Coconut Chai-Chia Chip Cookies

I threw this recipe together on a whim during a recent Denver snow day—the cozy kind of snow day, where your company says you can work from home.

My goal was to see if a whole wheat flour cookie could be almost as good as an all-purpose flour cookie. I’m also new to coconut sugar (trying to go low-glycemic in our household) but I’ve never baked with it. Last year, I used my friend Carrie’s oatmeal chocolate chip recipe to make Matcha Coconut Chip Cookies—also on a snow day! I started with that recipe but swapped out the flour and sugar and added some chia seeds. I also used my favorite chai flavor hack—a three to one ratio of pumpkin pie spice to ground cardamom.

I posted a photo of the snow day cookies to Facebook and had numerous requests for the recipe…so here you go! They’re simple and quick, and the dough freezes well if you want to make a double batch to pull out for the next snow day.

Happy cooking and sipping!

By Suzanne Klein, Tea Foodie

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1¾ cups rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon kosher salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup coconut sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 teaspoons coconut extract

¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1 tablespoon chia seeds

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1 cup of oats in a food processor and process until fine. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and whisk in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

2. Beat the butter and coconut sugar together in an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add egg and coconut extract, and beat until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add the ground oats and flour mixture, and beat on low speed until just incorporated, about 15 seconds. Add remaining ¾ cup oats, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, and chia seeds. Beat on low speed until evenly distributed, about 10 seconds. Try not to overmix.

3. Using a very small ice cream scoop or 1 tablespoon-size measuring spoon, form dough into balls and space them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until cookies are cracked and set on top but look moist within cracks, about 12 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets on wire racks for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.