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Almond Christmas Cookies

These cute little biscuits simply melt in your mouth. They hold together well, but once you bite into them are beautifully soft but not so soft that you have to “do a Monica” (from F.R.I.E.N.D.S) and eat them over the sink.

These Christmas cookies are flour-less, butter-less and egg-less. Calling upon 5 simple ingredients and 12-15 minutes in the oven. They can be whipped up when guests call in at the last minute or if you’re just really craving cookies and don’t have much patience.

They’ve been taste-tested by several family friends that aren’t used to gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan foods and they all independently – without prompting – commented on how much they liked them.

Almond Christmas Cookies

  • 2 1/2 cups almond meal (I ground my own from whole almonds – you can use sunflower seed meal for nut-free, but they won’t be as buttery … almonds are special like this. Cashews and Macadamias would also yield stunning “flours” if you’re making your own … I’ve used both to make cookies in the past with great success)
  • 20 raw cacao butter buttons, melted over a very gentle heat on the stovetop (if you butpy blocks or chunks of cacao butter, I’d guess 20 buttons is equal to between 80-100g cacao butter)
  • 6 heaped teaspoons rapadura sugar (can substitute for coconut sugar or date sugar if you like)
  • 1/2 teaspoon each of sea salt and vanilla bean powder

Method

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C and line a baking tray with bleach-free baking paper (I always use the “if you care” brand).

If milling your own nuts, do this first so you have your almond meal all ready. Then place almond meal, sugar, vanilla and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre.

Melt the cacao butter and pour into the well you created, use your hand to “rub” the cacao butter into the almond meal until you have a crumbly dough that you can press together to roll into balls. If dough feels too wet you can add a little more almond meal so keep an extra 1/2 cup close by just in case.

Gather approx 2 Tablespoons of dough (I didn’t exactly measure but grabbed what “looked” like enough) and roll into a ball. Place on baking tray and flatten with palm of hand, working gently because the dough is a bit fragile. Turn flattened dough “disc” over and press around the sides to smooth out any “ridges”. Repeat until all the cookie dough is used up.

Bake for 12-15 minutes and remove and cool slightly before using a small spatula or egg flip to transfer cookies from tray to an airtight container, where they will keep for a week or so. Let’s be honest though lovely ones, will they last the whole week at this time of year? Most likely not. They are such a beautiful treat to share with the ones you love.