And so it begins…the start of a new wedding season combined with a desire to qualify as a primal health coach whilst managing a small portfolio of rental properties, does not lend itself particularly well to new recipe development for Primal Plate’s blog. Please do not judge if over the next few months my postings get even fewer and farther between. Whilst I haven’t forgotten that my priority is what I can accomplish in the kitchen, these things take a hefty time commitment and it’s not easy keeping all my balls in the air at once.
In fact it took three attempts to perfect these Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Crumbles. The clue is in their name. Even though they no longer disintegrate before you can get them into your mouth, they definitely won’t stand being dipped in your tea! More the texture of a digestive than a rich tea biscuit, John and Sarah think they’re fabulous and would have been happy for me to keep going…until I finally produced these biscuity bites of loveliness and they both declared it was ‘game over’.
What does guilt taste like? Chocolate and roasted almonds successfully bound together in a delicate, comforting cookie; that’s what! Just crispy and firm enough to snap neatly in two, these Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Crumbles are soft and crumbly on the inside with bursts of chocolatey goodness that explode inside your mouth. Indulgent they are; unhealthy they’re not.
Amazingly, these keto friendly, healthy, cookie crumbles can be enjoyed guilt free. Without grains, sugar or dairy - the roasted almond butter does the job of regular butter - you can even ‘veganise' the recipe by substituting a chia or flaxseed ‘egg’ for the real egg that I used (see Notes below).
For a heady hit of chocolate (the darker the better), these Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Crumbles are the thing. Ridiculously quick and easy to make, they don’t need rolling or cutting out.
Another good reason to spoil yourself.
Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Crumbles (makes 15)
Ingredients
1 large organic egg
250g organic roasted almond butter
20g organic extra fine tiger nut flour
½ tsp organic whole psyllium husk powder, freshly ground by you in a coffee grinder, if you have one
¼-½ tsp pure monk fruit powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp organic vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate chips (at least 70% cocoa solids)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F / Gas mark 4 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Add to a food processor bowl the almond butter, ground almonds, tiger nut flour, monk fruit powder, egg, vanilla extract and baking powder. Blitz together until smooth.
Add in the dark chocolate chips and briefly blitz again until evenly combined.
Roll the mixture into 15 small balls (approx. 31g each), spacing them out evenly on the baking sheet.
Gently flatten out each ball with the palm of your hand into rounds approximately 6-8mm thick.
When they’re ready to bake, press a couple more chocolate chips into the surface of any cookies that look like they’ve been shortchanged!
Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden.
Let the cookies rest on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool down completely.
Wait for at least 30 minutes before tucking in.
Notes
To prepare a flax or chia ‘egg’ for vegan baking: Grind whole, organic seeds in a coffee grinder just before using as follows: Stir 1 tablespoon of ground seeds (measured after grinding) and 3 tablespoons of warm, freshly filtered water together until well combined. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes until if forms a gelatinous ‘goo’. Use to replace eggs in any recipe that doesn’t list more than 2 eggs in the ingredients. N.B. If making Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Crumbles with a chia or flax seed ‘egg’, leave out the psyllium husk powder.
If you don’t have chocolate baking chips to hand, chop 100g of an organic dark chocolate bar into small pieces with a sharp knife. A bit messy, but needs must! Given the wider choice of chocolate bars available, I’d be tempted to go for the highest percentage of cocoa solids (up to 100%) if your tastebuds will allow!
Fat 13g Protein 5g Carbohydrate 4g - per cookie crumble.
