If you need Crunch as much as I do, you’ll love these Carob and Ginger Spice Cookies. They snap and crumble and they’re full flavoured. Carob provides depth, ginger excitement, and the cinnamon and cloves a touch of homeliness and comfort. They’re egg free, dairy free, gluten free and fully Paleo AIP. They’re so good that making them seems to have found it’s way into my weekly routine.
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned on other occasions, there’s something about having a little something in the biscuit tin that I find deeply reassuring. Emotional eating? I’m okay with that, as long as it doesn’t control us. We’re complex creatures made of spirit and memory, as much as we are of bones and blood, and those moments of sweet reward occupy a valid space in our psychology.
Having just done 3 months of the AIP, I’ve discovered I can go for months without thinking of chocolate. But coffee and cookies, they’re a different story. They are my opiates. They’re the substances which ignite my feel-good pathways, and as you know, I don’t believe it’s possible to kill the Sugar Dragon. I think the chemical reaction of pleasure and reward is so deeply embedded in our DNA that the best we can hope for is keep him under control.
It’s not easy. To be honest, I should probably renounce all treats as they trigger an unpleasant and instantaneous mucous reaction. The beauty of a Whole 30, for me, is simply to go for a month with next to no mucous – although even a banana or plain old coconut chips can produce the response. But as much as I admire more hard-core AIPers, at this point in my journey, I’m not so strong. For whatever reason – because my inflammation symptoms aren’t painful enough, or because I haven’t been diagnosed with anything in particular – for whatever reason, at this point I’m just not ready to renounce Cookies for the long term. A Whole 30 for me is tremendously difficult, not for the food, but for the psychology. No treats or cheats for a month? It’s not natural!
So onwards with the Cookies, and glory be when they’re AIP!
When I was making these for the first time, a blinding flash of intuition had me reaching for the Carob powder. I think it’s what makes them. There’s not so much that the Carob flavour is over-powering, but just enough to give the cookies depth of flavour. Don’t be shy with the spices – this combination of cinnamon, ginger and cloves has a certain punch which will remind Australian cooks of our traditional Anzac Biscuits – but so much better for the lack of Golden Syryp and refined sugar.
This batch makes a good 30 biscuits, which will keep you going for a while if your intake is as limited as it should be, and if you don’t have a household of growing boys. I’ve made 20 large cookies with the same batch of cookie dough – they turn out a bit chewy rather than snappy – maybe you prefer them that way. You’ll find they’re perfect for marking those occasions when you need a little reward – your mid-morning moment of stillness, or with your afternoon Tumeric Tea. Crunchy, snapable and spicy – oh, go on! You deserve it!
This recipe has been shared on the AIP Recipe Roundtable , Real Food Friday, and Gluten Free Fridays.
It was a Featured Recipe on Real Food Friday.
I hope you love these as much as we do. They’re well worth the effort, believe me! Take a snap of your creations and tag me on Instagram @paleomantic – it’s so motivating to see Paleomantic recipes happening out there in the world. Find me on Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest, and thanks so much for sharing on your Social.
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Best Wishes, Good Health and Happiness
- 2 cups dessicated coconut
- 1½ cups cassava flour
- ⅓ cup muscovado sugar
- 1 tablespoon carob powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 100 grams coconut oil, melted (3.5 oz)
- 2 - 4 tablespoons water
- Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F and line 2 baking trays with a silicone sheet or parchment paper.
- Place all dry ingredients into a food processor and pulse until combined.
- Add the melted coconut oil, and run the processor until all the ingredients are well coated with oil, stopping to scrape down the edges if necessary.
- With the processor running, add water one tablespoon at a time until the mix starts clinging to the sides of the bowl and forms a dough.
- Form 30 walnut - sized balls. Press the balls into thin cookies directly onto the prepared baking sheets, moulding the edges a little so they don't split. Score the surfaces with a fork, pressing down to make them even thinner.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until they just start to color. Wait for them to cool completely, and then store in an airtight container.
- Enjoy!
If you liked this post, be sure to read these:
Why You’ll Never Kill the Sugar Dragon
10 Ways to Keep the Sugar Dragon Under Control
Angie’s Famous All Day Biscotti, Now Paleofied
If you’ve never done a Whole 30, you really, really should. Grab yourself a copy of It Starts With Food – you’ll thank yourself forever. Click on the thumbnail below to buy from Amazon – it’s an affiliate link. Thanks and Blessings for your kind support.
Hi, Maybe I’m going blind but I don’t see the actual recipe! These cookies look great and I’d like to try them. Can you point me to the ingredients and directions?
Thanks!
Oh, yes! Haha, I forgot to print the recipe, haha! Hang on, I’ll get onto it- check back in half an hour!
Hi, I don’t think these are AIP or Paleo. Muscovdo sugar is just like brown sugar. Sugar is sugar and neither are allowed on AIP or Paleo. The cookies do sound good though.
Hi JM, thanks for connecting! Within both Paleo and AIP you’ll find a spectrum of dietary guidelines (as opposed to rules), with the emphasis on each person finding what works for them personally on their road to optimum health, healing and happiness. For me, cookies certainly contribute to my mental and emotional well-being! Refined sugar (white and bleached) is generally to be avoided like the plague, but both Paleo and AIP are ok with a little natural sweetness, as long as they are treats and not the mainstay of one’s diet. AIP suggests not consuming in excess of 20 grams per day, for example. I’m okay with Muscovado sugar – I don’t use much of it in any recipe, so the sugar per portion of any treat is low, and it is so unrefined as to still contain its natural mineral salts, phosphorus, iron, calcium, magnesium and potassium. If you get around to making these, I do hope you love them! Best wishes, A
Hi ANGIE,
THESE COOKIES LOOK & SOUND DELICIOUS! A TANGY SPICY COOKIE SOUNDS GREAT FOR A HEALTHY SNACK. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays. Pinned & tweeted!
Hi there, Marla! Thanks so much for the Pin and Tweet! These are our favorite at the moment and, oh no! the cookie tin is empty again…
These cookies look totally crave worthy! I love the balance of flavors you have put together in this recipe.
Hi Andrea, Thanks for dropping by. Yes, the flavours work really well here – the carob isn’t so much that it’s trying to be chocolate – but enough to give a warm foundation for the spices. I must make them again soon…
Hi Angie, I’m so glad I’ve found your blog. I also love cookies, especially with coffee or tea, my favorites are the crunchy ones, so searching for an AIP recipe for biscotti I end it up here 🙂
I also found that I can go without chocolate, although I absolutely looove good quality chocolate, I’ve been able to stay away from it despite the fact that there’s always plenty of it In our home, I live with three chocolate lovers, my husband and teenage daughter and son, needless to say it hasn’t been an easy journey but I’m trying my best 🙂 I also deal with the excess mucous in my throat after eating most foods, perennial sinuses infections, GI problems, joint pain, break outs and a few other pretty annoying symptoms that no doctor seem to be able to address accurately, very frustraring! I started following the AIP style of living about two weeks ago, and I feel better, my GI problems are getting better, bloating, diarrhea and gases are definetly less and less every day, and joint pain in my knees and hips is almost gone, so all in all I’m seeing improvements. Any how I just wanted to tell you a bit about my story but mostly wanted to thank you for sharing your story in your blog and sharing your recipes, I’m exited about making the cookies, I have all the ingredients in my pantry so I will make them for sure 🙂
I have a question though, its the desiccated coconut in the recipe dried shredded coconut or coconut flour which is the dedicated coconut but ground really fine like a flour?
Hi Winny, I’m so glad you like the blog – thankyou! And thanks so much for sharing your story – your symptoms are so similar to mine – that weird mucous thing! It’s not common – no one seems to know what you’re talking about. And, yes, it’s so frustrating when the medical establishment can’t address it – when you’re ‘not sick enough’, or when your symptoms fall outside of the box. Which is why I put my situation down to Chronic Systemic Inflammation. Thank God we’ve discovered Paleo and the AIP! Stick with it – in the first month you feel real changes, and then, in my experience, you go through waves and plateaus. Some things – like the mucous – seem to improve slowly but gradually, but now days go by when I don’t even think about it. My intuitive feeling is that Leaky Gut takes a good long while to heal, so you need to be patient and as consistent as you can.
Yes, dried shredded coconut, not the coconut flour. 🙂
Hope you love these cookies! Best, A
I just tried making these & they turned out very running! I used tapioca flour instead of cassava flour which I read is pretty similar. 4oz of coconut oil equals 1/2 cup. Not sure what went wrong! The batter certainly tastes good but much too running to cook up in a cookie form. Any ideas?
Hi Cindy, I’ve just checked, weighed and measured the coconut oil. 100 grams should be 3.5 ounces, so I’ve adjusted the recipe accordingly -thank you for drawing this to my attention! The difference there is so minimal as to not make much of a difference. That mass, however, falls quite short of 1/2 cup – it’s measuring somewhere between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup. So I’d say you’ve added too much coconut oil. Another contributing factor could well be the tapioca flour. Are you sure that it’s flour and not starch? I believe the terms are used interchangeably, but they are quite different. Tapioca starch is very white and very fine. It’s extracted from the cassava tuber through washing and pulping. But the flour is, well, just like flour, and it’s simply the cassava tuber that has been peeled, dried and ground. Tapioca starch is good to use as a thickener for sauces, sautès and stews, whereas the cassava flour is great for Paleo baking. Hope this helps! Good luck with your next batch! A