A healthy cookie that tastes like pure decadence? One that doesn’t even require baking? Oh, and made with all nourishing and healthy ingredients. Well, hallelujah and glory be – it’s a good day.
These little lumps of chocolatey goodness may not look like much, but they are totally amazing.
They have lots of cocoa and honey. Really, how can you go wrong with that combo? I’ve heard some people call them chocolate frogs, but I grew up with my mom making a different version of these and she called them macaroons.
The beautiful thing is, these are totally grain-free, dairy-free, and refined-sugar-free. They’re even made with coconut oil, which is an excellent addition to your regular diet.
Since hubby and I are currently avoiding refined sugar altogether, I made up a batch of these babies this afternoon to satisfy my sweet craving. I only had to eat one and my craving was finished. I’ve taken them to potlucks several times and no one has any clue they’re actually healthy. They’re that yummy.
Here are my very professional and serious step-by-step directions:
Melt honey on low heat on the stovetop. Mine is lovely local raw honey, so I try to keep the heat as low as possible so as to keep all the beneficial enzymes and such. Add coconut oil, melt all together.
Add flaked coconut and stir. Ignore the fact that the measuring cup is sitting on a burner in this photo. And for heaven’s sake, DON’T put things on the burner absentmindedly when it may be hot.
Add salt and vanilla extract. Stir.
Ask your cute little (but dang, he’s getting so big!) helper to pour in the almond meal. By the way, almond meal is eleventy billion times cheaper in the U.S. If you nearly die of shock when you see that it’s like $16 for a wee little bag of it in Canada, you can probably just use unsweetened finely ground coconut instead. I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Add in the cocoa, then stir it all together with a wooden spoon. No other kind of spoon will do, obviously.
When all of the ingredients are nice and cozy, then drop it by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet (love my stoneware!). I lined mine with parchment paper because I didn’t want to have to get out my chisel again in order to get them off the pan. Try not to be jealous of my perfectly shaped blobs. I’ve had a lot of practice.
Place them in your freezer for at least 20 minutes, or until they are firm. Here is a picture of my freezer, in case you had trouble with this step. Yours will probably be similar, minus the toddler/preschooler valentine’s artwork.
Store in an air-tight container in the fridge. I have no idea if they go bad because we haven’t given them enough time to find out. You likely won’t either. Enjoy!
- ¾ cup honey
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
- 3.5 cups medium or large unsweetened flaked coconut
- ⅔ cups cocoa
- ½ cup almond meal (you could just use finely shredded unsweetened coconut flakes if you don't have almond meal)
- Melt honey on low heat on the stovetop.
- Add coconut oil, melt all together.
- Add flaked coconut and stir.
- Add salt and vanilla extract and stir.
- Pour in the almond meal.
- Add in the cocoa, then stir.
- Drop it by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet.
- Place them in your freezer for at least 20 minutes, or until they are firm.
- Store in an air-tight container in the fridge. I have no idea if they go bad because we haven't given them enough time to find out. You likely won't either. Enjoy!
SPECIAL UPDATE:
For a HUGE resource filled with real food recipe eBooks, healthy kitchen tips, homemaking resources, and more, check out this year’s Ultimate Homemaking Bundle, only on sale until Monday, May 2, 2016 at midnight!
Beth
Latest posts by Beth (see all)
- Cocoa Peppermint Whipped Body Butter - March 14, 2018
- 7 Healthy Ways to Manage Stress (Before it Makes You Sick) - March 8, 2018
- 3 Practical Tips to Help Kids Eat Healthy Foods Without Drama - February 26, 2018
Its look so easy and yummy. Thank you for this recipe
Excellent! Delicious, Inexpensive, Fast & Easy.
Also, no artificial stuff in it so good chance the kids won’t glow in the dark from it 🙂
With all the raw/organic options available this is much better than the stuff we can buy in stores..
Used the Tbs measuring tools to make (40+) nearly perfect half spheres from the recipe.
Omg add almonds and this is like a chocolate inside of an almond joy. My new go to for my sweet tooth.
This is almost exact to my grandmother’s recipe 🙂 Only difference or option shall I say, is that we use old fashioned rolled oats instead of the almond meal…
Anyone know the calorie count per macaroon or ballpark
Could you tell me what kind of cocoa you use? These sound so good I can’t wait to try them.
Your recipe was hilarious – I was wondering what the cold box on top of my fridge was. I’m trying these tonight!
If you make your own almond milk, you can take the pulp that is left and dehydrate it (I used my oven). When it’s all dry, you can blend it to get the fine texture, just like store-bought almond flour…. but using something that you’d normally just throw away.
These cookies are amazing!! I made them to bring to a friend’s house for dessert. One of the kids is gluten and dairy free, but loves chocolate, so this was the perfect fit. While cooking, I realized that I didn’t have enough cocoa powder, so I added about 2 tablespoons of organic chocolate pudding powder (dairy free). After freezing the cookies, I read the pudding box, which said the pudding “powder” shouldn’t be eaten uncooked. So I took the cookies out of the freezer, mashed them up in a bowl, added a whisked egg, reformed them into balls (much easier to form this way, too!) and baked them in a 350 oven for about 14 minutes. While they were still warm, I carefully rolled them in a bit more unsweetened coconut. They look like snowballs and taste like heaven! I’ll serve them room temperature, but they’re amazing if eaten while still warm. My son must’ve eaten three already! 🙂 Thanks so much for the recipe. This one is a keeper!! 🙂
I added oatmeal instead of almond meal and they were delicious!
I was wondering if you ground your oats before adding them? I’d like to try oatmeal in place of the almond flour too, since my son has a nut allergy.
You could actually just use a slight bit extra shredded coconut. As long as they’re sticking together and you can form balls, it’s fine. 🙂
These were AMAZING!!!! I am new to AIP and was so happy that they turned out so well. Now I can have my sweet fix and not feel guilty.
I just made these, are they are delicious! I actually must confess that I ate some of the “batter” while it was still warm. Muahahahaha! 🙂
I used organic regular honey (not raw) because I am on immunosuppressants and cannot have certain raw items like honey, milk, cheese, etc. I know the heat processing that is done ruins the nutrients, but I can’t risk the alternative…..
Anywho, thanks for the recipe! It cured my aching sweet tooth. 😉
Hi Beth
I have been devouring your blog for th past few days. I love this recipe. Cant wait o finish rough oat bars and pancakes o try it out. I am just starting to dip my toes into he greener waters. Im also following your no poo story, have to say I nearly didnt read it as my kids r big and I thought topic was sth else… Anyhow, I only wash my hair once tops twice a week, using bad commercial stuff and I dye it so I was just wondering if anyone tried no poo on dyed hair? I know that shouldnt e in this topic, sorry.
brilliant blog. Keep on. I am truly enjoying reading your posts!!!
sorry T is broken on laptop…
I was wondering if I can use coconut flour in place of the almond meal? I am not sure of some substitutions.
Thanks!
I did. It absorbs a lot of moisture/liquid so start with less and work your way up
Uh, yum. Thanks for linking up! 🙂
How is honey “healthier” than sugar? Essentially it IS sugar. Once you eat it it affects blood glucose and insulin just like sugar.
one of many reasons:
“One thing that should be noted is that honey’s sugars are (independently) fructose & glucose, which are monosaccharides. Sugar (sucrose) is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose. The difference? In digestion, monosaccharides are absorbed in our intestinal tracts, while disaccharides have to first be broken down to monosaccharides to be absorbed. Our bodies naturally have enzymes to break them down. However, not all sucrose molecules are broken down in digestion and they reach the gut bacteria.
This poses an issue with people with digestive diseases such as Ulcerative Colitis, like myself. The bad bacteria in our guts feast off of undigested sugars, which pretty much happens with everyone. However, if there is an over-population of bad bacteria (in my case a result of long-term antibiotic use which messed up the gut flora, or bacterial mix in the intestines) the intestines become inflamed to fight the infection resulting in severe symptoms. By using honey as a sugar substitute in everything I eat I am limiting the sugars that reach the intestinal flora, therefore starving out the bad bacteria over a long period of time to help restore a normal balance of flora.
When the bacteria in our gut gets to feed off of sugars, some of their by-products are different gases, including methane. If you substitute honey for sugar in much of your diet, a funny result is that you fart substantially less.”
Do a little reading and a whole new world is opened up to you.
Really interesting! I had no idea (obviously!). My personal concerns are how sugars affect insulin, get stored as fat, etc. so that’s what was on my mind. My husband, however, also suffers from Ulcerative Colitis, and when I read this to him he commented that when he was avoiding sugar, he noticed his gut feeling better. Thanks so much for all this info.
What a fantastic response! So interesting!
Would you mind if I copied this into a personal facebook info status (citing you commenting on this post)? I think such a concise and informative response would be so helpful!
Have you tried using Sunflower Seed flour in place of Almond? We soak, sprout and dehydrate organic raw sunflower seeds, and then grind them into either meal or flour depending on the needs. Organic sunflower seeds are much less expensive than almonds, and they work exactly the same.
“-)
Hello. Could you send me directions in how to do the flour you make?/ thank you so much.
Just made these for the first time – they are SO yummy, thank you so much for this amazing healthy recipe. We love it <3
I should have posted before now. I’ve made these three times and taken them to two functions where they were gobbled up by young and old. I make them as written but use a mixture of Tropical Traditions shredded coconut and coconut flakes so some is finer and that suits my taste buds. People have asked about honey and I’m using a raw honey that’s liquid, not creamed, so just like any honey you might buy in the store. I think people asking questions might not have realized that they have to keep stirring when they add the coconut – it looks like there isn’t enough liquid but if you keep stirring it suddenly changes and comes together.
Thank you!
These are the best I have ever tried, LOVE THEM
LOVE these! And I especially love that you call them frogs!! Are you from the east coast? I am and recently moved to the west coast…where NO ONE knows them as “frogs”. This was SO easy, I kept everything on the burner until I was ready to spoon them out! (oh, and I used oats instead of almond meal….just starting my conversion to gf/df/sf and still learning about all of the other possibilities).
I just made this recipe tonight, but I had a hard time with it being to dry to stick together. I used all the quantities the recipe called for, but in the end ended up adding at least another 1/3 cup coconut oil. Have you ever had this problem? DO you transfer the honey/coconut oil mixture to a mixing bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, or do you add them all to the pan on the stove while the heat is still on low? Maybe that would be part of it…
Hi Laura,
So sorry you had troubles with the recipe! That is always so frustrating when you try recipes from the internet, eh? I do in fact add the dry stuff to the still warm stuff after it’s melted, so maybe the heat helps bind it together. Also, I find that the kind of honey can make a difference. When I posted this I lived very near a honey farm and had awesome organic raw creamed honey. Now I just have the regular grocery store honey, and it does act differently in recipes, though I haven’t yet tried it in this one (we moved just a few months ago).
Next time you could try adding more honey as well so that the coconut oil isn’t too overwhelming. It’s also stickier than oil, so maybe it would stay together better.
I do have to squeeze them together in order to form balls. It’s not until they’re in the freezer that they really firm up and don’t fall apart.
You could also skip the almond flour – that would make them stickier.
I hope they taste good anyway tonight! 🙂
I’ve had this recipe pinned for a while now, and I’m kicking myself for not trying it sooner. My 2 year old helped, we had a great time, and they are amazingly delicious. Thanks!
My kids love helping me with this one too. Glad you loved them! 🙂
These are DELICIOUS! I bought coconut oil for the first time and it smells so much like macaroons that I had to look up a recipe. This was so simple, and made with ingredients I already had on hand (yippee!). The only thing I did differently was use a different gluten free flour because I recently finished off my almond meal. I’ve been snacking on these for the last few days and my husband likes them too =)
Hurray! I’m so glad you loved them! So easy and decadent, but actually good for you – it’s great, eh?
i’ve made these twice since finding your recipe. love them!
oh hurray – glad you like them! and thanks for letting me know – i love hearing from people who actually try my recipes 🙂
I made these as directed and they are so easy and delicious. However, mine are really chewy and they were somewhat difficult to drop because the flakes were large and dried. Did you actually use large or medium dehydrated coconut flakes? I don’t see that that are moist unsweetened coconut flakes,
I use medium unsweetened coconut. Hope that helps!
I just made these… delish!!!!! and so easy! I will definitely be making these again!
Hurray! Glad you enjoyed them… they are so decadent yet actually good for you… win-win 🙂
Almond meal is expensive here in Canada; however, I just buy bulk almonds and throw in food processor and make my own, much cheaper! Thanks for these great recipes!
That is a great idea. I don’t have a food processor that’s powerful enough without burning out the motor, but I’d like to own a VitaMix someday!
Once you have a Vitamix you will wonder what you did before you had it……Our son is a disabled vet with a g tube so the blender is actually his. Families under the same circumstance have a saying about the Vitamix “It can blend a tree”. 🙂
I just made these and while i haven’t tasted them cooled, the mixture is AH-mazing. I didn’t have medium/large flaked coconut – all i had was shredded. We are also avoiding nuts for our little ones right now, so total I used 3 3/4 cups of shredded coconut and it turned out wonderfully! can’t wait to share these with my boys and hubby!
Glad you like the recipe… it’s a winner among all of my friends as well 🙂 Enjoy!
I just made a batch and they are in the freezer as we speak. I cannot wait to eat them! The best part is that since there isn’t any egg, you can lick the bowl clean in the mean time! 🙂 Thanks for the recipe, sending this to my friend, a vegan, she will love these too!
Made these as a treat after lunch. My family LOVED them. Not a big surprise since we love all things chocolate… I appreciate recipes that offer healthy alternatives to what the SAD diet offers. Thanks for the recipe and I will continue to browse your site!
These look so tasty! I love that they’re not cooked (I prefer raw honey too). I featured these on my Menu Inspirations Easter Special (as you already know by now!) I was planning to comment here to let you know, but was a bit slow off the mark. Hope you have a wonderful Easter holiday!
I’m not sure what the shipping/tariffs would be, but nuts.com sells almond flour (6.99 a lb) as well as many other unusual flours 🙂
Making these for the second time today! The first batch was enjoyed by the Joseph cast, my parents and us of course! I managed to spread them quite far considering! Today I am going to use 1 cup oats and 2 c coconut as I am low on coconut…. We’ll see how it goes!
Oooh, these look good. I’ve made macaroons with egg white before and they take forever…
Just another lovely use of coconut oil. 🙂
Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. This was very interesting! Hope to see you next week!
Be sure to visit RealFoodForager.com on Sunday for Sunday Snippets – your post from Fat Tuesday may be featured there!
http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-march-6-2012/
chocolate and I don’t do well but sometimes, if it’s really really good… it’s worth it 🙂 These look like they may approach “worth it”.
I think they are definitely on the “worth it” list 🙂
You didn’t say why chocolate didn’t agree with you, but my daughter discovered she can eat cocoa that has NOT been processed with alkali (so it’s less acidic). Also, carob should work fine for this recipe.
Favorite! They were haystacks growing up for us too 🙂 thanks for the recipe.
Haystacks… I hadn’t heard that one. Makes sense though!
I’m making these tonight!
Let me know how they turn out!
These look yummy! Thanks for sharing. I will be whipping up a batch this weekend.
Yay! Hope you love them as much as we do 🙂
I think you have inspired me to make these today! We called them haystacks growing up. I like how your sassy self comes out in your recipe btw:).
On a random note, did you know that Bob’s Red Mill ships all of their flours and you can get them in much larger packages….shipping is expensive to NS but everything always is. I think that it is much cheaper else where in Canada, you might want to look into it.
Thanks for the sassiness affirmation. Love it. 🙂
I did NOT know that about BRM… I’m totally looking that up! Thanks!
You can make your own almond meal by putting shaved/slivered raw almonds in a blender or food processor. I did it just last week and it worked wonderfully.
BTW, Ariana loves “yellow soup” too.
Oh yeah, I always forget about that because I can’t get it fine enough to use as “flour” in most recipes. But it would work great in this recipe!
Hi to Ari! 🙂
What kind of honey do you use? Looks like a creamy one. Would love to try the recipe.
I use a local raw creamed organic honey. I imagine any kind of honey would work, but the flavour may be slightly altered.
Rima, once again you crack me up. Thank you for giving me a laugh this early in the morning! I loved this post.As for me, I have shed much of many of my OCD tendencies over the years. In my case, the laziness has helped. It is often easier to leave things! (But I still do battle regularly with the urge to micromanage. Phoebe had to make a poster for school, and I was very proud of myself for only dictating gently suggesting about 30% of the content and layout. Or maybe 40%. Still, it was *mostly* her. Big prs´oers.)alejnaÂgs last [type] ..