Mightylicious Cookies

I was gifted a box of Mightylicious cookies and I want to tell you about them. 

I always get excited about gluten free products. I don't have celiac, but I try to avoid gluten because I'm addicted to products made with wheat. I eat them, can't control myself, and get fat(ter). If I avoid gluten, I really don't crave bread, pasta, pastries, cookies, or pizza, and I can lose weight. Honestly. I think about them from time to time, but I don't need them. But if I have one piece of good bread or a cookie, I have to have a second or third or even fourth piece. So it's just best that I avoid products that have gluten in them. It works for me; it might not work for you. 

Back to getting excited about gluten free products. I heard about Mightylicious gluten free cookies when I was planning my trip to the Summer Fancy Food show last year. I wasn't able to attend the show, but the company was kind enough to send me a bag of each variety of their cookies, plus bags of brownie mix and their gluten free flour. It was a real embarrassment of riches, and I am appreciative. 

This post is only about the cookies; the brownies and flour will have their own post sometime in the future. 

The Salted Peanut Butter, Oatmeal Coconut, Oatmeal Raisin, and Brown Butter Shortbread cookies are excellent. I loved the flavor and the texture of each of them. The Salted Peanut Butter was very much like good old-fashioned homemade peanut butter cookies, made with peanut butter, sweetener, and salt. Mightylicious also adds eggs and vanilla, but no flour of any kind. They are crazy rich and were my favorite of the bunch. One cookie was a perfect snack. Both the Oatmeal Cookies also had great flavor and texture--these are somewhere between soft-baked and crispy cookies--and this raisin-hater even enjoyed the Oatmeal Raisin cookies (though I preferred the Oatmeal Coconut). The Shortbread Cookies were little miracles. Smaller in diameter but fatter than the other cookies, these tasted just like gluten-y shortbread. Maybe not as crumbly as the real thing, but damn close. Highly recommended.

Then there were the Chocolate Chip, Brown Butter Chocolate Chip, and Double Dutch Chocolate Chip cookies. They were also that texture somewhere between soft-baked and crisp cookies--they were fairly moist--but they just didn't have the depth of flavor that I'm used to with a home-baked, gluten-flour, chocolate chipper. They just seemed...sweet. However, all three of them made excellent ice cream sandwiches because they were much less-likely to crack when smushed on either side of a blob of ice cream. And they ate well as an ice cream sandwich component as well. They didn't get soggy, nor were they overly crunchy when they came out of the freezer. I preferred the Double Dutch Chocolate Chip variety for this use, but the other two worked just as well.

Would I eat these cookies again? Absolutely, particularly the peanut butter and shortbread varieties. And I would not be averse to double dutch chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches again. In fact, I could go for one right now....

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Gluten-free Cookie Dough Bites

Who here hasn't eaten raw cookie dough? Show of hands, please!

Ok - two of you. I hope the reason is because you are sadly gluten-intolerant and not that you had one of those meanie mommies that didn't allow sweets in the house. Or worse - didn't like/didn't know how to bake cookies. I mean, come on - pre-made cookie dough can be purchased in any supermarket. Of course you two might also be afraid of developing salmonella from eating raw eggs. Never fear, oh people who don't eat cookie dough for whatever reason (except those who just don't like it, which I fail to comprehend) - I have discovered a cookie dough that can be safely eaten by celiacs and bacteria-phobes alike.

Cookie Dough Bites. That is, a substance that looks and tastes remarkably like cookie dough, except it has no flour, eggs, butter, sugar, or baking soda in it. So it's gluten-free and, if you use vegan chocolate chips, completely free of animal matter of any kind.

I spotted the recipe on Instagram. The "cookie dough" was part of a recipe for a "healthy" version of a DQ cookie dough Blizzard. I have no interest in fake ice cream or copycat recipes from fast food outlets, but the "dough" part intrigued me. Mostly because I had all of the ingredients in my kitchen: almond meal, coconut oil, vanilla, maple syrup, and chocolate chips. I was a bit skeptical that they would taste like the real thing, but the claims are true - they do! It's definitely the salt + vanilla that really sells it, so don't skimp on either. As for the texture - well, it's not exactly a perfect clone, and the "dough" is pretty soft at room temperature. I think they are best eaten straight from the freezer, maybe even while still standing in front of said freezer with the door open.

Since the chocolate chip version worked so well, I thought I'd try an oatmeal cookie dough version of my own. I took the basic recipe and added some old fashioned oats and took out the chips. You could add raisins if you want, but I have a pretty intense dislike for them. Instead, I used Runamok Maple Elderberry-infused syrup in place of the plain maple syrup. The elderberry syrup tastes somewhat figgy, definitely like dried fruit, and it worked well in this application.

The oatmeal "cookie dough" was as successful as the chocolate chip original! Is Snickerdoodle next?

Cookie Dough Bites (adapted from Neurotic Mommy)

For chocolate chip bites:
1 cup almond meal
1/8 cup coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
Healthy pinch of salt
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

For oatmeal cookie bites:
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
3/4 cup almond meal
1/8 cup coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup (preferably Runamok Elderberry-infused Maple syrup)
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons crushed walnut pieces (optional)

For the chocolate chip bites: place all the ingredients except chocolate chips in a bowl. Stir until the almond meal has been thoroughly dampened by the wet ingredients - it should look like cookie dough. If it's too dry, dribble in a bit more melted coconut oil. If it seems wet, add a little more almond meal. Stir in the chips.

Take tablespoon-sized globs of the dough and form balls. Place them on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer until firm - that shouldn't take very long at all. Remove the balls from the cookie sheet and put them in a zip top bag. Store them in the freezer. Eat frozen.

For the oatmeal cookie bites: pulse most the oatmeal in a food processor until broken down but not quite a powder. Stir all the oats with the remaining ingredients except walnuts until the almond meal has been thoroughly dampened by the wet ingredients - it should look like cookie dough. If it's too dry, dribble in a bit more melted coconut oil. If it seems wet, add a little more almond meal. Stir in the walnuts.

Take tablespoon-sized globs of the dough and form balls. Place them on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer until firm - that shouldn't take very long at all. Remove the balls from the cookie sheet and put them in a zip top bag. Store them in the freezer. Eat frozen.

Posted on Minxeats.com.