Woohoo! I’m so happy because hubby bought me a new KitchenAid stand mixer! Had been eyeing for one for a long, long time but was really hesitant in getting it as I couldn’t justify the high price tag ‘cos I didn’t bake enough previously. Now with my precious, I can finally make more effort to brush up my baking skills and to experiment with new bakes that I haven’t had the chance to do. Can’t wait!?
When E went to Malacca recently, he came back with a pack of gula melaka (coconut palm sugar) for me in addition to other goodies. He said the gula melaka was very fragrant and thought it would be useful for me to whip up some sweets.
Gula melaka has more complexity than regular caramel
And that was why I decided to make these Sea Salt Gula Melaka Chocolate Chip Cookies. The dark brown gula melaka had a really aromatic caramel-like fragrance so it worked perfectly in this recipe. Not only did it produce a beautiful brown colour, it also lent depth to the cookies.
Reduce carbs by using almond flour, unsweetened shredded coconut and erythritol
This cookie recipe isn’t 100% keto-friendly because of the use of gula melaka and semi-sweet chocolate chips. However, you can still make this recipe healthier by reducing the carb content to minimise the impact of blood sugar spikes. You can swap regular flour with almond flour & unsweetened shredded coconut and refined sugar with erythritol (a naturally-occuring sugar alcohol derived from corn). I have indicated in the ingredients list below (click on the links) where I got my products from so you can use that as a reference if you have trouble finding them.
These cookies are extra soft, thick and chewy
The cookies turned out soft and chewy like those from Subway. Taste-wise, they were absolutely delicious! Complex, rich, smoky and super, super addictive.? I really liked that they were quite thick too so there was chewy goodness in every bite.
Leave space between cookie dough if you like perfectly shaped cookies
If you like the cookies to be ’rounder’, do leave 2″ space between the cookie dough balls when you drop them on the baking tray because they will expand quite a lot while baking. As for me, I actually squeezed all 15 cookie dough balls onto one tray. When the cookies were out of the oven, they were kinda stuck to one another which I didn’t think was that bad. Because they were still pretty soft, it was quite easy to separate them with a spatula. Ha! Since the cookies are for my own consumption, they need not be that perfect, lol. Yeah, I’m not pro but who cares??
- 180g almond flour
- 30g unsweetened shredded coconut
- 100g gula melaka (coconut palm sugar), finely grated
- 20g erythritol
- 1 egg
- 60g butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 100g semi-sweet chocolate chips