’s what four winners will receive:
- One bottle of the Cherry-Flavored Stevia Liquid
- One bottle of Vanilla-Flavored Stevia Liquid
- One 16 oz. package of Oat Fiber
- A 50-count box of Nustevia White Stevia Powder packets
Again, no matter where you live in the world, you can enter the giveaway and be eligible to win. Now, onto my gluten-free, sugar-free, oil-free cookies featuring NuNaturals products NuStevia Reb99 and Oat Fiber.
Fun fact: using sunflower seed butter in baked goods can turn them St. Patrick’s Day green. Interesting, to be sure, but maybe not the most appetizing color for a cookie. I found out about this phenomenon the hard way, and though the green color doesn’t affect the taste, I prefer my cookies to be on the brown side. Anyway, the color (which shows up as the cookies cool) is due to the chlorogenic acid in sunflower seeds which reacts with baking powder or baking soda. To balance the acidity, I’ve reduced the amount of baking powder and added a little bit of lemon juice. Adding cacao powder assured no green would peak through. You’ll notice I also have orange juice in these cookies. You don’t taste the OJ in the final product. It just helps tone down the little bit of sharpness of the flours.
Yep, that’s green in there.
Gluten-free Chai Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 30
- Yield: 18 1x
Description
This is the cookie of “no.” No sugar, no dairy, no gluten, and no oil. Instead of Chai Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, perhaps I should change the name to No Guilt Cookies!
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
- 3 Tbsp. NuNaturals Oat Fiber (or oat flour or rolled oats)
- 1/4 cup cacao powder or cocoa powder
- 1 tsp. NuNaturals NuStevia Reb99 or stevia powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. anise seed, ground
- 1/2 tsp. cardamom
- 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum, optional
- pinch salt (omit if using sunflower seed butter that has salt)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seed butter (I make my own to avoid added oil and sweeteners)
- 2 large very ripe bananas or 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. fresh orange juice
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 cup chopped pecans or chopped pistachio nuts
- 1/2 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Lily’s Sweets brand sweetened with stevia)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, Oat Fiber, cacao or cocoa, stevia, spices, xanthan gum, if using, salt, and baking soda.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the sunflower butter, bananas (or applesauce), orange juice, vanilla extract, and lemon juice.
- Carefully tip in the flour mixture and process the mixture until combined. Add the nuts and chocolate chips and process a few times to mix them into the batter.
- Place heaping tablespoonful of batter onto the prepared baking pans. With wet hands, gently press down the mounds to flatten the cookies. Or, dip a 1/4 cup measure in water and pack in a big scoop of dough. Tap the cup on your hand to pop out the cookies. Place on the baking sheet and gently flatten. Repeat.
- Bake for about 14 minutes (rotating pans halfway through) or until dark brown and firm. Let cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks.
SCROLL DOWN TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!
Giveaway ends at midnight U.S. Central time on March 13.
Nom! I’ve been seeing sunflower butter much more often recently as an alternative to cashew butter, especially in creamy sauces for savoury dishes. They’re so much cheaper, so I’m going to go ahead and make my own later today! Does one soak them beforehand, or do you just keep grinding til they get all paste-y?
These cookies look delicious, btw! Anything green is always so cheery to eat 🙂
No need to soak – and the process is much faster (I’ve found) then when making other kinds of nut/seed butters. I hadn’t thought of using sunflower seed butter in a sauce, though – yum!
Pssst! To avoid the green, toast your sunflower seeds first 😀 It is the raw ones that do it.
Hmmm, I used roasted seeds and still got the green. Go figure.
I agree with you Annie, I prefer them brown. I love that last picture of them lined up on the plate, I want to reach into the screen and snatch one to dunk into my tea.
That giveaway is better than I thought, I imagined the four winners would each receive one of the prizes on offer, not all four.
Oops – yes, each winner gets all four products. Should’ve made that more clear!
I use stevia in some of my baking recipes! An easy substitute for a little bit of sweetness 🙂
I signed up with : bianca.rogoveanu@yahoo.com
Thanks, Bianca!
I signed up to receive your updates! These cookies look great! And what a giveaway! Love what NuNaturals comes up with!
They’re the best! Thanks so much for entering the giveaway!
These cookies look mouthwatering 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Hey there,
these cookies look super amazing. I love the fact how much good stuff is in there! 🙂 Ive subscribed to your blog now, too. Hope to see many more great recipes in the future! 🙂
Thank you, Laura!
Oh and I have also used stevia before in the liquid, granulated and powdered form and I must say it is really great in almost anything. I like to bake with it and flavour frostings.
You are a stevia expert!
Hehe, not really, just a tad fearless when it comes to baking sometimes. 😉
I want to win this, and eat all your cookies and pudding…
That is totally doable!
I Heart stevia!
Yum yum! These cookies look SO good. Crazy how low in sugar they are, especially using applesauce instead of bananas.
Love that you packed these with nuts too.
Yep, I use stevia in my coffee!
i love making the avocado mousse! it is my favorite! but these cookies look amazing! need to try these
I made your tasty cookies yesterday aftornen & I so adore them?! !They are really stunning & very tasty with my morning soy latte! Yummm too. X
Oh, I’m so pleased!
Completely believe I need all those cookies right now! Looks really delicious!
Zsu @ Zsu’s Vegan Pantry
Thanks :-)!
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Wow Annie I only came across your blog recently via foodgawker and I am so glad I did! I’ll be sticking around for sure 🙂
Hey Rosie! I’m so glad you found me :-)!
On another note – I also discovered the fluoro green powers of sunflower seeds when making bread recently! It has never happened to me before but for some reason the sunflower seeds oozed a green colour and until now I had not heard of it happening to anyone else. Do you have any ideas why? I thought maybe it reacted with another ingredient?
You are correct – the chlorogenic acid in sunflowers reacts to baking soda and/or baking powder. The green intensifies over time (at least that’s what I’ve noticed). The solution is to add a little lemon juice or reduce the amount of baking soda/powder. Or, of course, just go w/ the green!
Hey that’s pretty cool actually! Thanks for the explanation 🙂
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