Thursday, February 2, 2012

Raw Vegan Valentine Cookies


This recipe was inspired by a great recipe on Veggie Wedgie- check it out here. I love Veggie Wedgie! This recipe is also linked to Wellness Weekends and Allergy Friendly Friday, be sure to check each of those pages for more gluten free, allergy-friendly recipes. If you are gluten free and vegan, and you do not know of Cybele Pascal, get thee to her page now. If you are gluten free and sugar free, be sure to visit Diet, Dessert and Dogs for amazing sweet and savory recipes... and dogs. Food and dogs...what more could you possibly want in a blog? (Woof, woof, nothing, says Bailey from the Healing Kitchen. Wag, wag)

But first, read the yummy recipe below. Trust me, you want to make these cookies!

I think these are the best cookies I've ever made. Ever. Even way back when I could eat butter, eggs, flour, and Crisco (shudder). Seriously, these are as good or better than any raw,vegan, cooked, or traditional cookie I've ever tasted. Bonus: these are much easier to make than baked cookies! Bonus bonus: they are super healthy! (links to health info at bottom of recipe) 

This recipe has no gluten, wheat, sugar, corn, dairy, egg, soy, or nightshades/potato.

These cookies are mostly raw. To make them truly raw, you could use raw oat groats, and make a raw jam for the filling. I was lazy and used gluten free rolled oats and lingonberry jam I had in the fridge. 
Raw Vegan Valentine's Day Cookies
Makes approximately 30 sandwich cookies
Special equipment: Vitamix or food processor, Dehydrator (optional)

Ingredients
3/4 cup raw almonds
3/4 cup raw hazelnuts
1/3 cup agave nectar
few teaspoons of water, if needed

Method
One at a time, grind the almonds, hazelnuts, and oats into flour. I did this in the "dry" container for the Vitamix. You can probably do this in a food processor, or perhaps a coffee or nut grinder. You want a fine flour, not just finely chopped nuts. You could also use nut pulp left over from making nut milk (keep it in the freezer until you need it), or purchase nut flour (but nut flour is really expensive).

Whisk nut and oat flours, vanilla powder, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the agave nectar and coconut oil, and knead with your hands until well combined and you have a dough that sticks together when you press it between your fingers. If dough is too dry and crumbly, add some water, one teaspoon at a time. Knead, and add more water if necessary. I did not need any water this time, but sometimes I do. Be careful not to add too much water, or you'll wind up with a sticky mess.

Roll out the dough on parchment paper or silpat. Using your favorite cookie cutter, cut dough into shapes. Carefully transfer to dehydrator tray lined with teflexx sheet or parchment paper. Dehydrate at 145 degrees F for one hour, then 115 degrees F for as long as you like to get the consistency you desire. I dehydrated for about 6 hours... but a few cookies may have disappeared from the trays in that time... had to taste, you know... 
Add jam to cookies, and assemble.

You can eat these as soon as you cut them, or dehydrate first. It is up to you! 

They are very good for breakfast. They are also very good frozen. Mmmm.

Click on the following links for more information on the health benefits of almonds, hazelnuts, another page on hazelnutsnuts in general, oatslingonberry, another page on lingonberry, and coconut oil. Click here for more information about the health benefits of raw & living food.

7 comments:

  1. These are so pretty!! amazing job. I don't have a dehydrator, but could cook them :)

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  2. Thank you Danielle! You could cook them. I keep forgetting to say that you CAN cook raw vegan recipes- they just wouldn't be "raw". You could skip the cooking altogether- they are delicious as a no-bake cookie. They are just softer that way. Trust me, I ate more than my fair share of dough, and then several more cookies, before they were dehydrated : ) They almost didn't make it to the dehydrating stage : )

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  3. These look so good, and i know my kids would love them too!! I am pinning this to try! if you get a chance, i host a link party every Wednesday-Sunday, Allergy Free Wednesdays, these would be great!

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  4. Thanks Tessa! I hope you do try them. Obviously they are good all year round, not just for Valentine's day. Not sure if I mentioned they are even BETTER frozen! Mmm! I am going over to look at your blog now- thanks! Nice to meet you : )

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  5. Yum, we LOVE these! They taste like raw thumbprint cookies! here's what i modified: used half pecans, half almonds. Reduced agave to 3 T and used some vanilla stevia to taste. B/c i am lazy, I did these in bar form. I smoothed half the dough on the bottom of a loaf pan, spread a couple of tablespoons jam, and the then smoothed the rest of the filling over the top. I did not dehydrate...but they are AWESOME! Sharing on facebook w/ my readers!

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    Replies
    1. That sounds awesome, I love your adaption. I think I'll make bars next time too. Great idea.

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