The Holidays are here! What is your favorite way to celebrate? My friend is hosting a cookie swap in a few weeks, and these Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies (Gluten Free & Paleo) are an oldie but goodie for any holiday party! They incorporate that lovely combination of chocolate and peppermint that everyone is sure to love! And better yet, they are sweetened with natural honey! I was lucky enough to get some Nektar Honey Crystals on my hands from Nektar Naturals! (Thank you Nektar Naturals!) I used this as a healthy sugar substitute, (as I always do), and they still were a big hit. How awesome is that?
Who can resist such cute spirals? I had a few mishaps (I decided to use coconut sugar, which is brown… guess what? brown sugar does not take color dye, whoops!). I found these awesome natural food dyes after scouring the internet, and they worked really well! I was really impressed with the coloring, I wasn’t sure if they would turn out muddy or too dull. I would have been upset if I had ended up with pink instead of red! Anyways, if you are into Chocolate Peppermint (my whole family is obsessed) you will really love these cookies! Did I mention they are also gluten free and paleo? Note: If you do use coconut sugar in this recipe, the color will not turn out! Don’t learn the hard way like I did! I recommend using Nektar Naturals honey crystals!!
And don’t forget to head on over to my instagram account for a Nektar Naturals giveaway!
*Nektar Naturals can be found in any Walmart!!
- 3 cups almond flour
- ¾ cup honey crystals, stevia or truvia
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 3 tablespoons raw cacao powder
- 1 tablespoon almond or coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- green & red food coloring to liking
- In a small bowl, whisk flour and baking soda.
- In a large bowl or in an electric mixer, beat honey crystals and coconut oil until fluffy (around 3 minutes)
- Beat in egg and vanilla into the honey crystals and coconut oil
- Add flour and baking soda, reduce mixer to low or beat until just blended
- Divide dough in half and place in two bowls
- Stir in cacao and milk into one bowl, stir in peppermint into the other bowl
- Divide peppermint dough in half and place in separate bowls
- Mix the red food coloring into one peppermint dough, green into the other
- Divide the chocolate dough in half
- Shape all the dough pieces into 3 X 5 inch rectangles, set on wax paper or parchment paper and place another piece of paper on the top for easy rolling
- Roll out dough into 9 X 12 inch rectangles.
- Refrigerate rectangles in the refrigerator for at least an hour
- Place 2 chocolate rectangles on a floured work surface (I like using arrowroot or tapioca flour)
- Remove from sheets of wax paper
- Lightly brush the chocolate dough with water (helps with sticking)
- Place red dough on top of one chocolate dough, place green dough on top of the other
- Trim edges if the dough shapes are uneven
- Roll dough together (from the long side) into a log form (both green and red dough)
- Roll dough tightly so the log is compact
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap/saran wrap for at least 3 hours
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Remove logs from refrigerator and unwrap
- Cut logs into ¼ inch thick cookie slices
- Place 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheet or Silpat
- Bake 10-15 minutes, until the edges begin to brown, rotating half way through
