SO. Today I ventured into the world of creating my own recipe. It wasn’t a total disaster, but it could’ve gone better. As I write this I’m still on the fence as to whether or not I should even post the recipe…
While I was sitting in church today I got the baking itch for some reason. Tina’s recent batch of Coconut Carrot Cake Muffins came to mind, along with a ton of great ingredients I have in the house (including my new collection NuNaturals products), and then I thought….COOKIES. Totally normal to be thinking about in church, right? So as soon as I got home I whipped out all of the ingredients to make Coconut Macadamia Cookies. These turned out to be not only delicious, but also low carb and gluten-free.
So, what’s the problem, you ask? They’re quite crumbly. I mean, they’re definitely still eat-able, but I’m just such a perfectionist that this minor detail irks me. I remember Tina saying that her muffins turned out the same way - it must have something to do with the coconut flour.
I’m just going to go ahead and post this recipe, but please know that it’s under construction. In fact, if any of you bakers out there know how I can decrease the crumble-factor of these cookies, PLEASE let me know! Let’s make this a joint effort, shall we? 
Coconut Macadamia Cookies (yields 15 cookies)
Dry Ingredients
- 3/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup NuNaturals Stevia Baking Blend
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 45g (just under 3 tbsp) macadamia butter
- 1/2 cup coconut OR almond milk
- 1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
Mix-Ins
- 2 oz macadamia nuts
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Combine dry ingredients, breaking up the lumps as much as possible (this can be kind of tough if your almond flour was refrigerated).
3. Whisk together wet ingredients.
4. Chop the macadamia nuts by placing them in a zip-lock and pounding them (if you don’t have a pounder, a can or jar will do the job). Don’t chop them too finely - just until the nuts are about 1/4 in size.
5. Combine wet and dry ingredients. The batter will be pretty thick.
6. Add the macadamia nuts and coconut flakes and combine.
7. Make golf-ball-sized balls of dough and place on greased cookie sheets. Tip: I used a melon scooper to shape and release the dough easily.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes - until cookies just begin to get golden brown on top.
9. GENTLY move to the cooling rack. The cookies are most delicate right out of the oven and seem to firm up after cooling for a bit (**refrigerating them after fully cooled helps them get even more firm).
10. DIG IN! The crumble factor makes them especially good to top yogurt or oatmeal with, just sayin’ 😉
Okay, so these might not be the most beautiful cookies, but I’ve learned to appreciate them for their individuality. Here we have a Micky-Mouse wannabe:
A cookie growing a tail:
Cookie-tentacles:
“Your eyes are stunning…”
….Yep, I have a bit too much time on my hands…
How do you think of new recipes? Do you have to experiment a lot before “perfecting” them?
I’m with you on the eating more slowly thing. I just can’t help myself sometimes. My biggest thing is trying to put my fork down for a bit over each couple of bites. That helps when I remember to do it.
And as far as your cookies go, you could try adding xantham gum. I’ve never used it in my gluten-free baking (I tend to like the crumbly cookies), but I hear it makes all the difference.
Mallory says
I definitely love trying new recipes! I don’t usually make up my own (unless throwing everything in a pot and hope that it tastes good counts) but i LOVE trying new recipes. My mom just had stomach surgery and can only eat soup so I made her healthy cream of broccoli soup. It was too good to put into words!
The cookies look really yummy! Anything with cocnut in it sounds good to me!
And PS-Since your blog makes me smile so much I’m giving you the Sunshine Award. Stop by my blog to pick it up.
You are seriously the cutest thing! I had a big smile on my face looking at your “individuality” cookie gallery! 😀 (and those cookies look amazing, by the way, but I can NOT be trusted around cookies! lol)
LOVE your goals for this week and your positive attitude about not meeting all of your goals from last week. You are so right about becoming fully aware of our habits and being realistic & not beating ourselves up when we “fail” a few times!
As for me, I have a few goals for this week myself! I’m a HUGE goal person, just like you! 😉
1.) Do some form of exercise/cardio each day for at least 30 minutes.
2.) Go “outside my box” and incorporate more variety into my meals (I’m bad at this!).
3.) Eat as few processed foods as possible (but be realistic at the same time).
4.) Eat fewer Luna and KIND Bars and more wholesome, low sugar foods.
5.) I’m going to copy you — unplug at least an hour before bed. I’m horrible about staying up super late reading blogs!
Jessica@Healthy Exposures says
Oooh - love the recipe idea, and hey - my baked goods are always less than beautiful…I think the “pretty in their own way” foods are the best. I’ve yet to do anything with the coconut flour I purchased a couple weeks ago, other than use it in protein cakes. I just haven’t figured out what to do with it!
I love that you’re doing health goals…I should definitely do that for myself, too. Not sure what I would set for myself this week - definitely something to think about tonight, though.
And, as you may well know - I LOVE playing with new recipes!! And even if I plan to follow the same recipe - I pretty much never make something the exact same way twice. Sometimes I wish i could just follow a recipe for once, rather than messing around with it, though! I tend to just have one thought, which leads to another, and another - and I’m creating soemthing entirely different, lol.
Annnd, the Larabars are 10/$10 at Price Chopper
Those cookies look absolutely delicious no matter how crumbly. I love the fact that you set weekly goals. I should start doing that
Those cookies look so tasty girl! I love you rockin’ the shirt, too. 😉
Love your blog! Not sure if I’ve ever commented.
Sometimes adding applesauce allows for a more doughy cookie rather than crumbly. But not sure if the flavour would fit? But often the taste cooks out.
As for hairstyles, I’m an avid Lauren Conrad side braid lover! Keeps my bangs out of my face and I seem to always get compliments, AND takes like 2 mins!
Gracie says
@Alison - great goals!! Going “outside the box” is a great one! I might just have to make that one of next week’s goals
xoxo
Great list of goals, Gracie!
That cookie recipe looked amazing - congratulations. You´re so talented 😀
Have a wonderful week!
Brazilian XOXO´s,
Gabriela
Caryln says
Mmmmmm those cookies look delicious! I would say I want to snack on those but one of my goals is to stop snacking as much! It is really hard to do when I am studying for exams and at the library for 8+ hours. Another health goal is to take a 15 minute break to walk around every hour while studying, but this might be more for my “mental health” so that I don’t lose my sanity hehe
Katie H. says
The cookies look great! I love all of the little characters you found in them, lol. I always start the day with my hair down but an hour into work and it’s back in a messy ponytail. Uber professional. I’ve only really figured out my workout plan for the week, which is one bikram class, one hot vinyasa class, and three training runs for my relay that is in two weekends.
Hey, ever recipe has to start somewhere! I’m not good with ingredients and what does what, however, I used cream cheese in a recipe on Friday and it made my cookies super moist, just an idea!
mmmmm macadamia nuts! Those cookies do look good.My goals are to start (finally) the 30 day shred, pack my lunch everyday and get my exercise schedule back on track.
EAT SLOWLY is one of my biggest goals! Looks like we both failed this week. There’s always tomorrow! I’m super impressed you concocted your own recipe. I always say I want to but then chicken out for fear of “wasting” ingredients. Your cookies look great though!!
Wow, those cookies look wonderful!! I love coconut everything!
How great to do those cookies look! Love it!
I think your health goals look great! You did pretty well last week! Good luck with this week!
This week I’m just concentrating on finishing up classes since it’s the last week!
Crumbly or not, those cookies sound amazing!!! YUM!!! Totally normal to be thinking about cookies anytime, anywhere 😉
I’m so with you on the hair goal! I always always wear mine the same way and I’d love to change it up a bit! I think I’m in a rut :/
Love ya! Have a FABULOUS week love!
oh those goals look fab Miss Gracie… best wishes with them this week!! I am so bad at setting health related goals or goals period for myself… more power to you!
Those cookies look great to me! So what if they’re a little crumbly.
Awesome job on the recipe 😀 Seriously, baking is hard & your cookies look like they turned out ok! To reduce the crumble factor, I would def. suggest adding more fat/liquid! Coconut flour + almond flour + Nu Naturals are all really high in fiber so they absorb liquid like crazyyy
I love that you set goals! I want to start doing that as soon as school stops consuming my life 😀
Great goals! Those cookies look amazing. I need to try to add more fat into my diet too, but I generally don’t like high fat foods, so it’s difficult. I wear my hear up when I am lazy - I have to motivate myself to straighten it and wear it down!
delicious cookies! Your goal setting inspired me to start some of my own! For this month I am trying to run ten times (I workout 6 days a week usually, but only run once or twice per week because its inconvenient where I live-deep sand and lots of African children chasing me-but I need to run more so I am trying to get over it), and flossing! That sounds so weird but I am really bad at it. I figure I can stick with something so simple for a month and then hopefully I won´t let it slide again. Also, want to do some baking
OK, first off, those cookies look amazing and I have all of the ingredients needed to make them. Well, except the nuts/nut butter but I have plenty that can be subbed 😀
Second, did I miss somewhere where you talked about the 1/2 cup coconut milk per day? Why was that a goal. I love coconut milk 😀
My goals for this week are to really focus on my self care. In the food department, I also want to kick up my veggie intake yet another notch.
You have me craving those cookies right now!! Too bad I can’t start baking at 7am
Awesome goals! I definitely need to focus on eating more slowly…maybe I’ll make that a goal this week too! I wear my hair UP a lot…it gets greasy looking really fast, so it’s the safest option!
Hope you have an amazing day love!!
Gracie says
@Christie {Honoring Health} - The coconut milk goal is just to get more of those healthy fats into my diet! I know that supposedly the benefits of the fat from coconut is a “myth,” but I find myself feeling much more energized and satisfied when I incorporate it into my diet. I’m not going overboard with it - just squeezing in coconut milk/oil here and there
Gracie says
@Danielle (Coffee Run) - Got ya - thanks for the tip!! I hope that’ll do the trick because it’s an easy one to fix!
Gracie says
@Caryln - I totally know what you mean about snacking in the library. It tends to be the perfect distraction when you get sick of studying 😛 What I usually did to combat that was plan ahead. I’d promise myself that I’d get a *really* good lunch or dinner (like sushi and salad bar from Whole Foods!) and then just stick to one or two snacks during the day. Food is always a good motivation to get through a day of studying, haha! Oh, and massive amounts of coffee never hurt 😉
MMM-the cookies look good. I love setting goals, but I get so down on myself when I don’t achieve them. I like setting meal planning as a goal because that really helps me stay on track. This week my goal is definitely to get more much needed workouts in. I have been majorly slacking lately!
Your cookies look great! I can’t imagine ever being able to create a good recipe! That is talent to me! Love your goals. Mine would be to stop mindlessly snacking after dinner, workout 5 days a week, unplug an hour before bed, and make at least 1 new recipe a week!
Mmm those cookies look amazing!
OMG girl those cookies look sooo good! Thanks for sharing, I will have to try those! I love the color scheme of your room (where you took your outfit pic) - that is such a pretty shade for the room. I need a major revamp on how quickly I eat. If I don’t think about it, I scarf down everything in front of me in record time LOL. Have a great night! xox
Ali says
LOVE YOUR T-Shirt!!!!
LOVE the look of those cookies!
I just posted a pancake recipe using coconut flour..its the bomb isn’t it!? 
I must try these cookies! 
Thanks for sharing!
Hey..I think I know what you need to decrease the ‘crumble’ factor…try adding another egg…(or 2 egg whites…) When I don’t add enough eggs to my pancakes the batter is super dry/crumbly bc coconut flour does that!
YUMMM… probably my fav cookie flavor!! Can’t wait to try it. Even my sister told me about this during our workout tonight! (She’s above my comment). And SOOO True about the “plus living with the rents”. I’m soaking it all up too!! I think I go to GNC, whole foods and the grocery store alot more than I would than if I lived by myself. We’ll try those cookies and let you know. Congrats on making it up!!
ohh… and last night i was baking, and added xantham gum (1/2 teaspoon) to my muffins, because i read that it “holds things together”. i’d try that!!
for the cookies, try adding about 1tsp of xanthan gum, maybe a little bit more.
it makes all the difference in gluten free baking!
Awesome, thank you!!