Version of Thin Mint Cookies (grain-free, low-carb)

It's Girl Scout Cookie time! This year the Girl Scouts are offering a gluten-free cookie for the first time, but at least my local scouts ran out of boxes. They still haven't really attempted a low-carb cookie, and might never. Never fear, there are recipes out there to try for people not consuming grain or sugar. I used a recipe from "All Day I Dream About Food" and adapted it slightly. You can see her original version here. My most significant change is not using a sugar substitute, but a lower-GI sugar. This is because of the tastes in my household!

Did I still buy a box of thin mints? Well yes. That is what you see on the left. My cookie is on the right. Pretty close! Without commercial chocolate drenching equipment it's not easy to get the glaze as thin as they get it, but who ever asked for less chocolate?

Here the two cookies are again, my version is on the bottom. You can see the almond flour makes a slightly larger grain, plus I did not bake these until crisp. There is less of a snap when you bite into it, but the chocolate still helps with that. Texture wise, I actually prefer my cookie!

When I made these I actually made a half batch, because this makes a lot! Especially when you consider that you are going to have to dip each one in chocolate, 40 is a lot of cookies. The full recipe is displayed below.

Thin Mint Cookies 
(adapted from All Day I Dream About Food) 

Ingredients

Cookies:
• 1 3/4 cups almond flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar*
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg, slightly beaten
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1/4 tsp peppermint extract**
  
Coating:
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 7 oz sugar-free chocolate chips such as Lily (Stevia-sweetened) OR 90% Lindt chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Instructions

Cookies:
1. Preheat the oven to 300F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, cocoa powder, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in egg, butter, vanilla and peppermint extract and stir well until dough comes together.
3. Roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper to desired thickness (I rolled mine very thin, about 1/8 inch thick). Lift off top piece of parchment and set aside. Using a 2-inch diameter cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and lift gently. Place cookies on prepared baking sheet. Gather up scraps of dough and reroll until too little is left to roll out.
4. Bake cookies until desired texture. The original recipe says 30 minutes here but mine seemed done at 15, and I was afraid to burn them. Your mileage may vary but definitely check them at 15! Remove and let cool (they will continue to crisp up as they cool).
   
Chocolate Coating:
5. Place a metal bowl over a pot of gently simmering water, not allowing the bowl to touch the water. Melt coconut oil and chocolate together in the bowl, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in peppermint extract.
6. Dip cookies into chocolate, using two forks to turn over and fully coat cookie. Gently pass chocolate-coated cookie back and forth between forks to remove excess chocolate, then place on waxed paper to cool and set. 

* As this recipe is, these are not at all a sweet cookie. I had missed that the original recipe had both powdered and liquid stevia. So there is room here for up to double this amount of coconut sugar.
** I know this does not seem like a lot but peppermint extract is very powerful in small doses and you do not want more than this. It will start to taste like medicine.