Gluten free, dairy free, cookies, OR, what to do with the almond milk’s left-over pulp

Paleo almond cookie and mini muffin.

For quite some time, I’ve been reading about the Paleo diet. Finally, as a token to the endless tradition of making resolutions on New Year’s Eve, I have joined the crowds, and made a resolution of my own. I have decided to try out this diet, for at least a month.

Paleo is not just a diet, but a way of life. As a holistic view, one should eat right, exercise daily, and sleep well (and… keep un-stressed). Sounds logical, no?

The very basic nutritional diet rules rely on the right proteins, fats, carbs and veggies. Nothing new here, right?

Well, as Paleo goes (or primal, caveman, stone-age diet), one should NOT consume refined sugar, refined salt, dairy, legumes, gluten, and processed oils. More or less.

Oy!! Then what have we left to eat??

Grass-fed meats, wild caught fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables. More or less.

Read the basics here.

Left to brighten my coffee with only almond milk (and I must confess, I’m slowly getting off coffee as well), I needed that something comforting to chew on, next to my coffee.

It didn’t take long for the aha moment to arrive.

As I make my own almond milk (easy peasy, see previous post), I’m left with all that almond pulp, which leads to… almond cookies.

for 25-30 cookies, you’ll need:

• almond-date left-over pulp from 3 cups of almonds (that were used for the almond milk);
• 1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut;
• 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder (try not to use the dutch processed one);
• 1/3 cup raw sesame seeds. Some seeds, sesame among them, may be considered Paleo, yet they contain high amount of omega 6 fatty acids (compared with its low omega 3 content), which is not so good. Rule of moderation! I find 1/3 cup for 25 cookies to be OK. You can definitely play around with the quantity. Take some off, add more coconut…
• 2 Tbs raw honey, or pure maple syrup, or any combination. Those sweeteners are sugary and processed, and honey is fructose, so they are not ideal per-Se, but in this case I go for moderation again, thinking these 2 Tbs are divided among 25-30 cookies. You may want to try Stevia or dextrose. Lemme’ know if you did, and the outcome.
• 3 eggs
• optional : dates.

how-to:

heat oven to 350°f, and grease baking paper (in the pans) with coconut oil.

combine all ingredients in a bowl (excluding the optional dates).

Almond milk pulp

drop a spoon full of dough onto baking sheet, and then press it down slightly with the back of the spoon. keep them around 1 inch apart.

don’t move girls

another option is to fill a greased mini-muffin pan with the dough.

finally, you can add small chopped pieces of a date by pressing them onto the cookies or mini-muffins.

into the oven they go for 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven, until the cookies are beginning to tan. Let cookies cool outside the oven for 10 minutes.

mini muffins in pink

now, I (and you) can enjoy one (or two) cookies with our coffee.

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choco-butter cookies

Weather is certainly cool enough to make me long for a sweet smell in the house, the smell that goes with… cookies of course (and coffee).

choco-butter cookies

they are easy to make (ahem.. if you have a food processor), and kids love helping. notice that we don’t like the cookies to taste too sweet, but sugar can always be added as desired.

you’ll need:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 TS sugar
• 2 TS powdered sugar
• 1 TS ground flax seeds
• 2 TS unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 and 3/4 sticks of unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

put all dry ingredients in the food processor and … process on high-speed, until all powders have unified nicely. all the processing stages need to be quick, only a few seconds.

dry ingredients for choco-butter cookies

add chunks of butter and process until the mixture looks somewhat like crumbs. don’t over do it-  the butter has to remain cool.

added butter to choco-butter cookies

add eggs and vanilla extract and process until the mixture builds up into a dough-ball.

choco-butter dough

separate dough into two balls. plastic wrap them. into the fridge they go to rest for 1 hour.

two nice choco-butter paper weights

warm the oven to 410F. when you’re ready for some fun, and the dough has been cold in the fridge for at least an hour, take it out, spread/flatten on your best kitchen table – use some flour so it doesn’t stick to the rolling-pin, and cut out circles or any other cool shape.

cut out choco-butter cookies

as you can see, I use parchment baking paper instead of greasing the pan. once the oven is 410F, put the baking pan in the oven, set your timer to 13 minutes, and start working on your next batch of cookies – different baking sheet. of course, each oven is different, so you’ll have to watch the first batch, so not to burn the cookies. after 13 minutes, take out the pan and let it rest and cool down a bit (5-7 minutes). sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and transfer to a cookie dish.

having fun with dough

these are the same kind of cookies- only without cocoa and without the ground flax seeds. instead, add 3 more TS of flour.

just butter cookies

bon appetit !

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