Chocolate Molasses Thumbprint Cookies

These cook­ies are inspired by a desire to com­bine my par­ents’ favorite hol­i­day cook­ies – a soft-baked molasses cook­ie for my dad, and a sea salt dark choco­late thumbprint for my mom. Chewy on the out­side and full of choco­latey good­ness on the inside, these cook­ies are sure to delight your hol­i­day taste­buds, with­out weigh­ing you down with refined sug­ar and flour.

Free from Gluten, Grains, Dairy, Soy, and Peanuts

Ingredients

• 1 egg and 1 egg yolk
• ⅔ cup smooth almond but­ter
• 2 Tbsp. + 1 tsp., sep­a­rat­ed, organ­ic coconut oil
• ¼ cup molasses
• ¼ cup coconut sug­ar
• 1 tsp. vanil­la extract
• ⅔ cup coconut flour
• 1 tsp. bak­ing soda
• 1 tsp. ground cin­na­mon
• 1 tsp. ground gin­ger
• ¼ tsp. all­spice
• 2 pinch­es, sep­a­rat­ed sea salt
• ½ cup Enjoy Life dark choco­late chips

Instructions

1. Pre­heat oven to 350 ℉ and line 2 large bak­ing sheets with parch­ment paper or sil­pats
2. In a stand mix­er (or large bowl with an elec­tric mix­er) com­bine the egg, egg yolk, almond but­ter and 2 Tbsp. coconut oil.
3. Add the molasses, coconut sug­ar and vanil­la and mix until smooth.
4. In a sep­a­rate bowl, com­bine the coconut flour, bak­ing soda, 1 pinch salt, cin­na­mon, gin­ger and all­spice.
5. Add the dry mix­ture to the wet ingre­di­ents until ful­ly com­bined and sticky.
6. Chill dough in the refrig­er­a­tor for 15–20 min­utes to thick­en.
7. Use a round­ed spoon to scoop the dough into ping-pong ball size mounds, then gen­tly press your thumb into the cen­ter and slight­ly flat­ten the sides so there is a well in the mid­dle of the cook­ie.
8. Bake for 8–10 min­utes until tops crack (do NOT over­bake). Imme­di­ate­ly after remov­ing the cook­ie sheets from the oven, rein­force the well in the cen­ter of the cook­ies (a spoon works well) and move to a cool­ing rack to cool com­plete­ly.
9. When cook­ies are com­plete­ly cool, melt the dark choco­late with 1 tsp. coconut oil on a very low set­ting on the stove, stir­ring con­stant­ly. When all lumps are smoothed out and the choco­late is shiny, remove from heat and care­ful­ly spoon into the wells of the cooled cook­ies.
10.  After choco­late has cooled slight­ly, sprin­kle the remain­ing pinch of sea salt over the cook­ies and allow to cool com­plete­ly (a trip to the fridge can help speed up this process!)
11. Enjoy! Store any left­overs in the refrig­er­a­tor for 1 week or the freez­er for 2–3 months

Hap­py Hol­i­days!