I wanted to feature the dried cacao fruit I discovered recently at Whole Foods, little thin squares that seem like fruit leather, from 'Blue Stripes Urban Cacao', in 4 oz packages (the recipe uses one whole package).  I've been curious about cacao pulp since as soon as I realized that the pulp was the original attraction of cacao for the indigenous people who discovered it, but since the pulp is key to traditional fermentation of the beans, I figured I'd have to go to a cacao farm to actually taste it. 

I built these comparing several different recipes, including Chewy Chocolate Cookies from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book and some of my own previous versions trying to create a fudgy brownie-like cookie without making something too close to a flourless chocolate cake or even truffle.  I  also made them without gluten so I can share them with a colleague who is gluten-sensitive, and because teff is so very good in chocolates.  The chia is to help them hold together with the gluten-free flours, and can be omitted if using a wheat flour with gluten. 

Mincing the cacao fruit is difficult because it is so sticky, so I use my favorite technique of letting the food processor do the work by adding the dried fruit with a portion of the flour, so the fruit bits get immediately flour coated as they are chopped, and you can get it quite fine that way.

(revised for 100% teff and with correction in calculating the substitute flour quantities)

Lightly greased or lined baking sheets         Oven 350°F / 175° C        Baking time 12 minutes