Gluten/Grain, Soy, Nut, Dairy, Egg free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think a better term for these cookies is "Allergen Free" cookies!

There is 1 tiny little cheat from the RepairVite diet...shhhh, don't tell my doctor!

Ingredients:

3 cups unsweetened coconut (or 1 bar of creamed coconut, melted)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips (because of my restrictions, I buy the Enjoy Life! brand that are dairy, nut, soy free from Whole Foods)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. If you have a bar of creamed coconut, melt in microwave for 30-60 seconds, until warm enough to stir smooth. If you are using unsweetened coconut, pour into foot processor, or heavy duty blender and puree for 5 minutes (time it, make sure your appliance doesn't over heat). Let the appliance cool off for 5 minutes. Puree for another 5 minutes until the coconut is completely liquid -- consistency of milk. 

3. Add maple syrup, vanilla, salt, remaining shredded coconut, and baking soda & baking powder, then stir, or turn appliance until until it becomes dough like. 

4. Stir in chocolate chips. 

5. Drop by tablespoons on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Yummy Rating (1 being the worst & 10 being the best/closest to traditional recipe): 9 

Why? When you haven't had a lot of "real"/traditional recipes for as long as I have, this taste of dessert is absolutely delightful! It has a strong coconut taste (but it's a real coconut flavor, not imitation...BIG difference), so if you don't like coconut, you may want to try these for someone else you love :-)

Lemon Blueberry "Cupcakes"

It was while making these cupcakes I had the idea for this blog!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups organic unsweetened dried coconut shreds
• Zest of one organic lemon
• ¼ cup fresh squeezed organic lemon juice (I just used the lemon I zest-ed)
• 2/3 cup organic coconut palm sugar (the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of maple syrup, but that is not on my diet)
• ½ tsp. sea salt
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ cup frozen organic blueberries

Preparation: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 6-8 muffin cups with liners.
2. Place the unsweetened coconut in an 11 cup food processor.  Process 5 minutes (my high-powered blender only took 3 minutes).
3. Let the food processor rest for 5 minutes – so it doesn’t overheat.
4. Scrape if necessary, and turn back on for 5 minutes, or until it is liquidy and you can hear it splash.  For picture support of this process, see this post.
5. Add the zest, lemon juice, coconut sugar {maple syrup} and sea salt.  Process until it comes together. At this point, the liquid became pretty clumpy, so I added unsweetened SO Delicious brand coconut milk 1 tbsp at a time until it was more smooth.
6. Add the baking soda, and process just until incorporated.
7. Divide batter into 6-8 muffin cups. I think it's because I used sugar & not syrup, but the batter was almost like a smooth, softer toffy texture. Top with 1 Tbs. frozen blueberries on each cupcake.
8. Bake for 25-27 minutes.  I knew they were done when the looked like caramelized on top & the blueberries were cooked. 
9. Chill before you serve for the best consistency – although I did really enjoy them warm out of the oven, they were just a little liquid-y. I tried a chilled one and I was a little like eating a lemon bar...with blueberries :-)

Yummy Rating (1 being the worst & 10 being the best/closest to traditional recipe): 7

Why? The sweetness is spot-on. One of these is plenty & cures that sweet tooth! This is 100% on my RepairVite program, no cheats! I will be making these again! 

Did you try these? What do you think?