Salted Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Mel is a big fan of her former co-worker's blog, Newlyfed.  Donna shares great recipes that are healthy and often easy to prepare.  When Mel saw a post that combined two of her favorite things - almond butter and chocolate - she knew she had to try it.

The recipe for Salted Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies is so easy to follow that a toddler could do it!  

You simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
(leave about 1/3 of the chocolate chunks for sprinkling on top of the cookies):

• 1 Cup all-natural creamy almond butter
• 1/3 Cup pure maple syrup
• 1 Egg
• ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
• ½ Teaspoon Sea Salt and a dash of sea salt for sprinkling
• 3.5 Oz. Dark Chocolate Bar, chopped into chunks
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Then arrange dollops of the batter on a cookie sheet, and sprinkle a bit of sea salt and the few extra chocolate chunks on top.

They bake quickly (about 10-12 minutes with the oven at 350 F), and the end result is a batch of cookies that have a perfect mix of sweet and salty.  And any guilt you feel about eating cookies can be assuaged by reminding yourself that dark chocolate has some health benefits, and almond butter is a good source of protein (and healthier than regular cookie batter).

Our cookies came out a little flatter than the one's shown on Newlyfed, so next time we might make our dollops on the baking sheet smaller and maybe add a little more almond butter to the mix.  But overall, we will most certainly keep these cookies on our list for somewhat healthy indulgences!

March 2015 Addendum:  We have made this recipe several times now and learned that fresh ground almond butter makes the cookies much chunkier and fluffier.  Perhaps it's because jarred almond butter tends to have oil that settles at the top and can be hard to mix perfectly.  But if you can find a store with the nut grinding machine (like Whole Foods), the fresh ground almonds really are ideal for a delightful cookie!