You may know that in certain, cycling-related circles I’m known as The Cookie Lady. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I was the culinary architect behind the Skratch Labs Cookie Mix back in the day. And the other reason is (probably) that I have an undying love + dedication for cookies – for all purposes including sports nutrition, deep nourishment + general well-being. And, it’s not a decadent stance, friends. It’s science (and sound nutrition.)
That said, I’ve known and loved and created a LOT of cookies in my short lifetime. A LOT OF COOKIES. And I love them all equally. They all use different flours, and fats, different types of sweeteners, and have different textures, flavors, and consistencies. They all have a place in my heart, and all have a moment of perfection — whether it’s fuel for on the bike, a dunkable snack perfect for kiddos or cozying up at home, a celebratory treat, and more.
That said, I’ve recently been hankering for a cookie that could serve many purposes. I wanted a recipe that could be gluten-free or vegan if it needed to be, and just as good and easy to make if it wasn’t. I also deeply wanted a cookie that was packed with tasty + nutritious good stuff, and NOT packed with refined sugar; a typical must-have ingredient for great cookies.
And this cookie is it. The cookie “blueprint” to crush all other cookie blueprints. A cookie that can do anything, be anything, go anywhere and utilize whatever you have on hand. It’s sturdy, satisfying, friendly to all folx, naturally sweetened, travels well, it’s unfussy, fast and unf*ckable. It’s a perfect snack and solid fuel for cycling, running, hiking, skiing and hanging in there on a brain-heavy day.
There’s no better way to put it: this cookie is like an edible best friend. It’s my Ride or Die Cookie. The cookie recipe that I’m turning to for all the things. And I’m so excited to share it with you so you can bake it up for all the things too.
I’m hoping that you don’t need much convincing when I say that having a cookie as an energy snack is not any worse for you than having an energy bar. NOT ANY WORSE THAN AN ENERGY BAR and frankly, for a variety of reasons…BETTER THAN AN ENERGY BAR.
An energy bar is a packaged product that contains “energy foods,” usually in some weird amalgamation of ingredients that may or may not digest well together. In order to keep it shelf-stable there absolutely are some form of preservatives inside (even if it’s just a bit of salt,) and the ingredients are subject to the virtues of the manufacturer and the pricing of commodities.
By the sheer virtue of the fact that that bar is made in a commercial kitchen someplace, packed on a machine that pulls the air out of the packaging, then shipped to the location where you get it and buy it, it is not fresh and therefore starting to lose its flavors, textures, and…joy. Also, this packaged thing is expensive! About $2.50 (or more!) for just one “snack.” Not to mention that it sits lonely on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere before finally being selected to be your preferred energy food.
Sounds a little lackluster, right? It is. Almost no matter how you slice it, IT IS.
A homemade cookie, however, is…a cookie. You go to the grocery store and select your ingredients based on your own food virtues, your own price restrictions. The grains, fats, proteins, and sweeteners that go into your cookie are real food ingredients (instead of inverted sugars, processed foods or unrecognizable compounds) because that’s what the recipe calls for. You make the dough with your own hands, you fill your own house with the smells and joy, and then you proceed to eat the entire batch over a short period of time because…that is what happens with cookies. They don’t languish in a drawer somewhere.
Lastly, let’s talk about the expense of making a batch of cookies. At the very most, if you’re using organic cultured butter, organic local + free range eggs, very very good chocolate and very very good heirloom flour, you’re paying about $10.00 for an ENTIRE BATCH OF COOKIES. In this case, that means that you’re spending about $0.76 CENTS for a snack to take on your rides.
Choosing energy bars is expensive – for your budget, and your body. Many of the ingredients included in that energy bar are things your body doesn’t recognize and can’t use as food. And so if performance is what you seek, you’re literally putting trash into the tank.
Real foods are always better for you than processed foods. Always. Homemade foods are always better for you than those that have been industrialized in any way. Always. And the joy of making a cookie and taking it on your ride is a kind of wellness practice beyond measure, particularly when you include Truly Good Stuff in your cookie batter.
I say, cookies over energy bars, every damn time.
Ok. End rant! : D
But really, the reason that I wanted to create this recipe specifically was all about the ingredients. The ingredients in a cookie can be incredibly powerful and potent for our bodies…they’re not just “sweets” if we choose wisely.
Here’s how to choose the components of your “treats” so that they’re smart, wholesome, holistic, “healthy,” and anything but “junk food.”
Whenever you can, choose to use heirloom, whole-grain flours. Why? Because commodity flour most often sold on the grocery store shelf has been bleached, stripped of its nutrients, and packaged up. The gluten in this flour remains, but none of the vitamins, nutrients, minerals or fiber that help us to digest the gluten or assimilate the critical nutrients still intact are gone. Eating too much of this adulterated flour is a leading cause of gluten intolerance. It’s not the gluten that bothers our bodies, it’s our body’s inability to process that gluten that causes issues. We require intact grains to process gluten efficiently.
This is where heirloom, whole-grain flours come in. Heirloom grains haven’t been commodified which means they haven’t been bred, or stripped, or industrialized. The whole grains mean that all the vitamins, minerals, and fibers stay intact. And when we bake with these flours, it means that our bodies reap tremendous benefits from the grains, and process them efficiently and easily. These grains are superfoods for us as athletes.
What if you CAN’T eat gluten? There are other options for you, and this cookie allows you to utilize whatever whole-grain, real food flours you like best. You don’t need to make any adjustments – just add the gluten-free flour blend cup for cup.
Fat is a necessary component in a cookie that has a pleasing mouth texture. It’s also a critical component in making a cookie a great energy snack – because the fat digests more slowly than the carbohydrate, and allows our bodies to milk energy from this food for a good while before we need to refuel.
Fats are also really really important for us as athletes. Despite the popular phobia that makes us want to believe that eating fat will make us fat (nothing could be further from the truth,) fats actually help our brains and neurons to process thoughts and make decisions clearly. Fat helps improve our memory, keeps us sated, helps us to recover and also bolsters all of our internal organs keeping our bodies safe
Most cookie recipes call for butter to create a nice cookie crumb. This recipe, however, uses coconut oil and leaven to create that same tantalizing texture.
What if you can’t have coconut? You could use butter or vegan butter instead, but you MUST MUST MUST chill the cookie dough before baking to make sure your cookies keep their shape!
Refined sugars and sweeteners have received a bad rap lately, and for all the same reasons that commodity flour has: they’re literally stripped of the “stuff” that makes them valuable to our bodies in the name of industrialization (and not at all for our health.) Cane sugar and beet sugar (which are predominant sources of “white sugar,”) are actually not harmful to our health when they’re intact in their natural state. But finding them in their natural state is harder and harder to do.
What does refined sugar do to our bodies? This is a great question. Without the fiber, vitamins, minerals and nutrients that help us to process the glucose in this ingredient, it can send our body a bit haywire. If these nutrients are intact, these sugars are natural, healthful sources of energy.
It’s not actually healthy to go “sugar free,” because our bodies require sugars (ie: glucose) as our primary source of energy. Instead, using smart, whole, unrefined sugars that keep our bodies balanced and functioning holistically is critical. Unrefined sweeteners that fit this bill are maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, evaporated cane juice, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, molasses, and jaggery. There are some processes required to make these sweeteners available to us, but those processes don’t strip them of their nutrients or change their composition in detrimental ways.
This recipe calls strictly for maple syrup as a sweetener, which is one of my favorite parts about it. Maple syrup is a mineral rich source of energy for us as humxns and athletes. We can enjoy these treats without a “sugar spike,” and our bodies will enjoy the immense nutrient benefits to be reaped from this ingredient. If you don’t have, or don’t like maple (first, who are you!?) and second you can use brown rice syrup or agave instead. Do not use honey as an alternative sweetener in this recipe – honey should never be baked as the heat detrimentally changes the nutrient benefits of honey.
There’s a LOT to know about chocolate and how to source it. In fact, I could write a whole year’s worth of newsletters just talking about chocolates and how to choose them…but there are so many other things to eat and discuss!
When choosing chocolate – for this cookie recipe or otherwise – I like to know the source of the chocolate, the harvesting practices around the chocolate, and the composition of the chocolate itself.
This article on honorable sourcing will help you to better understand where chocolate and cacao come from. The source is the location or farm where the cacao beans are grown. This impacts their flavor profile. The hands that harvest the cacao beans and turn them into cacao liquor for chocolate is also important to know. Cheap chocolate indicates that cheap labor and cheap ingredients were used in the production of the chocolate you’re about to eat. To be very frank, this likely means that a human being was paid below minimum wage for their work and that highly adulterated milk, sugar, and emulsifiers are being used to bond your chocolate bar. (That doesn’t sound or taste very good, does it?)
This starts to come into the composition of the chocolate. When you read a percentage on a chocolate package (50%, 75%, 85%) this is indicative of how much CACAO is in the chocolate. Cacao is loaded with minerals, nutrients, and other goodies that help our bodies to reduce inflammation, improve digestion, maintain focus and induce a sense of calm. The more cacao in your chocolate, the better! The other ingredients are typically some combination of sugar, milk, emulsifiers, or cacao butter. The fewer the ingredients the better in my opinion, and the more ingredients from the cacao bean that are used, also the better.
For this recipe, I’ve opted to use chocolate from Guittard’s Santé 72% sweetened with coconut sugar. It’s a very tasty, very easy-to-use little product because instead of needing to chop chocolate, it’s in the form of baking chips. Finding chocolate that’s sweetened with unrefined sugars is super rare — I highly recommend giving these a shot. I also love to use Ritual Belize Bars chopped up into chunks in these cookies – (their bars are also vegan!)
This recipe also calls for chopped almonds and butterscotch chips, but this is absolutely up for negotiation. If you omit the cacao, you could have a lovely chunky oatmeal cookie with raisins and chocolate. You could double the chocolate, add in your favorite nuts and crunchy bits…literally any dry mix-ins that you wish. Use it as the best friend cookie blueprint that it is.
Make it fuel that feeds YOUR fire.
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