Sweet Loren's Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Oatmeal Chunkers

4/2/2013

Sweet Loren's Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Oatmeal Chunkers

Oh boy, do I have a treat for you today! And when I say treat, I mean it. I've tried a lot of cookies in my life . . . I may even go so far as to say I've made it a mission to find the best cookies EVER made, and after hundreds (eek!) of cookies sampled over the years, I am very excited to share that these chunkers these TOP the charts! Chocolatey, gooey, a little salty, chewy yet crunchy . . . amaze! You may be thinking . . . But WAIT isn't WeekNight Bite supposed to be healthy?! YES - what makes these cookies even more special is that this recipe was generously shared by Loren Brill, the founder of Sweet Loren's, an all natural ready-to-bake cookie dough and brownie batter company. You won't find a single refined ingredient in any of her products - no white sugar, white flour, or anything processed. All of her products are sold frozen, so you can just pop the cookies into the oven whenever your heart desires, no matter how many you want to make at a time, whether its 2 cookies or a dozen!

You can feel great eating anything from Sweet Loren's and your tummy and taste buds will thank you for the natural nutrients! WeekNight Bite is getting a sneak preview with this scrumptious recipe, as it will soon be featured in Top Chef's desserts judge Johnny Iuzzini's cookbook! Cool!

Ingredients
3/4 cup Coconut Oil
2 cups Sucanat or Unrefined Sugar Cane
2 Large Eggs
1 cup Gluten-Free Oat Flour
2 cups Gluten-free Rolled Oats
1/2 cup + 3 Tbsp Natural Cocoa Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Flaked Sea Salt + extra
for sprinkling on cookies
1 1/4 cup Chocolate Chips

Whip coconut oil in mixer with a paddle attachment until fluffy. Add Sucanat and mix until combined. Add eggs. Do not overmix, just gently incorporate. Slowly add in the rest of the dry ingredients with the wet, adding the chocolate chips last. Roll cookie dough into balls (golf ball size) and place on a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle sea salt flakes over each cookie dough ball. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Then bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes. Allow cookies to cool, and serve! Prepare to fall in love :).

I could go on and on about Loren, who is as sweet and special as her cookies, and who made me feel like we knew each other for years the first time I met her, but I figured I'd share the deets on Sweet Loren's from the cookie master herself!

WNB: Tell us a little bit about Sweet Loren's. What inspired you to start your company?
SL: Sweet Loren's is everything I believe in...decadently delicious (as desserts should be!) fit for a healthy, whole lifestyle. I truly believe that the freshest food, is always the best food. In a world where most desserts are made from highly refined and stripped ingredients, like white flour, white sugar, artificial ingredients, I believe in eating the most natural, whole, unrefined ingredients. The bonus: whole foods TASTE BETTER than anything highly processed! I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma at the age of 22, and had to undergo chemo treatment for six months. It was incredibly hard, but I decided to use my "year-off" to do things that I would never have the time to do: like take cooking/baking classes and study nutrition. The more I learned about nutrition AND saw what most desserts were made from, the more I saw such a disconnect between what I felt we should be eating, and what were in most baked goods. That day I stopped eating anything highly refined, and my body felt so much better. Out of a personal need (for my forever huge sweet tooth!), I started making my own desserts using only -delicious natural ingredients. Fully recovered and healthy, and with my little sister as my official taste tester, I kept tweaking the recipes for a couple years. In 2010, I won a baking contest and quit my job managing a restaurant to start Sweet Loren's full-time.

WNB: what do you attribute to the success of SL's?
SL: Success means several things to me: 1) I believe you have to have a great product. I worked on recipes for four years before launching. 2) Really cool branding and packaging that represents you. 3) Being super, incredibly passionate about Sweet Loren's so that all of the hard work never feels like "work", but just dedication, patience, and determination to see everything through the best you can. 4) Sweet Loren's has a story behind it that people emotionally can relate to, and "get" our products even before eating them. 5) Sweet Loren's is the only ready-to-bake dessert on the market that uses the ingredients that we do...we fill a niche for delicious & healthier desserts, adding value to the marketplace. 6) Makes people happy! :) Seriously though, who doesn't love a warm cookie out of the oven...and one that they can feel good about eating?! 7) Excited and optimistic about the future. We are just at the beginning of growth for Sweet Loren's, so we look to the future with so much excitement to expand to new product lines, new regions, and a bigger team.  

WNB: How do you come up with the recipes for these delicious cookies?
SL: I first came up with the recipes that I just (selfishly!) craved...and my younger (picky picky picky) sister was my taste-tester ...until the recipe won her over, we were not done. This meant so many late nights of several cookie tastings (and several yoga classes and runs around Central Park). Now, our test kitchen is about coming up with the most delicious desserts you've ever thought of. One would think that everything has been done before...but, it hasn't...we have so many fun recipes going on--all made from natural, whole food ingredients.

WNB: First, Marie Claire Entrepreneur of the year. Then winner of the Nexty award. What's next for SL's?
SL: We just take it day by day, as any small business does. My dream is to grow nationally in the next year, and hopefully some unexpected, amazing surprises will happen along the way :)

WNB: What is your advice to someone following their passion and trying to start their own business?
SL: Have a passion that adds value to the world; be authentic and unique; have fun; enjoy life; take good care of your business and of other people; be a conscious company; and go after it 100%.

Wondering where you can find Sweet Loren's cookies/brownies? You can buy them at these stores on the East Coast or order online here!