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In the wintertime, I love to cozy up with a cup of tea and a warm baked treat. After the holidays, however, I’m usually over the sugar-high that most baked goods of the season deliver. These honey walnut cookies are a yummy way to enjoy a chocolatey baked treat without flour or refined sugar.
These cookies are not nearly as sweet as the average bakery cookie. I really wanted to feature the rich chocolate walnut combination instead of the sweetness. These cookies are therefore sweetened with a touch of honey (no refined sugar is added). If you like dark chocolate bars rather than milk chocolate bars, these chocolate honey walnut cookies are for you.
Ingredients: Chocolate Honey Walnut Cookies
- 4 Cups Walnuts
- 3 Egg Whites
- 2/3 Cup Honey
- 1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
- 30 Walnut Halves
Makes 30 cookies
Because there are no “filler” ingredients in these cookies, such as flour or sugar, the quality of your ingredients really does make a huge difference in how the cookies taste. Try to find high-quality, fresh ingredients if possible. A rich cocoa powder, local honey, and fresh Fall walnuts will make the tastiest cookies.
Steps: Chocolate Honey Walnut Cookies
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Grind the 4 cups of walnuts in a food processor. I like to leave them a bit chunky, but if you prefer smoother cookies, grind the walnuts very finely.
- Beat the egg whites in a mixer until soft white peaks form.
- Warm up the honey just to the point where it becomes runny. Do not overheat. The point of this step is just to get the honey flowing so it can be mixed easily. Overheated honey will “cook” the egg whites when added, which should be avoided.
- Slowly add the honey into the egg whites. Mix it in very gently. The honey does not need to be totally mixed in with the egg yet.
- Gently sift and fold the cocoa and baking soda into the egg+honey mixture. Sifting in the cocoa will help avoid lumps.
- Gently mix in the ground walnuts. Mix the batter until just combined. Do not over-mix.
- Use a spoon to place 1 Tbsp-sized drops of batter onto a lined baking sheet. I use stainless steel half-sheets lined with silicone mats for easy clean-up.
- Press a walnut half into the top of each drop of batter.
- Bake the cookies for 20 minutes, or until done.
How to Store Walnut Cookies
Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days. These cookies can also be frozen for longer storage periods. I store mine in a ziplock bag, which makes it easy to pull out a few cookies now and then.
For Sweeter Walnut Cookies
If these chocolate honey walnut cookies aren’t sugary enough for you, dust the tops with icing sugar before pressing in the walnut, or use candied walnuts to top the cookies. If you really do want much sweeter cookies, swap out the honey for 1 cup of berry sugar and add one more egg white to the recipe.
English Walnuts vs. Black Walnuts for Walnut Cookies
I used two different types of walnuts in the batch of cookies pictured in this post. There are some regular English Walnuts from Costco, but also some smaller Black Walnuts. In the photo above, there are 4 Black Walnut halves on the front (bottom left) cookie, and one English Walnut half on each of the cookies in the back (top left+right) cookies.
Black Walnuts grow wild in Eastern Canada. They have a very rich flavour, which is somehow more “walnut-ey” than regular English Walnuts. Black Walnuts harder to cultivate and harvest than English Walnuts though, so they’re a bit trickier to find in stores/markets. I’m now growing my own baby Black Walnut seedling trees, but it will be years until I can harvest my own walnuts!
