Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies (#Vegan, #LowGL, #Glutenfree)

I have been wanting to get these cookies out to you for ages but did not think I would make it today as I am so bogged down with paperwork. I won’t bore you with the details because believe me it is really boring but I will probably be doing it for about 2-3 weeks so I am trying to spend as much time as possible on it. That way I should be finished sooner than I have thought.

Anyway, let’s forget boring paperwork and get on with thinking about amazingly tasty chocolate and hazelnut cookies. Think Nutella flavoured cookies and you are very close to the flavour of these. In terms of texture they are more like little cakes than cookies but trust me if you make these they will not last long at all.

I used a mixture of flours in these cookies including quinoa and buckwheat as well as using ground hazelnuts. Replacing normal flour with this combination increases the protein content of these cookies and also improves the overall nutritional content and in particular giving a big boost of manganese.

One of the major benefits of these cookies if I have sweetened them with xylitol and Agave nectar and so they are a great low GL snack with a GI of only 35 and GL of 4. So if you stick to a low GL diet where you have 3 meals and 2 snacks then these cookies would make an excellent snack or you could even have one as a dessert with one of your meals.

Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies

Makes 10

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

65g Hazelnuts

50g Quinoa Flour

50g Buckwheat Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

30g Cocoa Powder

1/4 tsp Low Sodium Salt

1 tbs Ground Flaxseed

2 tbs Coconut oil

2 tbs Agave Nectar

3 tbs Nut Milk of your Choice

80g Xylitol

1/4 tsp Ground Vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat Oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

2. Spread Hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until the skins are coming off then transfer nuts to a clean tea towel and rub until the skins come away.

3. To make the hazelnut flour put skinned hazelnut in a food processor and blend until it is powder. I did not want to take it too far and so kept it as a course texture which had the benefit of leaving very small pieces of hazelnut in the finished cookies.

4. Mix the ground flaxseed with 3 tbs water and set aside until thickened.

5. In a small pan mix the coconut oil, agave, nut milk and xylitol and warm until everything has dissolved and mixed together.

6. Combine ground hazelnuts, flours, baking powders, cocoa powder, salt and vanilla in a large bowl, make a well and pour in the flaxseed and the oil and xylitol mix.

7. Use a wooden spoon to combine everything together.

8. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and use a spoon to divide mixture into 10 drops and use the spoon to shape them into cookie shapes.

9. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 mins or until slightly browned.

10. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

This little sweet treat is surprisingly nutritious and the details below are given per cookie but obviously are dependant on portion size.

Some of the best bits of this recipe include:

• Estimated GI of only 35
• eGL of only 4 per cookie
• No cholesterol
• Very low in sodium
• High in manganese