Maple Chocolate Kiss Cookies (gluten-free)
The holiday frenzy is officially here, and I kind of love it. There’s something invigorating about a schedule full of events (like parties and Liv’s holiday show), sneakily wrapping gifts during naptime, and baking. Oh, the baking. I look forward to it every year. I think I’ll always remember our first year in Valdosta, when I was stoked to use our new pizzelle maker. I made dozens and dozens of pizzelles to send out to family, and of course, some to enjoy at home.
I woke up the next morning, so excited to crunch into one and.. no crunch. They were soggy, already! Who knows their sad state when they arrived to Tucson. Womp wooommmmppp. Pizzelles are one of my favorite holiday cookies, in addition to the little peanut butter blossoms with the chocolate kiss in the center.
I decided to play with the recipe a bit, taking out the refined sugar (ok, except for the quintessential kiss on top!) and making a gluten-free version. These have a surprise dose of fiber, protein and healthy fats!
It worked out pretty well. 😉
These cookies are light, fluffy, and actually hold up the next day. If they last that long…
Holiday Cookie Exchange Party Perfect
These would be awesome to make for your gluten-free friends (or yourself!), or as an awesome slightly healthier addition to the holiday cookie tray.
Let me know if you give them a try!
Here’s the recipe:
Maple Chocolate Kiss Cookies
A gluten-free and healthier twist on a cookie classic.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 20
- Yield: 10 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten-free all purpose flour (such as Bob’s Red Mill or Trader Joe’s)
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 10 chocolate candies of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and spray a standard cookie sheet with nonstick spray or olive oil.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, almond meal, baking powder, salt, coconut and cocoa powder. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, syrup, egg and vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well to combine.
- Using a spoon, make 10 large cookie shapes onto your cookie sheet. The mixture will be wet, so don’t worry about it being perfect.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes until set.
- Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before removing to cool on cookie sheets. After about 5 minutes, gently press your chocolate candy (like a kiss, small peanut butter cup, piece of peppermint bark, or half a chocolate truffle) on top of the cookie. Allow to finish cooling completely to set.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 10
Want the nutrition stats? Here ya go.
xoxo
Gina
31 Comments
Leave a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I love that these are gluten free! I will definitely try this with my kids, maybe this coming weekend. Too cute!
These cookies are so cute! I love that they are healthy too. It’s is always good to have something lighter you can bring to a party…or make at home.
Oh my the hershey kisses just makes it PERFECT! Oh, how I love toppings more than the actual treat themselves. I’m a total sucker for decorations.
Yummy! Lovely photos too. I’d like to try these right now!
These look so yummy! I can’t wait to make them and see how they turn out.
let me know if you do!
Anything with chocolate and coconut and I’m sold! Just pulled out the ingredients to make these!
ohhh let me know how they turn out!
Yes those are a must-bake!!
let me know if you give them a try!
Yum! These sound delish and who could resist a kiss in the middle too?
the best!
So a funny story about those particular Hersey’s kisses (funny now, it wasn’t a year ago). So those kisses are my absolute favorite candy. My mom sent me a bag last Christmas and my husband, who admittedly has no self control with candy, ate almost the entire bag while I was at work one day. I FLIPPED out on him. I mean, my mom did send him his own bag of a different candy. So in an effort to apologize he found them on Amazon and bought me like four bags. They lasted me until May!
On a recent trip to Target, I bought the family size bag for myself and a box of candy canes for the hubs (his favorite). I held up the bag and said “these are mine” then pointed to his candy canes saying “those are for you”. He gave me the look of death and said there was ABSOLUTELY no way he was touching my kisses.
We laugh about it now, but man, last year, the struggle was real when he ate my Hersey’s kisses!
hahaha! it’s so funny when husbands do that (after the fact). tom did that once -i think it was a dessert or some type of leftover?- and i almost started crying that he ate it hahahaha
These are my favorite kinds of xmas cookies too! Have you had luck with the TJs gluten-free flour? I used it this weekend for cookies and even with freezing the dough, they ran all over the pan. I want to make it work because it’s cheaper than Bob’s or Cup4Cup (amazing)! Regardless, I’ll be making these!!!
yes, that’s what i used for these! it’s not my fave flour, but it works 🙂
cookies look delish! so happy you posted the nutrional stats as well!!! thank you 🙂
no prob!! xoxo
Love your food photography! Great pics…and those cookies don’t look bad either 🙂
thank you, lovely!
Yum! Excited to taste these cookies and they seem so easy to make! Love the photo with the bite taken out of it….completely reminds me of Santa Claus.
haha cute! and yes, super easy to make
These look absolutely delightful, I’ll be trying them out. Thank you!!
let me know how they turn out!
Gina, I teach high school PE and an all girls aerobics class. I am looking for new materials for the spring semester and I wanted to get your DVD. What is the title and where can I find it? I limited on resources and I’m putting these on my Christmas lists! Thanks!
Ohh these look absolutely delicious! I haven’t had a kiss cookie in ages but love the maple chocolate spin on these!
I love to “healthify” my favorite treats, but sometimes don’t know where to start. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I love the lighter aspect of these cookies and I’m sold on any cookie that uses maple syrup as a sweetener! Pinned 🙂
They look yummy and cute!
After I realized I didn’t have any almonds/almond meal, I added an additional cup of gluten-free all purpose flour (Bob’s Red Mill), and they turned out great! Thanks for the yummy recipe!
wahoo! glad they turned out for you 🙂