You guys I am so excited about this weeks test it out tuesday recipe!

I found a way to sneak cookies for breakfast.

Ok so maybe I have been doing that for years now so let me rephrase that . . . I found a way to enjoy insanely delicious, super healthy, guilt free cookies for breakfast!

Cookies you can feel good about feeding to your children.

Oh and I forgot to mention these cookies are paleo and GAPS diet approved. Winning!

Another reason I am super excited about this recipe – well I should say I’m a leetle more excited than usual about this recipe because come on, let’s face it . . . you and I both know that any recipe I share on here I am usually pretty excited about. Yelling from roof tops about how it’s ah-mazingly delicious and my all time, hands down, current favourite recipe and all that. But this time it’s different . . .

Im super excited because these cookies . . . are for my sister! She is coming to visit us from the good ol’ US of A and she arrives insanely early on Saturday and we can. Not. Wait!

So of course me being me I wanted to have something super yummy to feed poor jet lagged sweet sister of mine should she be hungry upon her arrival but what to make? Ugh you know how it is after a loooonnnnngggggggg (14+ hour) flight. Your body clock is all messed up you don’t know if your coming or going . . . if you hungry or thirsty . . . if you’re asleep or a walking zombie awake.

Plus poor sweet sister of mine has just come through a serious and very unexpected illness that literally knocked her off her feet, girlfriend was down and out poor girl was bed bound for a good 10 days! I won’t go into all the details but if you are curious (which I am sure some of you will be, I know I would be) you can read about her story here.

Thankfully she is doing much, much better these days although she is still having loads of tests done and has been advised to eliminate certain foods from her diet for the time being so to cut a long story short I thought I would take a look at one of her fave food blogs to find a suitable little tasty treat to make for her arrival.

This weeks “test it out Tuesday” recipe is one from the beautiful Danielle who blogs over at Against All Grain. She has a beautiful blog filled with delicious, healthy and easy to follow recipes that are perfect for those who follow Paleo, Primal, SCD, GAPS, and Gluten-Free diets. Not to mention Danielle incredibly inspiring story of her own. She has also just released her first cookbook which looks simply divine!

Now back to the cookies, these cookies are seriously incredible. I was a little sceptical at first. I mean they smelled so good but were seriously unattractive. I know, I know you should never judge a book by its cover . . . but they really were not very pretty . . . but I took the plunge and did the taste test and you guys. So, so good!

I know healthy cookies have gotten a bad rap in the past being heavy and flavourless like chunky little bullets but not these bad boys.

The day they are baked these cookies are crunchy on the outside and perfectly  soft on the inside. They do lose a little of that crunch as the days go on but are still all kinds of delicious.

These are subtly sweet with a hint of nuttiness and hold strong, but not over powering coconut flavour that goes so well with the dried cherries and sultanas. They also somehow manage to be so light, delicate. They almost just melt in your mouth. They really are to die for. Perfect with your morning coffee, or green tea or just with a glass of milk (or coconut milk) for afternoon tea or even dessert.

Seriously delicious, all natural, healthy cookies you can eat for breakfast – you know you want one!

Coconut, Cherry and Walnut {Paleo} Breakfast Cookies
Makes 18 bite size breakfast treats
This recipe very, very slightly adapted from Against all Grain

Ingredients –

1/8 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup peanut butter (PB2 works too)

3 medjool dates, pitted

1/3 cup shredded coconut (plus a little extra to sprinkle over the tops before serving if you want to pretty things up a little)

1/4 cup apple puree

1 egg (or 1 flax egg if vegan – 1 Tbsp finely ground flaxseed + 2.5 Tbsp of warm water)

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1 Tablespoon of dried cherries (can sub for cranberries or blueberries or your fave dried fruit)

1 Tablespoon of chopped walnuts

1 Tablespoon of sultanas (or raisins)

Method –

1 – Preheat oven to 175″C (350″F) and line a baking sheet with baking/parchment paper and set aside.

2 – Place coconut flour, peanut butter and dates into a food processor/blender and process until the dates are finely chopped and the mix is well combined. If you don’t have a blender or food processor just chop the dates up really finely and use your stand/hand mixer as you normally would to make cookies. I haven’t made them this way but I think it should work ok. Note – if you’re doing the vegan version, in a small bowl/jug stir your ground flaxseed and warm water together until combined and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until thickened.

3 – Add shredded coconut, apple puree, egg, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and vanilla and process until well combined and it all comes together to form a seriously sticky looking dough. FYI this dough is very sticky, you haven’t done anything wrong its all part of the process – just go with it.

4 – Add walnuts, cherries (or dried fruit of choice) and sultanas and process just to combine.

5 – Scoop dough (I used a rounded Tablespoon) and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Using damp fingers, pat the cookies into your desired shape and size. Note – these cookies do not spread or rise at all so make sure you have them shaped how you want them before they go into the oven. What you see is what you get baby.

6 – Bake for 10-12 mins, until the top are golden and edges are slightly crispy .

7 – Allow to cool on the trays for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

8 – Danielle says you can store them in the freezer and just get them out 15-20 mins before you want to eat them or simple re-heat in the microwave straight from the freezer for 20 seconds or so whenever the craving strikes.

Enjoy xoxo

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FYI – Totally kid approved 🙂