The other day, I received this lovely note from one of my favorite readers, CoconutGal:I wanted to send you an email to let you know how thankful I am for your generosity in sharing your wholesome, creative, and super delicious recipes.I would like to tell you a little bit about my story;
I have been diagnosed with Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis, an autoimmune disorder where my white blood cells recognize food as a virus and attack my body when I eat, causing extreme pain, malabsorption, frail body, etc.
This diagnosis is still relatively new to me. I am 22 years old and went most of my life complaining of bellyaches and knew that greasy foods made me sick. I went to doctors and was simply told I was a picky eater or I had IBS. So I continued on with the belly aches but had no major problems until about 2 ½ years ago.
Two months before my wedding I became extremely ill. Food wasn’t staying inside of me. No one could figure out what was wrong. After 1 month and a 10-pound weight loss I was in the ER. After several tests, including an upper endoscopy and a colonoscopy they diagnosed me with Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis.
Since that day, my eating has drastically changed, I have been to countless doctors and no one knew what to do. Only 300 Americans have been diagnosed with EG and all the doctors I have seen have never met anyone before myself with the illness. It’s very rare and very scary.I went days and months trying all sorts of elimination diets, not knowing what to do. I felt very helpless and alone. One day I could eat something and feel fine but the next day my body would attack me for eating the same food and I would be held up in bed for a week in excruciating intestinal pain.Life went on like this until this past August. I finally found an amazing naturopath who has helped me so much!Through some great tests, (normal doctors tested me for food allergies and I came back all clear, supposedly allergic to nothing!) we found my body attacks itself when I eat: gluten, dairy, cane sugar, eggs, soy, yeast, sesame, and peanuts. I have been free of all those foods since October and am finally starting to gain some strength and feel a little like my old self again.
I first stumbled upon your great website in the summer when I was on a feeding tube formula (full of icky things like soy and BHT) but needed it to stay alive. I loved looking at your site but sort of took a hiatus from anything food as it was just too hard to think about it since I could only drink my nutrition. Anyway, when I was able to slowly wean myself off the formula and go back to cook purred foods, I remembered your blog as it was about the same time I found out the real foods that made me sick and your diet is quite similar to mine.I already ate low gluten and had been dairy free for half a year and was mainly living on protein and veggies before I cut out the for-sure offenders.Your site has been one of my inspirations that I don’t have to suffer eating this way. It’s fun and unbelievably healthy! I would’ve never known I could have a cookie or apple pie! I just thought if I cant eat flour, butter, sugar- than there obviously aren’t any treats I can eat!I had not had a cookie in 2 ½ years. I’ve made raw food desserts with lots of nuts and dates but never knew I could have an ACTUAL cookie until I found your recipes. Thank you so much.
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I just wanted to share this with you because I am sure you spend a lot of time creating these recipes and responding to people on your website and all this work you do is out of the goodness of your heart. Your site is a great place to find community as well which has been something I have craved for so long because eating this “restricted” is just so rare.I’ve included a couple of photos from my “first cookie since I’ve been ill experiment.” My husband helped me make your dairy free version of chocolate chip cookies on Valentine’s Day! We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day, but this was our special treat. They turned out wonderfully. I couldn’t wait for them to cool and ate 3 piping hot cookies! Oh my gosh! So yummy!! We used raw cocoa nibs as I cannot find cane sugar free chocolate chips. I think my dough turned out a lot greasier than yours looks in the photo. You don’t pack down the almond flour when you measure it do you? I was thinking maybe I should have done that because it seemed rather moist. I used Honeyville. The cookies were gone in 3 days and my “normal eating” husband enjoyed them just as much as me! I brought them to my parents house and it made them so happy that I should share a treat with them.I know to most people, a cookie is just a cookie, but this provides me with so many more opportunities to feel included in social events and I get to actually enjoy my food, rather than eating out of necessity. Thanks Elana for all your yummy recipes!Blessings, CoconutGal
Thank you so much CoconutGal for your heartwarming message. It is so sweet and inspiring! And yes, I do pack the almond flour in the measuring cup when I cook –good detective work on your part that will be of help to others too.
Gluten Free and Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup agave nectar or honey
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
- Stir together wet ingredients in a small bowl
- Mix wet ingredients into dry
- Form ½-inch 1-inch balls and press onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
- Bake at 350°F for 7-10 minutes
- Cool and serve
In case you haven’t seen it already, here is my video tutorial on how to make chocolate chip cookies. Stay tuned for more video tutorials.
Allison says
I know I’m behind the ball here since I just got around to making these, but OH MY GOODNESS! I’ve been making alternative foods for a loooong time now, and I’ve never before had something taste EXACTLY like its more unhealthy version!
THANK YOU for this amazingly incredible recipe! Now I’ve got to go hit the gym before I eat the whole cookie sheet!! :-)
PS: I did sub maple syrup for agave since I prefer it, and I used a broken-up Endangered Species chimp bar (the 72% dark) for the chocolate chips.
Sarah Kagan says
Trader Joe’s “Just Almond Meal” does not say whether the almonds are blanched: has anyone used it and had success or failure with the chocolate chip cookies or other recipes?
JMurphy says
I just googled Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis because I was diagnosed with it a little more than a month ago.
I came across this website and post, and it made me so happy to find someone else like me!
My allergies are different, I can have dairy, but in addition to the other culprits, almonds and chocolate are no good for me. I have been trying to come up with new cookie and bread recipes that don’t use egg, sugar, gluten, or chocolate. But this whole site just made me so happy to find someone like me that is also being so proactive about such a crappy condition!!
I almost want to start a “Living With Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis” blog, but I may only have one subscriber!!
Thank you for the Positive outlook!
-Justin
Rose Flores says
Hello! I made these yummy chocolate chip cookies and followed the recipe to the T. I’m not quite sure what went wrong but the cookies did not hold firm. They came out flimsy and a little bit greasy. Any ideas as to what went wrong?
SassaFrass88 says
I just altered this recipe and it’s now perfect for me. Thank you Elana for coming up with this!
The only thing I changed was to use some black strap molasses in place of some of the sweetener (in your case, agave nectar), which perfectly re-creates the brown sugar aspect that normally comprises the chocolate chip cookie.
No eggs needed and these are super chewy! I feel like a ‘normal’ person again, now that I can eat something so delicious!
carrie @ gingerlemongirl.com says
I LOVE these cookies Elana! They are SO GOOD and SO EASY when I need a chocolate chip cookie fix. I love my own recipe using different GF flours & sugar… but these cookies are so much nicer to my blood sugar & I don’t have to worry about feeling terribly guilty when I eat them!! Thank you so much for these! Your cookbook holds a permanent spot on my kitchen counter!
g.maria says
Is there anyway to substitute Stevia or something for the agave nectar? I’m very unfond of the stuff and don’t trust it at all. Do you have any sugar-free/dairy free cookie recipes?
Phred says
I’ve been experimenting with my making my own chocolate chips using agave instead of cane sugar.
Gonna try these cookies and see how it all works out.
One thing I’ve done is dropped the grapeseed oil (an avoid for type O/hunters) and use butter instead. Adds such a luscious taste!
You can also take this recipe, add some chocolate, flatten them and insert the coconut frosting to make – FAUXEREOS! :)
I’ll be doing that tonight, except using my nutella recipe instead as the filling!
Laura in Austin, TX says
Do you have the nutrient profile for these? They are phenomenal! I ran out of agave nectar and used brown rice syrup instead; they still taste great!
Carlin says
I made a few substitutions and additions with these, but they still turned out delicious! I substituted coconut oil for grapeseed oil as I try to avoid grapeseed oil. I also substituted brown rice syrup for agave nectar as I am getting increasingly concerned about the type of fructose in agave and also its affect on the liver. I then added 1 cup of toasted chopped pecans and 3/4 cup shredded coconut. All my friend devoured the cookies and nobody except me has to eat gluten-free. To them they were just normal delicious cookies which I think is always the good marker of gluten-free done well. Thanks for making these recipes!