Flourless Protein Chocolate Cookies

Dark chocolate is my go-to treat, as long as it’s +70% I can’t resist it.
So you can imagine how excited I was when I came across a recipe for Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies @DivineBaking. The original recipe calls for no flour, butter or oil; just egg whites, cacao, chocolate and sugar.
It’s a pretty genius recipe to begin with, but from an IronYou prospective maybe a bit too high on sugars. That’s why I made few tweaks to ease up on that. I also threw in some protein powder to make it more compatible with my “eating standards”. Few attempts were needed but in the end I was able to come up to a pretty good balance.
Making these cookies is not hard, but it does get messy. The cacao powder flies everywhere in the kitchen, and you should be also willing to get your hands dirty. I baked them together with my girlfriend and we did have a lot of fun (for all the above reasons).
They’re really good: dense, fudgy and delicious. As long as you love dark chocolate these cookies are a no-brainer.




Flourless Protein Chocolate Cookies Print this Recipe!

Ingredients
(makes about 24 cookies)

- 3 large egg whites
- pinch of salt
- ¼ tsp cream of tartar
- 1 cup /  3.8 oz / 110 gr confectioners’ sugar (plus 2 tbsp)
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 scoops protein powder (either vanilla, chocolate or unflavoured)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 5.3 oz / 150 gr +70% dark chocolate
- ¼ cup /  1.5 oz  / 50 gr cacao nibs or +70% dark chocolate chips/chunks



Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F / 180 C. Line two baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper and set aside.
Using an electric mixer beat egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add pinch of salt and cream of tartar. Increase speed to medium high and beat to soft peaks. The egg whites will be white and foamy, with large but tight bubbles.
Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles a soft marshmallow creme.



In a separate bowl whisk cocoa, cornstarch, and protein powder. On low speed with the mixer (or by hand with a spatula) beat the dry ingredients into meringue.



In the meantime melt the dark chocolate in glass bowl in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Let cool slightly.
Add the lukewarm chocolate and the cacao nibs/chips/chunks to the mixture. Be prepared because the dough will become very stiff at this point.
Place the remaining confectioners sugar in a bowl. Roll 1 tablespoon dough into ball, roll in sugar, and place on prepared sheet. Spacing dough balls 2 inches apart.



Bake for 10 minutes, until tops crack. Cool for 10 minutes, transfer to rack and let cool completely.



Nutrition facts

Assuming you'll make 24 cookies out of that dough, you’ll get the following nutrition facts per single cookie: 83 calories, 8 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein and around 3.8 grams of fats.
Sugar count is very low, and also the fats come exclusively from the cacao (i.e., powder, chocolate and nibs): hence it’s “good” fat.
I do believe that the really upside of this cookies comes from the fact that intense chocolate flavor satisfies your palate with just one (max two).



The Iron You