The Cookies That Weren't

A few days ago I said I was going to attempt to make chocolate chip cookies with almond flour instead of regular, unbleached flour. This, it turns out, was not a good idea.

It started great. Almond flour doesn't feel exactly like unbleached flour (it's more mealy, less silky), but what with the added benefit of it, um, not actually being flour, it appealed to me.

Of course, I steadfastly refused to go truly overboard. These were Christmas cookies, after all, so leaping all the way to these cookies, truly "primal," was more than I was willing to commit.* Therefore, I didn't shy away from the sugar (two kinds!) at all.

Mixed all together with the eggs and butter and vanilla and baking soda, it downright looked like cookie dough.

Especially when I added the chocolate chips. (Two kinds of those, too. Nom nom.)

Yup. Still lookin' like cookies...

Hmmm, now that's odd...

Did I say cookies? I meant cookie. As in, one of them.

Oops. It seems almond flour doesn't exactly have the same binding properties as unbleached flour. The cookies cookie spread out really, really thin on the baking sheets, melting together into one, large gooey chocolateness. They were so thin I couldn't even scrape them off the sheets to cool, I had to let them cool on the cookie sheet, then cut them with a knife, and scrape them off. Most came off in a pile of pieces.

Except for this batch, interestingly enough. The third tray I put into the oven. Maybe I spaced them far enough apart, but these came out of the oven actually looking like real cookies.

Mike even said they tasted that way. I think the taste is a bit "off" from what you'd expect from regular chocolate chip cookies. Besides the obvious that they have a slight nutty taste to them, I can also taste  waaaaay too  much butter int them.

So I'm going to have to categorize this recipe as a failure, albeit a really funny experiment. 

* Primal Blueprint diet "essentially follows the evolutionary model of meats, fish, greens, nuts, vegetables and limited fruits," with minimal refined carbohydrates. I'm not nearly a die-hard primal eater, what with all the sugar I consume, but it's the best way to describe how I aspire to eat. Which is why I've asked hubs for this cookbook several times for Christmas, although every time I do, he acts like he's never heard the request before. And that's why I'm putting it here, again.