These chocolate beet cookies kind of remind me of red velvet cake. In fact, let’s call them red velvet chocolate cookies. Dark, tender-as-cake morsels, without the bleeding brightness from red food color. Dip the cookies in chocolate honey glaze and you’ve got a gold-medal winner, a wonderful way to eat your veggies!
To concentrate their sweetness, first roast the dark purple-red veggies in the oven. You don’t have to peel them first because once they’re cooked and cooled you can easily slip the skins off the beets using your fingers. Chop the peeled beets in small pieces.
These cookies are super easy. Just puree oil, honey, eggs, orange zest and vanilla in a blender, and then blend in the chopped roasted beets. Pour into a bowl and marvel at the color!
Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and whisk by hand for about a minute. Drop by tablespoons onto silicone mat-lined baking sheets and bake 10 minutes.
When the cookies are cool, ice them with the chocolate honey glaze! With plenty of rich chocolate flavor, most people can’t guess the secret ingredient!
Robbie took a tin of these cookies to share around the campfire with his moto buddies last weekend to see if they could figure out the mystery ingredient. One astute guy shined his flashlight on them and right away declared–beets! Kudos to his taste buds!
As long as we’re talking the amazing pairing of chocolate and beets, you must try my Red Velvet Chocolate Beet Cake. No food coloring there either!
You will love this red velvet beet and red lentil soup too.
If you love beets, and if you’ve come this far in the post, you’ll want to try this Barley Salad with Golden Beets and Their Greens.
Make it a fabulous week–get in the kitchen and cook something delicious!
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Red Velvet Chocolate Beet Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1 cup avocado or grapeseed oil
- 1 cup honey
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (3 to 4 beets), roasted (see note)
- 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (see note)
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (for our 7000 feet above sea level I used 1 ½ teaspoons)
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Chocolate Honey Glaze:
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (55 to 70%)
- 4 ounces avocado or grapeseed oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
Instructions
Make the cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Slip the skins from the roasted beets. Chop them into small pieces, by hand or in a food processor.
- In a blender puree the oil, honey, eggs, orange zest and vanilla.
- Measure 1 cup of the chopped beets and add to the blender. Puree until smooth. Marvel at the color. Pour into a large bowl.
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the beet, oil, and egg puree, then beat with the whisk for at least a minute.
- Drop by tablespoons (or a #70 ice cream scoop) onto silicone baking mat or parchment-lined baking sheets.
- Bake about 10 minutes, until the center of a cookie springs back when touched with a finger. Cool. Remove from the baking sheet with a spatula. (You won’t be able to pick the cookies up before scraping them from the pan.)
- Spread a teaspoon or so of Chocolate Honey Glaze on top of each cookie.
Make the Chocolate Honey Glaze:
- Place the chocolate, oil and honey in the top of a double boiler, over gently boiling water; the upper pan should not touch the water.
- When the chocolate is almost melted, remove from the heat. Whisk gently until the oil and chocolate are incorporated. Cool until spreadable but not cold.
Notes
- Whole wheat pastry flour is 100% wheat, ground from low-protein softer wheat berries. You can substitute all-purpose flour or white pastry flour.
- To roast beets, scrub but do not peel. Slightly trim the root and stem ends. Place them in a dish with about 1/2-inch of water. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and bake at 350° F. for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the beets. Pierce, using a knife or carving fork, to check for tenderness. Allow to cool. Slip off the skins.
The perfect contribution for November’s Park City Garden Club meeting. I’m off to harvest beets from my raised beds. · 23 October, 2013
Thanks Teri,
Let me know how the cookies work for you. Know that if 60 cookies is too many, you can divide the recipe in half.
Letty · 23 October, 2013
I’m not a beet lover, but I sure would love to taste one of your chocolate beet cookies. · 28 October, 2013
I am out of beets. I am making square snickerdoodles tonight…will post photo on Instagram · 28 October, 2013
These are delicious, and, so easy to make! I was out of honey, so used sugar instead. Also, I added some chocolate chips since I did not make the chocolate glaze. · 8 March, 2015
Thanks Jan! I’m glad you had great success with the cookies with the variations too! · 9 March, 2015
Hi,
I want to try this great looking recipe.
I was wondering if the cookies would be sweet enough without the glaze? Trying to reduce sugar. Perhaps the beets are sweet enough?
Also, do you think I could substitute 2 Tablespoons of ground flax seed and 6 tablespoons of water for the 2 eggs? I’m cooking for someone trying to battle cancer by going vegan.
Thanks · 21 August, 2016
Hi Deborah, Thanks for writing. These cookies will be fine without the glaze. The glaze makes them prettier and more chocolate-y–and you might miss those. Maybe you could sprinkle chopped almonds on top (before baking) to give them more eye appeal.
Yes, flax seed eggs will work. Flax “eggs” are such a great option for vegans! Have fun! · 22 August, 2016
This is even delicious with about 3/4 of the honey and juicer pulp – even when mostly kale and carrot. · 18 June, 2017
I am assuming that you mean 4 oz oil in the chocolate glaze, not 4 oz honey and 1tablespoon honey. · 10 July, 2017
Excellent assumption Sara, and thank you for letting me know–fixed! · 10 July, 2017
Can you sub homemade oat flour or other non-gluten flour with good results? What alternative would you recommend? · 15 April, 2020
Amie,
Without the wheat flour these cookies will be too crumbly and fall apart. I would use a favorite Gluten-free flour mix to sub in for the whole wheat. I like your idea of making these gluten-free–I think I’ll experiment a bit, maybe with almond flour instead of oat flour, to start. I’ll let you know if I come up with something. Please let me know your success or failures too. Thanks, Letty · 15 April, 2020