Cookies!

Hey all!  I hope you had an awesome Christmas!  :D  We sure did.

And one of the reasons was ... cookies.  When your family has so many various allergies, it's hard to find something that everyone can eat.

But, I did it.

I started off with a recipe from The Gluten Free Almond Flour cookbook.  If you haven't tried baking with almond flour - you totally should.  It's so good!

I modified the recipe, so I think I can post here what I did.  I'll call it:

Cranberry Chocolate cookies

7 cups blanched almond flour
2 tsp. salt
1 c. canola or grapeseed oil
1¾ c. sugar
1 c. water
4 tsp. vanilla

Blend ingredients well.  Preheat oven to 350º.  Line a baking sheet with parchment.  Scoop batter into 1" balls.  Flatten slightly, and press your finger into the centre of the cookie, making a small dent.

Bake cookies for 20 min, or until dark golden brown.

Cool on sheet for 4 min., then remove to racks to cool completely.

Next, you make the chocolate!!

Melt unsweetened baking chocolate over low heat.  (I used 2½ boxes.)  Add sugar and honey to taste.  Add water as needed to make the chocolate spreadable.  Spread the chocolate over each cookie.

(Note: if I was as good as PW I'd have a picture of each step.  But I'm not.  So I don't.  ;)

Looking tasty!

Next, we make the meringue.


Fluffy white frosting

1 c. sugar
1/3 c. water
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla

In a saucepan, combine sugar, water and cream of tartar.  Cook and stir till bubbly and the sugar is dissolved.  In a mixer bowl, combine egg whites and vanilla.  Mix slightly.  Turn mixer on high, and slowly add sugar water to whites.  Mix for about 7 minutes, or until stiff peaks form.  Lick the beaters.

Now you're going to spread a little meringue on the cookies.

Doesn't that look good??  Yes, yes they were.  ;)

Now, I thought they needed some dressing up.  So, I made homemade cranberry sauce.  (Boiled one bag of cranberries with 1c. water and 1c. sugar.)  Then, I blended the cranberry sauce to make it smooth.  It was so pretty!  I put a tsp. on top of each cookie, then topped it with a pecan half.

Don't they look delicious?  You want to reach through the screen and grab one.  Yes, yes you do.

They were just enough sweet and sour.

I'd share, but we ate them all.  :D

So, there you go!  You should definitely try them.  I'm going to file this recipe away for next year... or for the summer, whichever comes first.  ;)