I have teamed up with the Professional Personal trainers at CleanWorkout.com to bring you a delightfully decadent tasting, yet somewhat guilt-free, snack: SUPERFOOD COOKIE BUTTER!
Balance is key to a healthy lifestyle, as well as to a good diet. Part of maintaining that balance is never feeling like you are depriving yourself of snacks and treats. To create the perfect healthy Cookie Butter, it needed to have a rich, satisfying texture, and bold, spicy flavours.
Coconut Oil is such a versatile ingredient – You can use it for making flaky vegan pie crusts or as an intense moisturizer/cleanser/tooth whitener in beauty applications. When kept below 24 degrees Celsius, it has the perfect buttery consistency.
We use the same spices in our Better than Yia Yia’s Gingerbread cookies, which is the perfect flavour profile for traditional Cookie Butter. We added turmeric for an extra health kick and black pepper to help absorption in the body. Toasting the spices in oil for a few minutes helps them release their essential oils, bringing out deeper flavours, and removing any chalkiness that sometimes happens with ground spices. Pink Himalayan Sea Salt was chosen for its extra minerals, but table salt or fine sea salt can also be used.
Since this is a dessert, we have to have some sugar. We chose richly flavoured sweeteners like brown sugar, molasses and pure maple syrup, because a little goes a long way. Maple syrup also has a low GI, which means that it does not spike your blood sugar, leading to fat storage; The calories you consume are more quickly expended as energy. Molasses also help with the classic gingersnap cookie flavour, and help with the smooth, thick consistency of the final product.
To preserve the healthy oils in the cooked spices and to keep your Superfood Cookie Butter fresh, keep it in the refrigerator up to four weeks. Remove it about 15 minutes before digging in.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
3 tbsp + 1/2 cup Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
Pinch of Ground Clove
1 tsp Ground Ginger
Pinch of Turmeric
Pinch of Black Pepper
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Grated Nutmeg
Pinch of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
Sweeteners
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
1 to 2 tbsp Pure Maple Syrup
1 to 2 tbsp Fancy Molasses
TIP: Make it Chocolate Cookie Butter by adding 1 tbsp of Cacao Powder
TIP: Make it Crunchy Cookie Butter by folding in chopped nuts
How to Enjoy Superfood Cookie Butter
- Blend it into Smoothies
- Spread it on Toast – Top with Chopped Nuts like Almonds, Pecans or Walnuts for a crunchy breakfast
- Try Baking with it – Mix Clean Cookie Butter Swirls into Cakes and Cupcakes
- Use it as a Dip
- Melt it and Pour it onto Ice Cream or Greek Yogurt
- Eat it on a Spoon
1. Warm your spices in 3 tbsp Coconut Oil over low heat for 1 – 2 minutes. You want to warm the spices to bring out their oils to give your Cookie Butter more flavour. I also find that cooking spices like turmeric and cinnamon soften their flavours, giving them more sweetness and less of a chalky taste.
2. Add your sweeteners. Continue warming the mixture over low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the molasses are combined.
3. Turn off the heat and let cool for 20 minutes.
4. Add room temperature spice mixture to 1/2 cup Coconut Oil.
5. Stir to Combine. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes until the mix starts to solidify.
6. Remove from the refrigerator and shake to redistribute spices and molasses. Chill for another 15 minutes, or until it reaches a ‘Peanut Butter like’ consistency.
7. Stir your Cooled Cookie Butter and Enjoy!