this is life in austin

I really enjoy baking. I also really enjoy eating Paleo (no processed food, no grains, no dairy, no sugar), and the two are not very compatible. So I constantly quest to bake as Paleo-ish as possible. I have more failures (well, what’s a failure, really? I’ll eat it, but I wouldn’t feed it to friends) than successes, but recently I had a big warm, wintery success in Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. Of course, I bake in a manner utterly incomprehensible to REAL cooks, because I sometimes guesstimate or don’t level out my flours or whatever. And it still works out okay most of the time. But I digress.

I modified a recipe from one of my absolute favorite blogs in the whole wide web, Cookie Madness. How on earth does Anna stay so slim baking so often? I have no idea. Anyway, behold the original and my mods:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (+ Hazelnut!)

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 scant cup granulated sugar (I used turbinado … debatable whether it’s actually better for you or not, but might as well give it a shot)
6 tablespoons vegetable oil Coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanillaI just didn’t have any, so I didn’t use it
1 teaspoon cinnamon
I also added 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, which gave it some of its winter flavor
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour or white whole wheat flour (9 oz) I used 1 cup hazelnut flour, approx. 2/3 cup coconut flour, 1/3 garbanzo/chickpea flour (not paleo bc it’s a legume)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (vegan, malt-sweetened choc chips, Central Market bulk section are my fave)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Beat pumpkin, egg, sugar, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Make sure all the leavenings are dissolved (no lumps). Add the flour and stir just until it is mixed in, then stir in the chocolate chips.

Using a very generously rounded tablespoon measure, drop onto parchment lined cookie sheets spacing about 2 inches apart (cookies shouldn’t spread much). Bake at 375º for 13 to 15 minutes.

Remove from tray and let cool.

Makes about 18 cookies

Note: I also made these without the chocolate chips, and they were equally as good. Closer to pumpkin loaf then, but still very, very tasty.

Things I have learned about trying to substitute Paleo ingredients:

• Coconut flour is great, but really, really dry. You can only use it for about 1/2 of the flour in a recipe.
• Coconut flour and oil both lend recipes a very coconut-y taste. Not in a bad way. Not even if you don’t like coconut (I don’t).
• Garbanzo flour is the easiest 1:1 sub for white flour. But it’s not really paleo. But it is much better for you than white or wheat flour.
• Almond meal would definitely work in this recipe in place of or alongside the hazelnut meal. But almond meal has a different flavor than hazelnut, so the whole flavor would definitely change.
• Sugar is the hardest thing to substitute. The best is dates pureed with applesauce. I haven’t personally tried that yet, but like using barley malt or brown rice syrup (neither paleo), you then have to also deal with liquidity issues. If I could find palm sugar again, I’d use it. But in the end, I usually splurge here.
• Many people look for Paleo Recipes. I don’t–I look for good recipes that I think I can substitute in. Play around with it … the worst that happens is you get something inedible! The best? You create a whole new recipe!

There seems to be some interest–at least on twitter–in these baking experiments, so I’ll try to keep you posted!