Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are the most delicious "healthy" chocolate chip cookie recipe I have found. They are sugar free, wheat free, and vegan. I found this recipe on Ann Gentry's "Real Food Daily Cookbook."

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups barley flour
1 1/3 cups oat flour
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup date purée*
3 tbs brown rice syrup
2 tsp plain soy milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Whisk the barley flour, oat flour, rice flour, and baking soda in a bowl to blend.
3. Whisk the maple syrup, oil, date puree, rice syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl to blend.
4. Add the flour mixture and stir just until moistened.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop about 1/3 cup of dough for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart.
7. Flatten the cookies slightly.
8. Bake for 18 minutes, or until the cookies puff and crack and become golden brown.
9. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool slightly. Serve warm or cool completely.

Note: The cookies will keep for 1 day, stored airtight and at room temperature.

*To make date purée, simple pit 3-4 dates and cover them in a pot with water. Simmer for 10 minutes or until soft. Blend dates until paste consistency, add cooking water if needed.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

This is a pumpkin bread recipe from Alicia Silverstone's cookbook, "The Kind Diet" that I modified into muffins. I also cut the recipe into a-fourth since four times this amount is a lot of muffins!

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/2 egg, egg white, egg replacer
1/4 cup soy milk or other nut milk
45 ml grapeseed oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup spelt flour
4 ml baking soda
4 ml baking powder
4 ml cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 6 muffin liners in a muffin pan.
2. Combine pumpkin puree, sugar, eggs, milk, oil and vanilla in a mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chips reserving some to sprinkle on top later on.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until just combined.
5. Fill the liners with the batter and top with reserved chocolate chips.
6. Bake for 45-60 minutes. Let the muffins cook completely on baking rack.