These grain-free, refined sugar free snickerdoodles are paleo, and super easy to bake! Whip up a quadruple batch for giving as holiday gifts to friends and family!
This is the story about how I made snickerdoodle gummy bears and didn’t even think it was weird. Thaaaasright…snickerdoodle gummy bears.
Let’s back up.
In hot pursuit of a grain-free snickerdoodle recipe, I tossed some coconut flour and arrowroot flour in a bowl, added some liquid, gave it a stir, batter looked great, baked them off and out popped: gummy bears cookies. Correction: gummy cookies that taste like snickerdoodles, slash snickerdoodles with gummy bear texture. However you want to look at the sitch.
Using my deductive brain organ, I realized I had used too much arrowroot flour. I re-formulated using less arrowroot flour, batter looked great, baked them off, annnnnd: POOF! More gummy bears. I then benched the project, because gummy bears are great and all, but only in tiny portions, and only when they don’t taste like snickerdoodles.
After taking a hiatus from Snickerdoodle gummy bears…errr…I mean snickerdoodle recipe development…I went ahead and got back on the horse. I traded the arrowroot for less tapioca flour and used almond flour instead of coconut flour. I was awarded with a crispy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside cinnamon and sugar delight – just the way a good snickerdoodle should be.
Prior to baking these bad boys, I refrigerated the dough and gave it a good roll in coconut sugar and cinnamon. The cookies basically come out tasting like cinnamon and sugar pancakes…little crispy churro cookies, if you will. But, like with all the protein and healthy fat in them.
I’m envisioning these going down on your list of Christmas Cookies To Bake, but they’re also an all-around great staple cookie to have around…the kind of treat you want when you first walk in the door after a long day.
Please do!
Ingredients
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted and cooled
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1-½ cups almond flour/meal
- 2 tablespoons tapioca flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- For Rolling:
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Add the egg, cooled (or softened) coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract to a mixing bowl. Whisk together until well-combined. Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir together until combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Stir together the coconut sugar and cinnamon (for rolling) in a small bowl. Roll a ball of cookie dough in your palms, then roll it in the coconut sugar/cinnamon mixture. Press the dough to flatten and place on a parchment-lined (or oil-sprayed) cookie sheet. Repeat for remaining dough.
- Bake on the center rack for 13 to 17 minutes - for softer cookies, bake for 13 to 14 minutes, and for crispier cookies, bake for 15 to 17.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool before diving in!
Oh noooo, that sounds like a funny/terrible disaster and it makes me feel better about some cross cookies I made last week :/ Pass the cookies please, I’m already ready for a few (for breakfast?)!
What a fun experiment! I love making new things from scratch and trying to get it just right without a recipe. But since you did the testing for us on this one, I’ll happily use yours 🙂
You mean you didn’t want to try to make snickerdoodle gummy bears a ‘thing’?!! You’re crazy. Glad almond flour came the to rescue–these look absolutely deliciousssssss.
These look amazing Julia!!! My husband’s favorite cookies are snickerdoodles so I will be making these soon! 😀
I was totally like “Snickerdoodles gummy bears!? Tell me more!” until I realized that you meant that as a bad thing. I’d still eat ’em. (But I’d much rather have one of the cookies they finally turned out to be!)
haha those snickerdoodle gummy bears sounded ummm interesting!
But these cookies sound amazing! I’ve always had such a soft spot for snickerdoodles!
These snickerdoodles look amazing! Pinning! 🙂
That damn coconut flour…it’s such a finicky SOB. I’m glad almond flour turned the gummy bears into these dreamy beauties because they look perfect! You are the grain-free goddess!! (how much you want to bet there’s a blog by that name? lol)
Lol! I’ve been there with the baking disasters. My most recent fail was vanilla cookies that were hockey pucks. Mmm…hard. 🙂 These look just perfect though! Third time’s a charm!
Snickerdoodles are one of my faaaave cookies! I think I totally would be down for a few of those snickerdoodle gummy bears, too!
Coconut flour….oh man, it’s one of those tricky ingredients that can be hard to bake with sometimes. I’ve had so many coconut flour dessert recipe fails!
I need your mad baking skills! I would have probably just cried, eaten all the gummy dough and given up. You win the prize for making all the healthy desserts that I want to eat because I know I won’t feel too bad about myself afterward!
Oh Gosh coconut flour is definitely a tricky ingredient to bake. But I love the flavour of this flour.
These look so delicious, Ju!!! I’ve never made snickerdoodles. It is time to try 🙂
These were very easy to make and came out perfectly! The almond flour has a very nutty essence, which seems to prevail over the cinnamon sugar snickerdoodle flavor. But even so they taste delicious! Also they are somehow more fluffy after being stored for a day.