Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies with Fennel and Oats

 I do like a good oaty biscuit and these oat, fennel, coconut, chocolate chip cookies are some of the best. They’re crisp on the outside, chewy in the middle and very very moreish. If you can restrain yourself, they’ll keep well in the biscuit tin for a few days. Oh, did I say? They’re dairy-free, refined sugar-free and healthy (ish) too.

Before we get on to the oaty coconut chocolate chip cookies, I’m just going to showcase three items, two of which went into the afore mentioned biscuits.

Pukka Tea

We have been drinking Pukka tea for many years in this household. They have a wide range of interesting organic teas that are ideal for non black tea drinkers like me. However, until I was sent some products from Pukka to review recently, I didn’t know that they did anything other than tea. Looking at their herbal website, I can now see they sell all sorts of interesting health products including Ayurvedic herbal supplements. I am particularly taken by their organic ghee which I’ve never seen for sale before. Well it seems you are never too old to learn. The other thing I noticed was that everything seems very reasonably priced. I was recently sent a pack of Pukka green tea with lemon, a jar of their own brand coconut oil and a bar of Divine 85% Chocolate.

Coconut Oil

A jar of organic virgin coconut oil is always to be found in my kitchen. It’s purported to have many health benefits including being instrumental in weight loss. It also has a high smoke point making it ideal for frying food. I often have it spread on my breakfast toast with a smidgen of my chilli sauce, which is not only tasty but also kickstarts my morning.

The quality seems to vary quite a bit from brand to brand I’ve noticed and the most expensive aren’t necessarily the best. I could tell immediately on opening the jar that this was a good one. It smelt heavenly, unmistakably coconutty, so it hadn’t been deodorised like some I’ve come across. The taste was of a freshly cracked coconut and better than some of the other brands I’ve tried. At £7.95 for a 300g jar, this is competitively priced compared to some other brands. At the moment, the coconut oil is on special offer at £5.95.

Organic September

As well as on toast, I’ve used coconut oil in cooking and to make raw chocolates, but I’ve never used it in baking before. Now seemed like the perfect opportunity to correct that omission. It’s #OrganicSeptember and I’m always keen to support the campaign. I also want to make the most out of the products I was sent. So what should I make? Something sweet and delicious. But also as healthy as possible and that contains no dairy or refined sugar (apart from the small amount in the chocolate) thus making them suitable for vegans and guilt free. Always a bonus. These oat, coconut, fennel chocolate chip cookies are the result.

Tea and Chocolate

The tea was light and very refreshing and works particularly well as a breakfast beverage – you can find out a bit more about it on my Breakfast Bites post. Pukka customers think the tea goes so well with dark chocolate, that Pukka are now selling Choc au Citron for the perfect guilt free tea break. This consists of a pack of the lemon green tea and a bar of the Divine chocolate that I was sent and is priced at £3.99. However, I used the lovely bar of Divine chocolate combined with the coconut oil to bake two items: oaty coconut chocolate chip biscuits and rice pudding. Both are dairy free. As if the coconut palm doesn’t already give enough, I used coconut sugar too.

Oaty Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies with Fennel

Chocolate chip cookies are always a winner and these biscuits are superb. The subtle but tasty addition of ground fennel seeds, gives them an intriguing air of sophistication, despite their rustic oaty look and texture. It worked surprisingly well with the flavour of coconut too. In fact these cookies were a bit of a coconut fest, what with desiccated coconut, coconut sugar and coconut oil. So if you like coconut, these are the cookies for you. But be warned, it’s hard to stop at one.

I used wholemeal spelt flour which remains my absolute favourite flour for baking cakes, cookies and pastry.

My oat, coconut chocolate chip cookies are crisp, chewy and delicious. Do give them a go.

Other Healthy (ish) Bakes You Might Like

• Breakfast banana bread
• Cashew nut butter brownies
• Peanut butter & banana muffins (vegan)
• Pecan & maple ginger tiffin
• Smoked chilli energy bars
• Spicy Peruvian avocado brownies

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Rice Pudding

Just in case you’re interested in the dairy-free rice pudding, this is how I made vegan chocolate coconut rice pudding:

• Put 1 tbsp coconut oil in a pan and melted over medium heat.
• Crushed 3 cardamom pods lightly and added to the oil.
• Added 50g of arborio rice and stirred for a couple of minutes or so ensuring that the rice was coated in the oil.
• Added a 400ml tin of coconut milk, 1 heaped tbsp of xylitol and 50g chopped 85% chocolate.
• Brought to a simmer, stirring until smooth, then poured into a greased oven proof dish.
• Baked at 150°C for 45 minutes (1 hour would have been better, but I was in a hurry).

The picture didn’t do justice to this very tasty dish. It was creamy and chocolatey with a pronounced coconut flavour.

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these coconut chocolate chip cookies with or even without the fennel, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or via social media. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

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Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies – The Recipe

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Oaty Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies with Fennel

Simple to make, dairy free and healthy too, these chewy cookies are delicious and will keep in the biscuit tin for a few days, if you can manage it.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Afternoon Tea, Snack

Cuisine: British

Keyword: biscuits, coconut, cookies, dairy free, dark chocolate, fennel, healthy

Servings: 15 Cookies

Calories: 126kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 50 g Coconut Oil
• 60 g Coconut Sugar or brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds – ground
• 1 Egg
• 90 g Wholemeal Spelt Flour
• ½ tsp Baking Powder
• ⅛ tsp Sea Salt
• 70 g Oats
• 50 g Desiccated Coconut
• 50 g Dark Chocolate 85% – chopped

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

• Cream the sugar and oil together along with the fennel until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg.
• Add the oats and coconut and stir.
• Sift in the flour, salt and baking powder and stir until just incorporated.
• Add the chocolate and stir until just mixed.
• Divide into 15 lumps and roll into balls. Place on a lined baking tray and press down to flatten a little.
• Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 10 minutes or until golden but not dark. Remove onto a wire rack to cool.

Notes

If you don't fancy the flavour of fennel, just leave it out.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They're approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition

Calories: 126kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 34mg | Potassium: 98mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 16IU | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1mg

Link-ups

As these coconut chocolate chip cookies are oaty biscuits, I’m entering them into this month’s Tea Time Treats. Because the theme is Flapjack, Oats and Traybakes. It’s hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked.

As this post is all about coconut, I’m entering both my biscuits and rice pudding into Lets Cook with Coconut over at Simply Food.

And as everything was cooked from scratch, I’m also sending the biscuits over to Made with Love Mondays over at Javelin Warrior’s Cookin w/Luv.

With the subtle but tasty addition of fennel seeds, the biscuits are also being sent over to Cooking with Herbs with Karen of Lavender and Lovage.

A brand new bloggers challenge which is all about biscuits has the theme of chocolate this month. So how could I not enter these to The Biscuit Barrel created by Laura of I’d Much Rather Bake Than …