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.
Hi Amy, I fell in love with your recipe’s when I encountered your blog last week 🙂 I am now trying this recipe and your other cupcake recipes (I can’t wait!) I have a question though, is it ok to use LorAnn Pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract? And for your chocolate recipes, are you using Dutch processed? I am not sure what kind of vanilla extract or cocoa powder you are using, (and there are limited ingredients available here in the Philippines. )
Thank you so much for your sweet comment Anna! That vanilla is perfectly fine. I generally use McCormick’s vanilla (or any generic store brand), so just use whatever you generally buy for your pantry. When I call for “regular unsweetened cocoa powder,” that means non-Dutched cocoa powder. Here in the US, that’s what’s most common! Hershey’s sells their “Special Dark” cocoa powder in the US, which is Dutched, so unless I specifically call for Dutched cocoa powder, I generally use non-Dutched. It’s a little lighter in color and doesn’t produce quite so dark of a taste, but if you prefer extra dark chocolate, feel free to use Dutched cocoa instead! Hope that helps and that you enjoy the recipes! 🙂
Thank you very much for replying. We actually have Hershey’s regular unsweetened cocoa powder here, but it’s quite expensive, the usual cocoa powders in our grocery stores are labelled as “alkalized” or “dutch” (Maybe I just need to window shop a few more stores to look for a cheaper regular cocoa). I have tried these cookies today and it came out delicious! My cookies are a bit soft though since I didn’t use a conventional oven, but rather I steamed the cookie dough using the regular water steaming method (I also used this method on my cupcakes because I actually don’t have a proper oven.) I am now trying your “Ultimate Healthy Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies” later 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes and your love for baking!
You’re welcome Anna! I’m so happy you enjoyed these cookies. I’d never heard of steaming cookies before, but I’m glad that worked well for you! And I’m so excited to hear what you think of my chocolate chip cookies too! 🙂 Happy baking!
This is the way to chase away packing blues and cookie cravings! I’ve never seen a cookie bridge summer and fall so beautifully. Pure maple syrup is the best 🙂
Thanks Mary Frances! I always take a “clean up” swipe of my finger around the edge of the maple syrup bottle after pouring some out. Gotta make sure the lid doesn’t stick… And get my extra taste too! 😉
Oh my gosh, cravings always hit at the worst time! I love these – maple is the best!
SO true!! I always get cravings for specific foods after all of the restaurants or good grocery stores close…
I’m jazzed to hear you both like the TJ’s snicker doodle cookies, although these are giving them a run for their money!! I love the flavor combo! I’m similar when I need cookies, everyone better watch out.
Thanks Brittany! You have the BEST recommendations. 🙂 I’m even worse when it comes to brownies… If you thought cookie cravings were bad, my brownie cravings are a complete nightmare!
Amy these look fantastic as always!! Do you think whole wheat pastry flour would work?? That’s all I have on hand unfortunately…
Thanks Marina! I’m sure whole wheat pastry flour would work. I’m excited to hear what you think of the cookies! 🙂
Hi Amy
These look great. Do you think I could substitute dried strawberries or other dried berries?
Definitely! Any dried fruit should work just fine. I’m excited to hear what you think of the cookies Amy! 🙂
Did I do something terribly wrong by using just coconut flour? My dough was powdery, even after adding considerable extra oil.
Unfortunately, yes… Coconut flour is about 3 times as absorbent as any other flour, so it will soak up all of the moisture in this cookie dough, which makes the dough extremely crumbly and refuse to stick together. For this reason, I don’t recommend substituting coconut flour in any of my recipes, unless its explicitly called for. If you’re trying to make this cookie recipe lower in carbs, I’d recommend almond meal/flour instead. 🙂 I’d love to hear how that substitution turns out if you try it Katie!
Hi Amy! I baked 2 batches of these today, one for the gluten-eating people in my family and one for the gluten-free people (which includes me). My parent and siblings just LOVED it! This is an AMAZING recipe. Because my family and I are used to less sweet treats, I tweaked the recipe and substituted 2 tablespoons honey per batch. Also, I use this gluten free flour recipe (because some of my siblings are allergic to millet/coconut):
4 1/2 + 1/3 cup white rice flour
1 2/3 cups brown rice flour
1 1/3 cups potato STARCH
3/4 cups tapioca flour or starch
I’m so glad you and your family enjoyed these cookies Maryam! That really means a lot to me. Thanks for sharing your own GF flour blend — I love hearing what tweaks work! 🙂