Wendy Polisi’s Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Quinoa Cookies
15We continue DAY 7 of "Gluten Free Vegan Recipes with Breville" and I am thrilled to be featuring one of my favourite food bloggers, the wonderful Wendi Polisi from Cooking Quinoa. This woman is HILARIOUS! I just LOVE her! I LOVE quinoa, and nobody knows more about using it than this lovely lady. Her fabulous website is a one-stop-shop celebrating "all things quinoa", and she has some incredibly inventive ways to use it, including these incredible Gluten Free Vegan Flourless Chocolate Quinoa Cookies.
Besides writing her very popular blog, Cooking Quinoa, Wendy is the author of THE QUINTESSENTIAL QUINOA COOKBOOK. Whether you are a quinoa connoisseur or new to cooking with quinoa, there are over 200 pages of flavourful inspiration. The recipes are inventive, healthy, easy, and loaded with goodness. Recipes like Quinoa Pancakes, Chipotle Quinoa Burgers, Roasted Red Pepper Quinoa Cannelloni, Quinoa Chocolate Bar Sundae, and Almond Fudge Quinoa Brownies are just a few of the delectable creations Wendy has on offer in this fabulous book. Every recipe is accompanied by multiple pictures, nutritional data, substitution suggestions, and alternative preparation methods.
There are also TONS of AMAZING quinoa recipes on Wendy's website. Some of my favourites include: Quinoa and White Bean Casserole with Caramelized Onions, Quinoa Carrot Slaw, Quinoa Corn Tortillas, Quinoa Kale Fritters, Quinoa Energy Bars, Quinoa Pudding, and many more. There is also some wonderful information about quinoa. Try these sensational flourless chocolate quinoa cookies and you will begging for more of Wendy's scrumptious quinoa recipes. These cookies are DEELICIOUS!
Great news! Wendy is currently working on another gluten free quinoa cookbook, which is due out in 2013. I can't wait for that! Although she spends a great deal of time working on her website and books, her most important priorities are her six and seven year old boys, who are homeschooled. Wendy is also an avid promoter of lifestyle design and a graduate of the University of Florida.
Wendy is very accessible on Twitter, where her tweets have me in stitches! Trust me, check out Wendy Polisi and you will find out that she absolutely ROCKS!
Wendy, thankyou for graciously sharing your fabulous recipe and for enthusiastically promoting this event.
I just LOVE what you do...
Learn more about Wendy Polisi at Cooking Quinoa
Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
Wendy Polisi’s Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Quinoa Cookies
- 2 flax/chia eggs (1 T flax meal + 1 T chia seeds + 6 T warm water)
- 1 cup blanched almonds (see note)
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1/3 cup almond butter
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
- ¼ cup apple sauce
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¾ cup vegan chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl combine flax meal (or ground flax seeds), chia seed and warm water. Whisk well and set aside.
- In the Sous Chef® food processor combine almonds and quinoa. Process for 1 minute, or until you have a fine meal. Add baking soda and salt and process until blended.
- Heat a small saucepan to medium low and add almond butter and coconut oil. Cook until coconut oil and almond butter are melted, whisking occasionally. Add in apple sauce and maple syrup and whisk until heated through. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and flax/chia egg.
- Add the warm almond butter mixture to your food processor and process until a dough has formed.
- Immediately add in the chocolate chips and process until chocolate is melted and blended, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary.
- Roll the dough into small balls and flatten with your fingers. (You could also use a fork.)
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Note: To blanch whole almonds, boil water in a medium saucepan. Add almonds and cook for one minute. Drain and allow to cool slightly. Peel almonds. You may skip this step if desired.
- Variations:
- For double chocolate cookies, allow the batter to cool and stir in ½ cup vegan chocolate chips.
- For Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, stir in ½ cup chopped macadamia nuts just prior to cooking.
- For Cherry Chocolate Cookies, stir in ½ cup dried unsweetened cherries just prior to cooking.
Learn more about Wendy Polisi at Cooking Quinoa
Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
Piggy Cooking Tips
Adding flour into the food processor when mixing
I recommend using a food processor to make a lot of my batters. However, adding flours into the mixture can be time consuming and messy if you have to take the lid off every time you want to add something. In addition to this, the opening of the top if often a lot smaller than the width of a standard cup measurer and it is difficult to get the flours in evenly without losing a lot of it and making a mess. A quick trick to make this easer is to create a funnel with some parchment (baking) paper. Place this funnel into the feeding tube and this will allow the flours to slide in slowly and evenly.
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Piggy Grunts!
Add Your GruntHi Natalie! I’m using the flax/chia mixture as an egg replacer for 2 eggs.
If you have EITHER flax or chia seeds, just use 2T and it will work just fine. This is the only way I’ve tested the recipe, but other things that should work are:
-Ener-G Egg Replacer (use package direction for 2 eggs)
-Mashed Ripe Banana (1/2 cup)
-Applesauce (1/2 cup)
-Plain or vanilla soy yogurt (1/2)
A good friend of mine swears by 1/3 cup pumpkin puree to replace 1 egg, but this is something I haven’t tried yet. (Just throwing that out there in case you don’t have any of the above four options and happen to have a can of pumpkin around.)
Hope this helps!
Thanks for answering Natalie’s question about the egg replacers. You ROCK!
Thanks so much for inviting me to be part of this event Tess - and for your kind words. I think I need to hire you to write all my bio’s from now on. :)
LOL! It is easy to write a good story when you have a great subject :)
ThankYOU for wholeheartedly participating in this event and sharing your delicious recipe. You are AMAZING and it was a pleasure to celebrate you here. xx
The recipe looks great. Just a minor thing really.
“#14 For Cherry Chocolate Cookies, stir in ½ cup dried unsweetened cookies just prior to cooking.”
Should probably read “unsweetened cherries” not “cookies”. :)
Thankyou for catching that Rick and for taking the time to leave a comment. Yes, that was absolutely a typo and I have now corrected it. Enjoy these cookies. They are AMAZING :)
I’m wondering what the texture of the baked cookie is - soft or crisp? Thanks! Looks great!
Hey Ellen.
My batch were lovely and chewy. I LOVE these!
Made these last week but using almond meal instead of whole almonds. As a result I had more of a batter so ended up with brownies - so delicious though!
Hello!
I’m really excited to try these chocolate quinoa cookies but was wondering- is there any substitute for the “2 flax/chia eggs (1 T flax meal + 1 T chia seeds + 6 T warm water)”??
I want to make these NOW and don’t have these items on hand!!
Thanks!!