Chocolate Peanut Butter Flax Meal Cookies

I know I've said this before but I have to say it again.  I have a serious problem with making a recipe as-is!  I always feel like there is something I have to add, take away, or change in a recipe.  Sometimes these little experiments can go horribly wrong, and sometimes (this being one of them) they go beautifully!  There is nothing more exciting than getting creative in the kitchen, except maybe indulging in the yummy results!

So here is the recipe I stumbled across on Linda's Low carb website:  Cocoa Flax Cookies.  I had actually been looking at all her cheesecake recipes because I picked up some cream cheese at the store today and really wanted to try one.  Many of them call for the sugar-free Da Vinci syrups just like this cookie recipe, however I have not gotten around to buying any of these yet.  I wish I could go buy every flavor complete with pumps and setup a syrup bar on my counter.  I'd spend all day making new and fabulous concoctions!  Alas, I haven't done this (yet!) so I had to get creative.  I remembered I did have some Hershey's sugar-free chocolate syrup in the fridge.  I've only ever used it to make chocolate milk for my son or on top of some Breyer's Carb Smart ice cream.  I didn't even know if you could bake with it!  But I gave it the ol' college try!

As I was stirring the chocolate syrup into the mix, I started thinking about one of my favorite cookies I haven't had since I started a low carb diet, no-bake cookies!  In fact I haven't had anything with oatmeal in it.  Anyway, I thought maybe I could make these taste like no-bake cookies so I ran to the pantry for my peanut butter (all natural, low sugar).  I added only a tablespoon to the batter, however I may try adding a little more next time.  After they were in the oven, I also thought about adding vanilla extract.  That's another ingredient in no-bake cookies and I think it would enhance the flavor even more.  It was too late to add it to this batch, but I'll definitely be making these again so I will do that next time.

This recipe is so fast and easy.  Almost too easy!  I think it will definitely be one of my go to snacks.  Flax meal is so filling and each cookie is only 1 net carb!  I can have two or even three and still be good!  I think grabbing one of these between meals would be enough to last until it was time to eat again or these would even be a quick fix for that late night need-to-snack-before-bed craving!

Each cookie is 50 calories, 3g of fat, 4g of carbs, 3g of fiber, and 3g of protein.  They come out really dark, mostly because of the chocolate syrup, but they are incredibly light.  They actually taste more like a bite of brownie than a cookie.  My son has been calling them "donut cookies" and keeps asking for more!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Flax Meal Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup golden flax meal
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 6 tablespoons sugar-free chocolate syrup
• 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Add flax meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda to a medium bowl.  Whisk thoroughly.  Add eggs, syrup, and peanut butter.  Stir well with a spoon.  Drop batter by teaspoon fulls onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Makes 16 cookies.

*Recipe adapted from Linda's Low Carb

Update:  Adding an extra tablespoon of peanut butter and 1 tsp of vanilla really increases the flavor of these cookies!  I didn't recalculate the nutritional information, but a couple extra carbs between 16 (or even more if you make them a tad smaller) cookies, doesn't change it much!