these cookies are made with almond flour and unsweetened cacao powder for a dark chocolate flavour, with lightly toasted pecans and cranberries. the perfect adult cookie.

I made these cookies for Mother’s Day, after being inspired (slashed requested) by my mom’s own recipe, which was not grain free but regular ol’ gluten. My mom’s original variation was a cookie that contained white chocolate chips, with cranberries and walnuts. My final recipe is a twist on that (clearly), with the cookie itself being dark chocolate in flavour, and cranberries and pecans as the additions. If you can eat white chocolate chips, you should definitely try adding them to this recipe– but personally I can’t, and even cacao is a rather rare thing for me so alas, here we are!

Cacao is not considered SCD legal, and thus this recipe is ~not~ SCD. However it is delicious, and many SCD’ers will introduce pure cacao into their diet when they’ve been following the diet for over a year or more.

I tried it well after the one-year mark, and I do tolerate it, although I don’t go overboard with it. For some *very weird* reason (I used to love chocolate I swear) I don’t really miss chocolate all that much/at all since being on SCD and eliminating all refined sugar from my diet. Nonetheless, I like to at least have the option to have something semi-chocolate-related or tasting. I’ve even made dark chocolate chips using cacao and honey, which I then made these chunky rocky road cookies with.

This all being said: if you are strict SCD and not yet on the cacao train, I do have a fake-chocolate recipe you should definitely try. It’s inspired by the infamous Marilyn’s chocolate cake. Find my “chocolate” SCD cookie recipe here.

dark chocolate cranberry pecan cookies made with almond flour

Back to the cookies at hand though. As you may or may not know, I’ve been super into the cookie recipes these days. As already evidenced by the amount of cookie recipes I’ve dropped on the blog as of late. These ones, however, are made with ye old traditional almond flour. If you’re in Canada, I recommend Amson Naturals almond flour, I buy it pretty religiously on Amazon. If you’re in the United States, you can rely on Kirkland brand and it’s also pretty much as affordable as almond flour will get (lol). Regardless of where you live, I’ve been using Organic Traditions for my cacao powder/cacao nibs needs.

Apart from the almond flour and cacao powder, this recipe calls for pure vanilla extract, honey, grape seed oil (but feel free to sub your preferred oil/butter-type substance, butter also works!), smooth almond butter (we want to avoid crunchy for this particular recipe as we already get a nice crunch from the pecan bits), pecans (as mentioned), cranberries and an egg.

These cookies are fancy in appearance, but honestly pretty fast and easy to throw together, making it a win-win situation for everyone. They hit the spot when you’re craving chocolate, but at the same time, these are not too sweet– hence the ‘dark chocolate’ description. You could always make them sweeter by adding more honey, if you desire it.

If you do try this recipe, or wind up experimenting with the honey or your add-ins, please let me know how it goes! Drop me a comment below, or follow me slash DM me on Instagram @grainfreee.

A few related recipes if you’re looking for some other amazing cookies to try:

dark chocolate cranberry pecan cookies: ingredients

1+1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder (i use organic traditions)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp grape seed oil
1 egg
1 tbsp smooth almond butter
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup pecans

dark chocolate cranberry pecan cookies: how to

Start by toasting the pecans for 10-15 minutes at 300. Remove from the oven when they’re fragrant and lightly toasted, and chop them into small pieces.
Mix the almond flour, baking soda, and cacao powder together in a large bowl.
Add the grape seed oil, honey, almond butter and combine well.
Next mix in the vanilla extract and egg, until the batter is well combined.
Fold in the chopped and toasted pecans and chopped cranberries.
Prepare the cookies to go into the oven, using a tbsp of cookie batter at a time, place them on a parchment paper-lined baking tray.
Flatten each cookie with the bottom of the palm of your hand, wetting it with a few drops of water to avoid sticking.
Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 350 for 12 minutes.
Store the cookies in the fridge or freezer for optimal freshness.

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