So all you agave haters gather round. These gluten free chocolate chip cookies are completely free of agave, I have used yacon instead.
What is yacon? It is a perennial root, composed primarily of water and Fructooligosaccharide (FOS). These short chain sugars have a lower caloric value (as they are digested anaerobically) and high fiber content. FOS is a prebiotic that is extremely helpful with digestion.
I use yacon as my “brown sugar” or “molasses” in my recipes. For example, in my book, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, I use yacon in my recipes for Gingerbread Men and S’mores.
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Yacon
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 yacon syrup
- 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 balls and press onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet
- Bake at 350°F for 7-10 minutes
- Cool and serve
So, for those of you that are agave averse, what is your favorite substitution for this ingredient in my recipes? I’ve heard of people using everything from apple sauce and stevia to honey. If you have a formula or a favorite recipe that replaces agave with another ingredient, be sure to leave it in the comments section!
One of my favorite bloggers, Chris from Celiac Handbook is featuring me on his Facebook page this week. Chris is an amazing guy who does so much to spread awareness of celiac disease and is always selflessly promoting other bloggers in our community. He is fabulous.
tandblekning says
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Lisa Popelka says
Hi Elana!
This is Ellie, aged 10. I just wanted to let you know that when you look up ‘yacon syrup’ in ingredients that it shows it is being sold at iHerb, but I went to iHerb and found yacon syrup was discontinued. But it is sold at the other website.
Thanks and I really want to try these yummy-looking cookies ASAP!
Ellie
PS I love how you pronounce your name-it’s really pretty!
Npeterson says
I don’t mean to be rude, but what does being digested anaerobically have to do with them having a lower calorific value? I’m a biochemisty student, and that doesn’t ring any bells, although I’m sure that there are many many things I don’t know yet :)
Erin says
I’m surprised there aren’t more people using coconut palm (aka palm) sugar.
It’s even lower glycemic than agave (agave always spiked my blood sugar and made me shaky, so I have my doubts about its true GI).
You can find granular form at health food stores (it has a brown-sugary taste) or you can find semi-solid at Asian grocers (it’s the traditional sugar of Thailand) and it will be labeled “Palm Sugar”- you just have to make sure the ingredients list only “sap from coconut blossoms”. It’s very inexpensive. I think I payed about 5 bucks for 32 oz.
Colleen says
“agave haters gather round” that cracked me up. as for sweetener substitutes preference, i’m a date syrup girl, obviously. this recipe is in my oven as i write. preparation for road trip this week. can i wait until tomorrow to eat one?
eliana says
I’m so happy to see this post! I’m allergic to agave and have been substituting honey but I’m not too crazy about the taste, well, since I’m not too crazy about honey itself. I’m going to try adding some non-dairy milk plus stevia and see what comes out!
John says
We love yacon as a sugar substitute so we couldn’t wait to try the recipe. Since we did not have almond flour, we substituted coconut flour and used almond oil instead of the grapeseed oil.
We also wanted a “control” for this experiment in yacon, so we created the same cookie, using the same recipe, but substituting coconut sugar for yacon. In this picture, the cookies with yacon are on the left and the “control” group with coconut sugar are on the right. The ones made with coconut sugar look better, maybe because coconut sugar is a more reasonable substitute for refined sugar. However, I want to assure everyone that the ones made with yacon were just as delicious (and sweet) as the ones made with coconut sugar.
Jane says
Hi Elana, I don’t hate agave, I just don’t like it in certain recipes, like anything with fruit. It doesn’t seem to bring out the flavor of fruit as well as honey does (eg in the pear crisp). I liked it in the scones/ cookies and breads.
I’d be interested in trying yacon – looked for it actually but none in any of the stores here- but then I saw the price. It’s insanely expensive, isn’t it? – something like $25 for a jar containing 8 ounces? Does anyone have a good source for this product?
Am curious to see if I’d react to it. My naturopath had me try FOS supplements along with probiotics and it made me feel not very well. (probiotics good.. FOS not so much :-). Symptoms were uncomfortable bloating, which went away when I went off the FOS. Am a longtime probiotics user so … it wasn’t the probiotics.
Vickie says
Because there are still those wanting to know where to buy yacon, I will share the good news with you again (see July 15). http://www.vitacost.com has 11.5 oz. for $10.79. Yes, it’s very expensive, but it’s cheaper here than buying the 8.8 oz. jars for about the same price or more. Hope this helps.
Michiru says
Hello- I am from Germany and today I tried the first recipe from this mouth watering site. But sadly I think I translated it wrong from “cup” to “gramm”. Have you ever thought about translating your recipes? It would help your international guests!
The cookies taste very good though, so I might just have to exeriment a bit with the ingrediens. :-)
Lynn says
I love your cookie recipes! I’m a total cookie aholic! I just made a gluten/lactose free blog for food/restaurants feel free to visit! I love your blog and find it very useful and hope you’ll find mine just as much! http://allergycabinet.blogspot.com/