Friday, February 15, 2013

Grain-Free Almond Cookies


Michael and I postponed our Valentines Day until today - we're eating out tonight.  Last night was entirely taken up with my monthly Board meeting at our UU church.  These meetings are always packed full of agenda items, and run 2 hours without fail - last night's went 2 1/2 hours. We got a lot of important decisions made, but even at that we dropped a few items off the list until next month, and by the time I got home, we were eating leftover roast chicken and veggies at 10:00 pm.

Earlier in the day, though, I had a little burst of energy (nice to get those back!) and cleared out the kitchen cupboards, wiped them down with my All-Purpose Cleaner, tossed expired food items and the last remnants of processed foods (especially those containing wheat), and organizing the rest - I think I managed to reclaim at least half the space after several months of declaring how much I hated how little space we had and how much we 'needed' another pantry solution.

What's left in there now are just a few cans (coconut milk, black olives, green chiles, canned tomato products, and some unsweetened canned fruit are all that's left), pretty much no boxed items, some non-refrigered baking supplies, packages of dried fruit and nuts, and tea. Lots and lots of tea varieties, because I have become slightly obsessed with tea lately.  The rest of our food supplies live in the refrigerator and freezer, including the almond and coconut flour that has replaced my wheat flours.

After that was done, I made up a batch of cookies - I wanted to try a very simple recipe, to get a feel for how it might work as a base for variations, and I think it does fine.  Unlike regular cookie dough, this seems to need to be 'squished' together to form balls, and the finished result is more crumbly - I think that is simply an aspect of working with nut flours that have no elasticity from gluten.  Other than that, though, they were very tasty and I think could easily be jazzed up with some dark chocolate chips, chopped nuts, raisins, a bit of cocoa added, or whatever one might like.  Depressing the middle instead of using a fork to flatten would also turn these into a good thumbprint cookie to be filled with jam or lemon curd or the like.

The best part - as long as you're ok with the sugar from the honey, this is simply good for you food - nuts and coconut oil! So you can enjoy without worry.

Here's the recipe - see how many ways  you might jump off from here:

Grain-Free Almond Cookies
(makes 18 cookies)

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
4 Tblsp coconut oil
8 Tblsp raw honey (or maple syrup, or other liquid sweetener)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the coconut oil if it's solid, and combine with the honey and vanilla in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together the almond flour, baking soda, and sea salt, breaking up any clumps (I use a large whisk to do this).  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly to combine.  It may still feel 'crumbly' rather than come together - try to squish a small ball together and if it doesn't hold, you may need to add just a little more coconut oil and honey to the mix.

Shape into small balls, about the size of a walnut, and place on a cookie sheet that's been covered with a sheet of parchment paper.  These cookies do not spread, so use a fork, your finger, or the bottom of a glass to flatten them.

Bake at 325F for about 8 minutes, until slightly browned. 

Enjoy!

Shared with: What I Am Eating, Simple Meals Friday, Gluten-Free Friday, Fresh Bites Friday, Foodie Friday, Simple Living Foodie Friday, Fight Back Friday, Foodtastic Friday, Show and Tell Friday, Frugal Friday, Freedom Fridays, Farm Girl Friday, LHITS DIY Linkie, Get Real Frugal Friday, No Rules Weekend Party, Your Great Idea Link Party, A Favorite Thing, One Creative Weekend, Sweet Saturday Link Party, Show & Tell Saturday, Simply Natural SaturdayGet Schooled Saturday, Weekend Show Off, Think Pink Sunday, Sunday Show Off Linky Party, Sunday School Blog Party, Craft - Create - Inspire, Creative HomeAcre Hop, Just Something I Whipped Up, Busy Monday, Mop It Up Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, My Meatless Mondays, On the Menu Monday, Mom's Test Meal Monday, Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Mealtime Monday, Make Your Own Monday, Mop It Up Monday, Mix It Up Monday, Marvelous Monday, Monday Funday, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Make It Yourself Monday, Made By You Monday, Homestead Barn Hop, Craft-O-Maniac Monday, Nomday Monday, Natural Living Monday, Motivated Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Mostly Homemade Mondays, Family Table Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Hearth & Soul Hop, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Anti-Procrastination Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Trick or Treat Tuesday, Tuesday Greens, Tutorial Tuesday, You're Gonna Love It Tuesday, Eco-Kids Tuesday, How To Tuesday.
and..
Foodie Friends Friday Cookie Party.

24 comments:

  1. These sound delicious! I've been wanting to try out new flours like almond flour, so these would be perfect for me. Thanks for sharing!

    Visiting from Farm Girl Blog Fest :)
    Tammy
    ourneckofthewoods.net

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  2. Thanks for these. My sister does a version with some lemon involved that's really nice. I imagine my children would give a hearty thumbs up to these if there was just a little chocolate involved...

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    1. Yum, lemon would be a great addition! Some sort of chocolate version is in our near future, I think.

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  3. Ooh - I've saved your recipe so I'll try it out soon.
    My pantry is in dire need of a HUGE clean out too - added to my list for next week!
    Shane ♥

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  4. Glad I found you at Favorite Things ~ I'm going to try these. I love that we have stores now that sell specialty flours in bulk. I've never used coconut oil. Do you think adding more would present the dryness?

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    Replies
    1. Adding more, just a bit at a time, til it holds shape when you squish it would be fine, yes! One thing about coconut oil - below 76F, it's a solid (like shortening), warmer than that, it becomes a clear oil, so when you store these cookies, the refrigerator is the place to go. And they were considerably less crumbly straight out of the fridge, with a slight 'chewiness' that was nice.

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  5. Almond flour seems to be an excellent substitute for grain in baking. I have always used it with flour but I think I will give it a try on it's own. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us on foodie friday.

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  6. Thank you for the recipe! It looks delicious!

    Thanks so much for joining in this week!

    xo
    Claudia

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  7. Sounds so yummy! Makes me want to squeeze some baking in today!

    Happy weekend to you!

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  8. These look delish! Found you on Farm Girl Friday! I would love to have you share this on The Creative HomeAcre Hop today!
    http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/02/the-creative-homeacre-hop-3.html

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  9. These look really good Lynda! I'll be printing this off for sure.

    Visiting and following from Townsend House. Have a great week!

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  10. Those sound so good, love almond....Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week; I hope you’ll join us again!


    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino

    The Chicken Chick

    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com



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  11. This almond cookies look gorgeous and so healthy!
    I would love it if you shared this with Healthy Vegan Fridays, a blog hop co-hosted by 3 bloggers. I'm sure our readers would really enjoy this. You can submit a post from Friday to end of Tuesday:
    http://www.greenthickies.com/healthy-vegan-friday-30/

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  12. Lovin' the ingredients here. <3 everything with coconut oil. :-) Thank you SO MUCH for sharing, Lynda, and thank you for linking up to Nomday Monday. :-D Let me know your Facebook page and Twitter links and I'll follow you. :-) Have a great day!

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  13. Lovin' the ingredients here. <3 everything with coconut oil. :-) Thank you SO MUCH for sharing, Lynda, and thank you for linking up to Nomday Monday. :-D Let me know your Facebook page and Twitter links and I'll follow you. :-) Have a great day!

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  14. Oh I love crumbly cookies! Yum! They are my favorite as my husband can attest, lol! Thank you for linking up to Making Your Home Sing Monday!

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  15. These look great. I am doing a link up on my blog and would love for you to come share this there.
    http://www.countrifiedhicks.com

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  16. These would be perfect with some afternoon tea! YUM
    Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! :)

    Thanks for linking back to the Gluten Free Fridays post!


    Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com

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  17. These sound super yummy! I love it when cookies are healthy and tasty!
    Thanks for sharing on Natural Living Monday.

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  18. I love how simple these look!
    I hope you'll consider entering it in the Saturday Round-Up, the new blog hop over at A Joyful Mother! I'd love it!
    http://ajoyfulmother.com/2013/02/22/saturday-round-up-a-new-blog-hop/

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  19. Now that looks like a tasty sweet treat. I'm all in. :D Thanks for sharing.
    p

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  20. Your cookies look great! Thanks for sharing your recipe with the Hearth and Soul Hop. I’ve pinned it to my gluten-free dessert board on Pinterest.

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  21. We have been GF for 2 months. This recipe looks yummy!! Thanks for sharing this with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday! Hope to see you again today! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/02/bunnys-bento-box-eco-kids-tuesday.html

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  22. This recipe looks easy to make and sound delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe with Foodie Friends Friday.

    Joanne/Winelady Cooks

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