national cookie day: almond butter chocolate chip cookies

Happy National Cookie Day! I only found out about this day from my Pilates work out calendar, and apparently December is full of national food days...until I did my research and found an entire list of American holidays. According to this list almost every single day of the year celebrates a different food, offering plenty of chances to try new recipes. It'd probably be super fun--and challenging--testing a recipe a day in honor of each national food day, but I'd probably also end up with way too much food. I still have a ton of leftover marshmallows and graham crackers that I'm slowly consuming over the course of the week...portion control...I'm trying...

I've baked cookies with coconut flour before, but none as successful as these almond butter chocolate chip cookies. Most of the cookies I have made using coconut flour were too dense and quite mushy, and weren't worthy of blogging (sorry). Luckily I made good cookies today in honor of national cookie day :) I added the chocolate chips as an afterthought, you can tell they were pressed down onto the cookie dough rounds rather than thoroughly mixed in with the batter. They almost look like the fake plastic cookies you find in toddler kitchen play sets.

If you've never baked with coconut flour, I highly suggest you try it! Coconut flour is a gluten-free, high-fiber, high-protein, and low-calorie alternative to other baking flours. It is rather dense and absorbent, so you don't use as much as you would other flours, but you may need a lot more liquid ingredients than what would appear "normal". I once found a recipe that called for 10 eggs in proportion to very little coconut flour. It scared me a little bit but I got used to the crazy ratios after I started using coconut flour more and more.

Debut of one of my new silicone baking mats

Well, happy national cookie day everyone! Good night :)

pumpkin macarons & gluten-free honey kabocha bread

Today a bunch of old high school friends and I gathered at the park for a potluck reunion, so I made macarons :) It was pretty frustrating. I don't know if it's because of the fluctuating weather and all but I had to wait 24 hours--yeah, a WHOLE day, LITERALLY--until my macarons were finally set and ready to bake. I was skeptical about waiting so long since they usually only take 1 to 2 hours to set. But the long, long wait was worth it. My macarons still had the signature ruffled feet and the smooth shell, and pumpkin flavor! Nutty with a hint of spice that pairs all too well with plain almond butter :)

I wanted to make a pumpkin buttercream to sandwich in between the cookies, but I liked how the almond butter tasted better. Plus no need for more powdered sugar or butter in the end product :) I had another batch this morning that wasn't set to bake yet, but I was afraid there wouldn't be enough macarons to go around, so I baked them anyway.