Raspberry, Cocoa Nib and Mesquite Cookies

I first learned about mesquite flour a couple of years ago through Heidi’s blog and her famous mesquite and chocolate chip cookies. I was very intrigued by the new flour, but never got around to using it until a couple of weeks ago when I was browsing the shelves of a health food store and there I found it again.

I had to buy it, of course, and experiment with it. When I opened the bag, I got a wave of cinnamon, chocolate and coffee notes. Warm and lovely.

Come to find out, mesquite meal, which comes from the mesquite tree, has been an integral part of the daily diet of Native Americans for centuries. It has a low glycemic-index and is rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and zinc, and the amino acid lysine.

I have been using it in many different preparations. J’s favorite seems to be the mesquite and chocolate chip pancakes I have been making on the weekends with the mesquite flour, palm sugar, hemp milk and lots of mini chocolate chips. (Palm sugar is also another one of my favorite latest discoveries). Heidi was on to something with her cookies as the warm spicy aroma of the mesquite goes perfectly with chocolate.

I always like to have logs of unbaked cookie dough in the freezer for those unexpected afternoon treats and yes, sometimes even a bribing technique. So a few days ago, I spent an entire afternoon mixing cookie dough batches and freezing them.

Amongst other more traditional cookies like chocolate chip, snickerdoodle and lemon sugar, I thought the slightly sour raspberries would be great with the aroma of mesquite and the texture of the cocoa nibs. I even dried my own raspberries in the dehydrator, which I hadn’t used in months.

Of course, you should know by now that the cookies are gluten free and no one even knew it. Perfect.

Raspberry, Cocoa Nib and Mesquite Cookies

110 grams non-hydrogenated shortening or butter
110 grams brown sugar
55 grams sugar
1 egg
150 grams superfine brown rice flour
50 grams tapioca starch
25 grams mesquite flour
3 grams baking soda
4 grams salt
50 grams cocoa nib
20 grams dried raspberries

Cream together the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light. Add the egg and mix. Scrape the mixture well. Whisk together the superfine brown rice flour, tapioca starch, mesquite flour, salt and baking soda. Add the dry to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Fold in the dried raspberries and cocoa nib.

Dump the dough on a sheet of parchment paper and shape it into a log. Wrap the log with the parchment and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Cut the log into 1/4″ disks and bake at 350F for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden.