What? Yes, I said it. I made a sugar-free chocolate chip cookie with chocolate ganache frosting. AND, I added a secret superfood ingredient…Spirulina! Why did I do this? Well, this recipe was created as part of my Get Your Greens Challenge, where I challenge you, the reader, to focus on adding greens in one particular meal or snack every day, for seven days. On day six I have a dessert day, which conveniently lands on a Saturday, usually when people have more time to cook and get creative on the weekends.

I have several green desserts on this website already, like my Mint Avocado bars with Chocolate Sauce, but I wanted to create another dessert altogether, something that looked like a completely normal, traditional dessert, but with a sneaky uber healthy ingredient in it. Enter my sugar free chocolate chip cookies with chocolate spirulina ganache!

This recipe can be made with sugar or sugar-free. If you are using sugar, however, you would want to increase the amount to 1 cup sugar to the 2 cups of butter. Simply because if you are using lakanto, the sweetness of the sugar is actually a lot stronger than regular sugar. When using lakanto I always use half of what I would with regular sugar. Also, I have a very sweet chocolate sauce drizzled over, plus chocolate chips in the cookie, so I preferred to make a less sweet cookie dough.

As you all know, I’m not a fan of recipe introductions that are too long. If you have any questions or comments about this recipe, please let me know in the comments below!

Without further ado…let us begin!

For the cookies, you will need:

• 2 cups gluten-free flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup chocolate chips (if you are making this recipe sugar-free, choose sugar-free chips)
• 1/2 cup lakanto sugar (make sure to blend it before hand so it’s more of a powder and crystal-like)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

For the chocolate spirulina ganache, you will need:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp spirulina powder

Step 1:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, pinch of salt and baking powder together.

In a smaller bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, then add in the vanilla, and beat in the eggs.

Step 2:

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix thoroughly. Once it is mixed and more of a dough-like consistency, add in the chocolate chip cookies and mix again.

Step 3:

Spoon out small balls of the dough, then round and flatten them and place them on a cookie sheet for baking. If you want a rougher cookie, (both are pictured), then just add spoonfuls of the dough onto the baking sheet.

Place in the oven and cook 8-12 minutes, depending on the type of cookie you want. An 8-minute cookie will be chewy, and a 12-minute cookie will be more crispy.

Step 4:

As the cookies are baking, it’s time to make the ganache. First, add the chocolate chips into a medium-size bowl and set aside.

In a small pot, melt the heavy cream and butter until it begins to simmer. Remove from heat and pour the heated cream onto the chocolate chips. Be sure to stir thoroughly, as the mixture will melt the chocolate chips into the sauce. It will look runny at first, but the sauce will thicken as it cools.

Once everything is fully mixed, add the spirulina and mix thoroughly again. Don’t worry if the spirulina looks lumpy. Just keep mixing it in the sauce and you will see that it dissolves nicely into it.

Once you have a smooth chocolate sauce, put in the fridge to thicken.

Step 5: 

By this time, the cookies will be done. You want to take them out of the oven and make sure they have cooled. Warm cookies will be softer and break apart easier, which would not be good for dipping.

To coat the cookies with the ganache, dip a cooled cookie in the sauce, then roll in whatever topping mixture you desire. I used heath bits and coconut, but you can adjust according to your diet, whether you want to stay sugar-free, or keep with more health-conscious options.

Place the dipped cookies on a tray for the sauce to harden. You can either put them in the fridge to cool or keep at room temperature. If you want a fun treat, serve the cookies together with the sauce and have each person dip their cookie into the ganache, then roll with whatever topping they prefer. This is a really fun option for kids, as who doesn’t love dipping a cookie into chocolate!

These cookies can be eaten at room temperature or chilled in the fridge, it’s up to you! The sauce will keep in the fridge very well for up to a week, just keep in mind it will become very thick like a cupcake frosting once it’s been in the fridge for several hours.

If you love this recipe, please leave me a comment below on how you liked it! This was such a fun recipe to make, and the fact that you make it totally sugar-free and gluten-free is even better!

Here you can see the difference between a flat and a spooned cookie. The flat ones give you the option to dip the cookie in the chocolate, while the rounded ones allow you to drizzle the sauce over. Either way, they are both delicious options!

Enjoy!