Hello all,

We celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend, which officially marked the beginning of the holiday season. I have been experimenting with new recipes while also continuing to promote Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen plenty of adaptations of the brioche recipe from the book, pie doughs, and more. I also continue to re-share all your baking results when you tag me.

I have loved seeing all your baguettes and tarts after many of you signed up for the on-demand baking courses. A reminder that if you own the book, I extend a 25% discount. Simply send me a selfie with the book and I’ll share code. The classes make a great holiday gift for yourself or others.

Now, on to the recipe I am sharing today. My friends at Wonder Valley asked me to create a recipe using their olive oil. This is not as sponsored post, simply sharing the love. In fact, I love their products so much that last Christmas, I sent every person in my family a bottle of their special press. I use their face oil daily. They just sent me a bottle of their Olio Nuevo and it’s so beautiful. All their products make thoughtful gifts.

I made these Olive Oil & Chocolate Chunk Cookies several times testing different variations and settled on these. They are gluten-free as always but also vegan, grain-free, and refined sugar-free. But make no mistake, they are really really good! Read the headnote before making them as I have some pointers there that are important. Hope you will enjoy them.

Love to you all,

xo-Aran

Olive Oil and Chocolate Cookies 

These are some simple, crispy, and gooey cookies that take literally 15 minutes to make from start to finish. They are gluten and grain-free, refined sugar free, and vegan. And so delicious! I actually prefer the cookies after they have settled and cooled as the hardened chocolate is a nice textural contrast to the crispy exterior and gooey interior. 

A few notes about the recipe:

- Because of the great variance between GF products, I highly recommend you weigh your flours. A few grams more or less of flour will make a big impact on the texture of the cookies. 

- If you cannot find light buckwheat flour and all you have is the darker varieties, such as Bob’s Red Mill or Arrowhead Mills, that is totally fine. Your cookies will be slightly darker and earthier in flavor. If you don’t mind introducing grains, you can use sorghum or brown rice flour or teff in place of the buckwheat.

- For nut allergies, replace almond flour with tiger nut flour.

- You can use dark brown sugar in place of coconut sugar. The cookies spread slightly differently but I didn’t notice I huge difference when I tested them. 

Makes 10 cookies

1 cup (140 g) light buckwheat flour

1/2 cup (50 g) finely-ground almond flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (110 g) Wonder Valley olive oil or another fruity extra-virgin olive oil, such as arbequina

1/4 cup (80 g) maple syrup

1/4 cup (50 g) coconut sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 ounces (120 g) 70% chocolate, coarsely chopped

Flaky sea salt (optional)

1.     Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2.     In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the olive oil, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and vanilla extract. Stir together with a spatula until the dough comes together. Then, fold in nearly all the chocolate (leave some larger pieces for the top) until smooth and evenly distributed.

3.     Using an ice cream scoop, measure approximately 3 tablespoons or 1.5 ounces of dough and place on prepared baking sheets. You should have 10 cookies. Add a piece of chocolate to the top and sprinkle with a bit of flaky salt. 

4.     Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes until edges are golden brown but center feels soft. Rotate the pans halfway through if necessary. Let the cookies cool on the pan for at least 15 minutes before lifting or they might fall apart. Store them in an airtight container for up to 5 days.