The holidays are a busy time of year for everyone. In our family, we ‘decided’ to ramp up the busy by adding all 4 of our birthdays and a wedding anniversary to the mix! The weeks between Thanksgiving and early March are a gauntlet of celebrations! Because we follow the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to manage our daughter’s Crohn’s Disease, we celebrate these holidays with grain-free, honey sweetened confections. And I’m not talking about boring, flavorless treats. These SCD Legal indulgences are as yummy as (if not better than!) any of their grainy, sugary counterparts! Thanksgiving comes complete with Naturally Sweetened Pumpkin Pie (SOOO good!); Christmas is filled with Honey Sweetened White Chocolate Peppermint Bark and varieties of cookies like these Crispy Honey Tahini Cookies. This year, Kylie requested cookies for her birthday. But come on…this is a party after all. Why stop at small, handheld cookies when you could indulge in one giant cookie?! This SCD Legal Peanut Butter Cookie Cake was the perfect way to usher the last of her tween-age years!
The Secret Ingredient to SCD Legal Peanut Butter Cookie Cake
The difference between handheld cookies and a cookie cake is that dense, sliceable consistency. In this SCD Legal Peanut Butter Cookie Cake, Grass-Fed Gelatin is the secret ingredient that transforms a would-be delicate cookie into a chewy, eat-it-with-a-fork dessert.
In our house, I use Vital Proteins Beef Gelatin. It is completely grass-fed and pasture raised. Natural gelatin contains a whopping 20g of protein per serving and an incredible amino acid profile. Adding gelatin to your diet can ease digestion, improve hair, skin and nails and strengthen joints and bones. Check out all of the benefits of Grass-Fed Gelatin HERE.
Just like many SCD Legal desserts, this cookie cake tastes and feels much like a traditional cookie cake. The beauty of this base recipe is that you can customize it as desired. Add nuts or chocolate; frost it or leave it unfrosted. It will hold birthday candles, slices with ease and keeps in the fridge or freezer to enjoy for days or weeks later! One note: chocolate chips are not SCD legal. After 5 years of strictly following the diet, we have begun to add a few foods and cocoa powder was one of them. Happily, we can tolerate cocoa powder and discovered Hu Baking Chips. These 4 ingredient chips are made of only cocoa powder, dates, cacao butter and vanilla! *Update 2/21/25- Sadly, Hu has discontinued their date sweetened baking chips. Fortunately, I found that Spring & Mullberry makes chocolate bars with just cacao beans, dates cocoa butter. Chopping up one of the chocolate bars would work well for chocolate “chips” or you can make your own chocolate with cocoa butter, honey and cocoa powder. Quite delicious I might add!
To Frost or Not to Frost?
The choice is yours and there are so many options! Our daughter enjoys simplicity and actually prefers it unfrosted. I think frosting makes it more festive! I’ve experimented with many different variations, and each is delightful in its own way. Try any of these frosting recipes below and see which one might be your favorite!
Sweet Cashew Cream– whipped up in 5 minutes with cashews, dates, vanilla and water!
Chewy, sliceable and rich- this SCD Legal Peanut Butter Cookie Cake is fit for a birthday celebration! Easily customizable- add chocolate chips, frost it or enjoy it as is. This grain-free, honey sweetened treat is satisfying enough for dessert but healthy enough to pass as an afternoon snack!
Ingredients
Scale
1 and 1/3 cup almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp grass-fed gelatin
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup honey
1 cup creamy peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)
1 egg
1 Tbsp melted butter (or coconut oil)
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Optional: Dark chocolate chips (if not following SCD or if following modified SCD use Hu baking chips) or nuts of choice
Frosting: See blog post for options and simple frosting recipes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment paper on a large cookie sheet or cut a circle of paper to cover the bottom of a spring form pan.
Whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, gelatin, baking soda and salt to eliminate any clumps.
In a separate bowl, combine all remaining ingredients with a hand mixer to create a smooth consistency. (Feel free to mix by hand also. I just find a hand mixer to be easier!)
Add dry ingredients and incorporate fully. The batter will be quite thick so this may need to be done by hand. Add any mix-ins at this time. (i.e. chocolate chips, nuts, etc)
Press the dough into the spring form pan creating a 1/2 inch thick cookie. Alternatively, form the dough into 1/2 thick circle on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Don’t worry, the cookie will rise slightly but will not spread!
Bake for 12-18 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow the cookie to cool completely. The cookie will firm up as it cools. Do not frost or slice into it before it cools.
Once cooled, frost if desired using a frosting suggesting found in the blog post or using one of your own!
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.
Notes
Chocolate chips are not SCD legal! After following the SCD diet for 6 years, we have begun to add a few new foods into our lives. Our bellies tolerate Spring & Mulberry date sweetened chocolate just fine. However, if you are strictly following the diet, do not add chocolate chips.
