Erin Michel, the founder of our favourite online health food store PureFeast.com, is back with another superfood recipe we think you’ll love. Today, she’s sharing her newest creation – Paleo Chocolate Chaga Cookies. If you’re not familiar with this fungi, it’s a medicinal mushroom. It quite known for its anti-cancer and immune-boosting properties. You can read more about it in our post here. If you’ve tried it, you know that it doesn’t actually taste anything like mushrooms. In fact, it actually has some vanilla undertones that work well when combined with flavours like cacao. Both chocolate and chaga contain lots of powerful antioxidants, so these cookies can actually help boost your immune system, which we could all use this time of year.
Additional health benefits of Chaga
It eases inflammation
According to research, this mushroom aids in the regulation of the body’s cytokine production. These cells influence other cells in the body, reducing or preventing swelling linked with ailments such as arthritis.
It prevents symptoms of cancer
Research suggests that chaga helps in preventing or slowing the development of cancer cells. Compounds discovered in this kind of mushroom have been used in studies on colorectal cancer cells as well as lung cancer cells. According to the research, chaga may even help eliminate cancer cells that are already present while slowing their growth.
Chaga alternatives
Many foods, including chaga, can increase your antioxidant capacity. These include:
- Carrots
- Mangoes
- Apricots
- Tomatoes
- Nectarines
- Bell Peppers
- Papaya
- Acorn squash
- Beets
- Pumpkin
Erin is currently loving SURO chaga for mixing in recipes like this, as the powder is ground super fine and blends really nicely. And as an added bonus, she added another great superfood—gelatin—as a substitute for eggs. Yes, this is a paleo cookie recipe that’s actually egg-free!
Immune boosting double chocolate cookies. Course: Dessert
Cuisine: egg free, Gluten free, paleo, Refined Sugar Free
Servings: 12
Ingredients
- ¾ cup almond flour
- ¼ coconut flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot or tapioca flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 2 tbsps Vital Proteins Gelatin powder (here)
- 2 tbsps SURO Chaga powder (here)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup coconut oil , melted and cooled
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two cookie / baking sheets with coconut oil. You could line the cookie sheets with parchment paper, however the cookies will spread more on the paper than they do when baked directly on the baking sheet.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot (or tapioca) flour, cocoa powder, gelatin, chaga, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate bowl, mix the melted and cooled coconut oil, vanilla extract and maple syrup together.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, stirring until everything is well incorporated.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop the cookie batter onto the baking sheets in large tablespoon sizes. Pat them down a little bit to make them uniform in shape and size – they won’t spread very much on the greased baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, and once done pull them out of the oven and set them aside to cool on the baking sheets for a bit. They’ll be a bit crumbly if you try to remove them from the baking sheets too soon. Once they’ve cooled enough so you can touch them, slide them off of the baking sheets and place them on a cooling rack to finish cooling down.