These are moist with a creamy texture—thus Coconut Cream Cookies. Bonus: they have the three key things every meal needs. Yep, you read that right. These cookies are a meal-in-a-cookie.

 

The three must-haves for every meal are:

1. Protein
2. High-quality, healthy fat
3. Produce

 

And these cookies have it all.

1. Protein: shredded coconut, coconut milk
2. Good fats: shredded coconut, coconut oil or grass-fed butter
3. Produce: carrots!

 

There you have it: a meal and a dessert in one and nutrient-dense sweeteners to boot. This is simple.

COCONUT CREAM COOKIES WITH CARROTS + CAROB

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

 

Ingredients

½ can (6 ¾ ounces) whole coconut milk, including the cream

¼ cup coconut oil or (½ stick) grass-fed butter, softened

¼ cup organic sorghum (see notes) (Find it here.)

¼ cup organic maple syrup

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch sea salt

1 cup finely-shredded, unsweetened organic coconut

2 ½ cups whole spelt flour (see notes) (Find it here.)

1 small carrot finely shredded or shaved with a carrot peeler + chopped

⅓ cup carob chips (see notes) (Find it here.)

 

Notes

Sorghum: Please feel free to substitute half maple syrup, half molasses in this recipe, or in any recipe, if you are unable to find sorghum in your area. Either way, you will go deliciously from ho-hum to yum.

Spelt is an ancient cousin of wheat with a lesser amount and a more easily digestible form of gluten. Spelt is my go-to, all-purpose baking flour. It behaves much like wheat in recipes. I prefer it’s nutritional makeup, and its cost is only marginally more when compared with organic whole wheat.

Carob is a caffeine-free, calcium-rich, naturally sweeter alternative to cacao (cocoa or chocolate) and one you will see me use as a chocolate substitute when a recipe needs some delicious little brown things mixed in or a nice rich color and flavor, like brownies (Mmmmm). (Learn more here.) If you love chocolate, use an equal amounts of chocolate chips. It will work just fine, but know, I’m a bit of a carob snob myself.

 

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 325°

2. In a large mixing bowl, blend together the wet ingredients. A rubber scraper or a wooden spoon works well.

3. Add the dry ingredients, slowly mixing in the flour last.

4. Fold in the carrots and carob chips.

5. Shape into 1″ balls, placing them on a cookie sheet as you go. Flatten with a fork, making a lovely criss-cross pattern if looks matter to you.

6. Bake 15 mins. Cool—maybe—then eat!

Yes, these are good for you, but are they good? All I can say is the three I ate were delicious. The other forty-five (I made a double batch.) were gone before I got to see how the second batch turned out, so… hopefully that settles the question.

 

Hope you love them as much as we do! Let me know how they turn out.