Christmas almond vanilla cookies

I made this new grain free (and therefore gluten free) alternative to our regular vanilla Christmas cookies. I also switched out regular sugar with coconut sugar. Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic response than regular table sugar.

Of course sugar is sugar, also when it comes to the slightly more healthy kind, so moderation is still key. You can read more about it from the below source. I agree with his conclusion:

" I’m going to have to put coconut sugar is in the same boat as honey. It is healthier than refined sugar, but definitely worse than no sugar at all."

Source

So basically if the choice is between a cookie and no cookie, choose no cookie. If the choice is between this cookie and one with table sugar and flour in it, then I would hands down choose this cookie.

Let's get to the recipe:

175 g almond flour
125 g finely chopped almonds (by hand or food processor)
1 vanilla bean
125 g clarified butter. I made my own, but I think you could just use ghee here.
80 g coconut sugar
1/2 egg
tiny amount of salt

This was my first try and the cookies came out great. Crispy and with a great almond and vanilla taste.

I made my own clarified butter by slowly heating some organic butter and waiting for the milk solids to settle at the bottom. It's the white stuff in there and this is where the lactose and casein protein is at, so removing that from the butter just seems like a good idea. Then you are left with almost only fat.

Next, I mixed the clarified butter with the coconut sugar. Coconut sugar is a lot darker than refined sugar, so this does make the cookies darker.

Add the half egg and the vanilla bean. The vanilla been should be scraped and the pods chopped very finely. To the size of almost a paste. Use a bit of the coconut sugar to make the chopping easier.

Add all the almonds and almond flour and stir and then knead the dough.

Place the dough on a plate or cutting board and refrigerate until the next day.

Slice the dough into eight wedges. Take only a few wedges out of the fridge at a time to keep the dough cool.

I used an old fashioned meat grinder with cookie dough attachment. I used the star shape to press out the dough, then cutting the strips and forming circles.

The cookies were baked at about 390F for 5-7 minutes. The time and heat setting depends on your particular oven. If your oven tends to be cold, then you might want to go as high as 415F, if it tends to be hot then 375F might be warm enough. Almond flour burns quicker than wheat flour, so it is best not to start out too high.

The cookies get the most crispy if the oven is so hot that the cookies get done in about 5-6 minutes, so if they don't you have to adjust the temperature for the next sheet.



And here they are close up. They are very very good. They have a nice crispy crunch. I will definitely be making these next year again.

About Katja Kromann

I am a Danish American decorating life in Seattle. I love all things design and I love coming up with or simply documenting the dishes we eat so that I can go here for inspiration.

I can’t think of anything more fun than coming up with a recipe or project, making it, photographing it and sharing it with you on my websites.

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