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.
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.
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.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Yum!!! Hahaha your Lo is so cute! Love her pumpin stem hair!
guest
Mrs. Deer, if you’re having trouble (still) finding dairy free and soy free foods for little miss deer, can I suggest checking out some Passover or kosher cookbooks? These cookbooks separate out dairy recipes from meat recipes and often have recommendations on substitutions so you can have ‘cream’ with meat (e.g coconut milk or almond milk works great). On Passover, (some) Jewish people do not use soy! So everything is soy-free (and if you live near a Jewish community come April you can stock up on soy-free margarine and cooking sprays!). I recommend anything by Susie Fishbein (especially her Passover cookbook) or Norene Gilitz. Those cookies look delicious
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
Those look yummy! We’ll have to give them a shot! (And cute picture of your LO!)
guest
For cookies that call for butter you can also substitute vegetable shortening for the butter.
kiwi / 542 posts
Thank you! I had been steering clear of cocoa as it said it contained trace dairy. Am I good to eat cocoa? It would make making so much easier!! Same for marshmellows, they are made with beef gelatin so I was worried that it might cause problems. In short, I am new to the game and paranoid!!!!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
@sea_bass: the cocoa powder I bought didn’t list any dairy (or say it was made near dairy products) so I’m trusting it! I’m totally paranoid about ingredients like that too
I’ve just assumed marshmallows had dairy and haven’t ever checked them. Beef gelatin…how weird!
kiwi / 542 posts
@Mrs. Deer: hmmmm yes the cocoa didn’t list dairy but the allergen info listed it may contain dairy. Infuriating. Is that a catch all in case someone has a reaction…? I mentioned marshmellows as melted they would make an awesome fondant icing that’s dairy free. I’m still in the initial three weeks so I’m bring pretty strict to work if my LO actually has MSPI… He hasn’t bled since Wednesday so I’m think he probably does.. Ill be enjoying your posts!
grapefruit / 4923 posts
wait, wait, which am i supposed to eat–the cookies or little deer? both of them look yummy!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
@sea_bass: that is so weird! I hate trying to sort through all this allergen information and such. So far I haven’t had any problem with her having a reaction to it, if that’s any consolation. I definitely agree that you should just be careful for a while though. Glad to hear the bleeding has stopped! Hopefully he keeps feeling better
pea / 12 posts
I’m going to make these this weekend and wondered about the coconut milk. I’ve just become dairy free and we’ve been getting our coconut milk in cartons, just like regular milk. In the recipe, you refer to coconut milk in cans – do you mean 8 oz cans? I just want to know how much to have on hand to whip into the whipped cream! They sound DELICIOUS!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
@Mrs. Crayons: great! They’re so yummy. I think we usually use 14 oz cans. Two is probably enough, but I’m all for extras and usually use three. You can also find cans of coconut cream, that will definitely yield you more of the good stuff. But either way, you definitely don’t want the coconut milk that’s made for drinking but the ones that come in cans. And nothing low-fat