As I’ve mentioned in my post about Little Deer’s MSPI, it can be tricky to find dairy/soy-free treats. Baking them yourself is an easy way to eliminate soy, but most recipes call for butter so it can be tricky to get rid of the dairy. Looking around on MSPI Mama’s site, I stumbled across this dairy-free cocoa crinkle cookie recipe and thought it looked delicious. We’ve been following the paleo diet and eating very healthy lately, but a girl has to have a cookie every now and again right? After finally trying this recipe a few weeks ago, I was completely in love. These cookies are moist and so very yummy. Finally, a chocolate cookie I can eat! Seeing as we’re finally getting into Fall and the Halloween spirit of things, I thought I would share how I dressed up these chocolate crinkle cookies to make a yummy Halloween treat.

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Crinkle Cookies

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup canola oil (or macadamia nut oil as a healthier alternative)
  • 3/4 baking cocoa
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • powdered sugar

In a large bowl add your sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla then mix until well blended. Add in cocoa powder and continue to mix.

In a separate bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then slowly add to the cocoa mixture. Mix everything together so it’s nice and smooth – it should get pretty thick and look like fudge. Mandatory taste test – yum!

Cover bowl and place dough in the freezer so that it’s firm enough to handle (ideally for several hours). I usually wait 2 hours which is not quite enough time, but I get antsy. It just makes for more of a mess but it works! Leaving it in the freezer for the afternoon will not cause it to freeze, just solidify, so don’t be too concerned about leaving it for too long. Once it’s been several hours and the dough is firm…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Sprinkle powdered sugar on a plate or bowl.

Work the dough in your hands into 1-inch balls, then roll in the powdered sugar to coat it (this is the messy part if you didn’t let the dough get firm enough). Place on cookie sheet and 2 inches apart and flatten slightly.

Bake for 11-13 minutes on a wire rack – they’re done when a toothpick comes out clean and the tops begin to crack.

Makes about 2-3 dozen cookies depending on size.

So although these cookies are yummy just as they are, I wanted to take it one step further. I chose to whip-up some cocount whipped cream as a topper… yum!! You could just as easily use frosting or whipped cream, but coconut whipped cream is a delicious, easy, and healthier alternative.

Coconut Whipped Cream

  • 2 cans of coconut milk (if you can find cans of coconut cream that works too and will yield more)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • optional: sugar to taste

Chill the cans overnight in the refrigerator. Remove cans from fridge, flip them over and open the bottom of the can, then drain out the watery part (you should be left with lovely looking thick white cream). Scoop coconut cream out of the can and into a bowl.

Add vanilla extract and any sugar you’d like (I sprinkle a little powder sugar in), then whip it all together with a mixer or whisk. The more you mix it the fluffier it will be.

The finished product will be a little on the wet side, so pop it back in the fridge for a few hours to firm it up.

After making the cookies and letting them cool, I put a dollop of the coconut whipped cream on top and finished it with some orange sprinkles. I bet it’d also be fun to add a little food coloring to the whipped cream to turn it orange and then add some chocolate sprinkles on top. Really, no matter what you do you can’t go wrong. The combination of the moist chocolate cookie and the light coconut whipped cream is seriously so yummy. Now here comes the hardest part: not eating them all once!

So there you have it! A yummy and dairy-free Halloween treat. After Little Deer was so patient to sit in her high chair while I whipped these up, we went outside to get some fresh air and take a few pictures with our pumpkins. I think she and her pumpkins are sporting the same hair-do.

What Halloween treats do you all love to bake?