Sometimes we all just need a cookie.

Sometimes nothing else cures a long day or a rough week like homemade chocolate chip cookies.

But being gluten free, warm chocolate chip cookies became a ghostly memory that haunted me with melty goodness.  Were they that good? Maybe not. Maybe I just beefed it up in my imagination. Like ALF…I mean really…that show could NOT have been as great as I remember it. A hand puppet alien? Really.  Anyone?

And then my girlfriend Tessa made a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies made with almond flour. I was floored. It was like a hug wrapped up in a cookie. It was soft. It was chewy. It tasted like the real thing! Like the kind that my mom would make on cold winter days.

And then it happened…

I snapped. I couldn’t stop thinking about those COOKIES. Those amazing cookies.

I woke up in the middle of the night. COOKIES.

I smelled them in my dreams. COOKIES.

I kept coming up with bad excuses to make them. HEY, Let’s celebrate me getting gas in my car! COOKIES? Hey honey, you look great in plaid…COOKIES???  I’m so sorry that you worked on a Saturday….COOKIES?????

They solved all my problems last week.  I had to hide a few in the freezer so that my cookie-monster husband didn’t eat them all.  So for special occasions I will warm a few up….like “hey, I organized my sock drawer and found most of the missing socks”….Time for a cookie and a milk stout!

Grain Free Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (slightly adapted from Against All Grain)

Makes 2 dozen small cookies

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter or ghee
  
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour (such as Honeyville)
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (use Enjoy Life chocolate chips for dairy free)
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat. Set aside. 
2. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, eggs, and honey. Whip with a fork until combined and creamy.  Add almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until a dough forms. Stir in the chocolate chip pieces and walnut pieces until combined.
3. Using a tablespoon, scoop out dough and place on parchment paper or silpat mat on prepared baking sheet. Flatten out cookie dough slightly with either the back of the spoon or your fingers. The cookies won’t spread during the cooking process. Therefore create the shape that you want before you bake the cookies.
4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees F until lightly browned on edges.  Remove from baking sheet and allow to cool on wire rack.