The flavor and texture of these simple cookies remind me of macaroons – helped along by the fact that these are coated in flaked coconut. I can imagine easily devouring a plateful of these tiny cookies and you almost could since they contain no added oil or fat, have no eggs and the refined sugar has been whisked away from the original (Bon Appetit) recipe. Perfect little treats to accompany afternoon tea.
Flourless Almond Cookies
~18 Cookies
2 cups slivered almonds
1/3 cup maple sugar
1/2 tsp. powdered stevia
4 tsp. grated lemon rind
dash of salt
1 tbsp. egg replacer + 3 tbsp. water (whisk together until frothy and set aside for a minute or two)
2 tbsp. unsweetened flaked coconut
1 tsp. cinnamon
36 or so slivered almonds
Preheat oven to 350F and line 2 baking pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the coconut and the cinnamon. Set aside.
Place 2 cups almonds in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add the maple sugar, stevia, lemon zest, salt and egg replacer mixture. Pulse about 10 times or until the dough comes together to form a ball.
Using wet hands, shape the dough into 18 balls and roll the balls in the coconut-cinnamon mixture. Place 1″ apart on baking sheets. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cool for a few minutes on the baking pans before transferring to wire racks.
I found the “mother” recipe for these cookies on a curious little website that appears to be some kind of homage to Trader Joe’s brand name products. Nearly every item listed in the recipe (as well as others I saw) had a little asterisk next to them indicating that you could indeed find those items at your local Trader Joe’s. Now that’s love. Since I don’t have a Trader Joe’s in the state in which I live (hello, Trader Joe’s – Oklahoma is out here and we need you!), I had to make do with ingredients found at my big box store. I don’t knock it, cuz it’s the only game in town (if I don’t feel like driving two hours one way to hit up the Whole Foods) – but I sure wish I had a funky, tree-huggerish, vegan-friendly store at which to spend my $$.
Whole Wheat & Almond Meal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Somewhere along the way my preference for pancakes was usurped by a deeper love for waffles. Maybe it’s the crisp and crunchy crevices that handle with deft and aplomb the sweet, dusky goodness of real maple syrup or thick smears of peanut butter; or maybe it’s the soft, flavorful interior and the toasty aroma that arises as one cuts into it. Whatever it is – or maybe it’s all of those things – waffles have earned my respect. These low-fat and flavorful pumpkin waffles are especially welcome on a cool autumn morning.
Pumpkin-Pecan Whole Wheat Waffles
(The jumping off point for this recipe is the pumpkin waffle recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I omitted the oil, used “buttermilk” instead of plain soy milk, substituted whole wheat pastry flour for AP flour, used a little bit of almond meal, added the pecans and used stevia instead of brown sugar. )
I came across this recipe last winter while living briefly in Bountiful, UT – without my comforting retinue of cookbooks to plunder for baked goodies. Lo and behold, Whole Foods has a whole treasure trove of recipes on their site, some vegan, some not. I did my usual alchemy here – replacing the eggs, nixing the oil entirely and banishing most of the sugar. This would be an ideal “base” muffin recipe with which to explore other flavors. Add smashed banana instead of the prune puree…use shredded zucchini, dried blueberries or slip a little crystallized ginger into the batter.
Good Morning Muffins
There are lots and lots of recipes out there on how to make your own nut milks, and thank goodness for that, but I include one here because it’s a fun thing to try and quite easy. Why make your own? Right off the bat I can think of two great reasons: the taste and the ingredients, as in: you control what goes into it. Making almond milk is a simple and not too time-consuming process and the end result is well worth the energy expended. It tastes nothing like what you get in the carton. It’s velvety, rich, smooth and slightly sweet. You kind of want to drink it all as soon as you’ve made a batch – which is fine – but save some for the Vanilla-Banana smoothie below.
To make almond milk: Soak 1 cup of raw almonds (skin on or off) in water overnight. Drain and put almonds in a blender along with 1 cup water. Blend until chunky, stirring if needed. Add an additional cup of water and 1 tsp. of pure maple syrup (if desired). Blend until nearly smooth, stirring as needed. Line a strainer with 3-4 layers of cheesecloth and put strainer over a large bowl. Pour almond mixture into the strainer and let drain, pressing down and stirring with a spoon to extract liquid. After it stops dripping, gently squeeze cheesecloth to get those last precious drops of almond milk into the bowl. (Don’t discard the crushed almond paste. See below on what to do with it.) Either use the almond milk right away, or store in the refrigerator. Some folks add more sweetener or even cinnamon and vanilla extract to their almond milk, but I like mine with just a tiny hint of sweetness and no additional embellishments.
