Just over a week ago, on the same day I needed to start packing up my entire kitchen to move, a humongous cookie craving hit mid-afternoon. I felt like the Cookie Monster… “Me want cookie—NOW!!” (Just a little less blue and furry!)
I seriously debated about walking down the street to the grocery store, but most of their bakery’s cookies taste stale by mid-morning. As a soft-and-chewy-cookie type of girl, those weren’t worth my time!
At that moment, my guy walked into the room and asked why I looked so distraught. “Did we run out of boxes? Tape? Did you drop something heavy on your foot?” When he heard my forlorn look was all because of cookies, he could only laugh.
He suggested running over to Trader Joe’s since we both love their gingersnaps and soft-baked snickerdoodles, but… My picky side kicked in. Nothing spiced… Something fruity… Super soft and tender…
With one mixing bowl and a baking sheet still left to stick in cardboard boxes, I procrastinated on finishing packing and decided to bake my own. After spotting a bag of strawberries in the freezer (gosh you guys… I hoard frozen fruit as much as dark chocolate!), I added the rest to my cookie dough to create…
Strawberry Maple Cookies! Perfectly sweet and pure comfort food, they taste like the freshness of summer intertwined with coziness of fall. With no refined flour or sugar, they’re entirely clean-eating (plus low fat and low calorie too!), so they’re a sweet treat you can feel good indulging in!
Still on a gluten-free kick after baking this, these, and these, I experimented with my first batch of GF cookies in almost two years. (These were my first and only GF cookie recipe… Goodness, my photography has come a long way since then!) I created my own blend of millet, brown rice, tapioca, and coconut flours, but feel free to substitute your favorite mix instead. And as always, whole wheat flour works perfectly fine too.
I’ve started using coconut oil in most of my clean-eating cookies because of the extra moisture it lends the dough. However, after polling Facebook earlier this week, I realized most of you actually prefer butter for baking! Either works fine, but if you do go the coconut oil route, I promise you can’t taste any coconut—just purely sweet maple syrup!
Because of the extra liquid from the maple syrup, the cookie dough is initially very tacky, so you must chill it. Chilling is mandatory! If you baked the cookies immediately after mixing up the dough, they’d spread into one massive cookie blob on the baking sheet.
Even with chilling, they’ll still spread, so if you only refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes, make sure to drop them into rounded scoops as tall as they are wide… Basically as spherical as you can make them! This reduces the chance of forming a cookie blob and ensures they end up somewhat thick, not completely paper thin, so you can actually sink your teeth into these!
Dry, overdone, or burnt cookies are practically a crime in my house, so I always slightly underbake my cookies and let them cool longer on the warm baking sheet. This allows the centers to continue cooking through without the outsides turning crisp and crunchy. They’ll stay soft for an entire week, and these ones actually developed that soft sugary thin coat on top like banana bread after it’s sat for a day.
Seriously addictive!
With their sweet berries and extra soft texture, these healthier Strawberry Maple Cookies are a chewy cookie lover’s bliss! It was practically impossible to keep my hands out of the cookie jar… I ate 5 in a single day! I’d like to chalk it up to moving stress, but…
I’m probably just a Cookie Monster at heart. ♥
These soft and chewy cookies always disappear in less than a day! With their sweet berries and light maple background, they’re the perfect combination of summer and fall. Store any leftovers in an airtight container on the counter for up to a week—if they last that long!
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Gently fold in the strawberries. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.
- Drop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet in rounded scoops. (If the dough was only chilled for 30 minutes, make sure they’re as tall as they are wide to prevent excessive spreading.) Bake at 325°F for 13-16 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. (If the cookies threaten to break when you try moving them, let them cool completely on the baking sheet instead.)
Notes: For the gluten-free flour, I used as follows: ½ cup + 2 tablespoons millet flour (75g), ¼ cup (35g) brown rice flour, ¼ cup (30g) tapioca flour, 2 teaspoons (5g) coconut flour, and ½ teaspoon xanthan gum.
Unsalted butter (melted) may be substituted in place of the coconut oil.
I just made these today while my mom was at work. They had just cooled when she got home. My sisters mom and I tried them and we love the taste. It was a great recipe because my little sister can’t eat gluten. They spread all together on the sheet so they were more like bars, but delicious all the same.
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed these cookies, Avery! That means a lot to me — thank you for taking the time to let me know! 🙂 If you’d like the cookies to be more like cookies, rather than one giant cookie or cookie bars, then chill them for longer (ie 1-2 hours) and also make sure your mounds of cookie dough are taller than they are wide, like I mentioned in the Instructions (I know that can be easy to miss! 😉 ). I typically push up the sides of each mound of cookie dough with a little spatula just before popping the tray in the oven, just to make sure they’re as tall as possible — and therefore won’t spread as much! You can also pat the strawberry dry with paper towels right before folding them into the batter, which will soak up a little moisture and also help reduce spreading. Does all of that make sense?
Yes that does make sense thank you for sharing. I’m sure I’ll make again.
It’s my pleasure, Avery! I’m always happy to help! 🙂