The Best Vegan Cookies E-V-A-H!

Hey guys :) Happy Sunday! Today I'm enjoying the peace and calm by doing some baking with my Mom. Have you ever made vegan cookies? Because this recipe is going to knock your socks off!

This recipe was featured in the November/December 2011 "All Animals" Humane Society magazine. We used to receive the Humane Society magazines from our good friend, Rose, who passed away this past spring. We thought of her as we made these, and we look forward to continuing to share the fruits of our kitchen with friends and family just as she did with us. 

This recipe is originally from Vegan Family Meals, Real Food for Everyone by Ann Gentry. One of the great things about this recipe is that you can always eat the batter! Yep, vegan means no eggs, so when you bake these with kids it is a real treat to let them eat away as you prepare the cookies (and, let's be real, I love to eat healthy cookie dough too). 

Now, before I give you the recipe and pics, I do have to give a shout-out to my dear friend, Charity, who I almost accidentally sent to the hospital with this treat. You see, Charity has a nut allergy. And, blonde as I am, I always seem to think of peanuts when I think of nuts, and I forget that almonds are just as bad for her. So, one weekend when we were roommates in Atlanta, I offered her one of these cookies. She was like, "Are there nuts, Kaelin?" and I was totally chill about telling her that they were fine...until she was about to put it in her mouth and I suddenly remembered that they are CHOCKED FULL OF ALMONDS. I remember a flurry of yelling for her not to eat it, grabbing it out of her hand, and thanking God that He had kept me from committing an enormous blunder and risking her life. Charity - thank you for laughing it off and forgiving me :D Everyone else - make sure there aren't any nut allergies before serving these treats.

Making the dough (and eating some too).

Creating the cookie balls with an indention for the Rasberry Jam.

Adding the yummy centers.

Pre-baking...

After baking! 

Almond-Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients: 

2 1/2 cups raw whole almonds (we actually purchase almond flour at the Farmer's Market and forgo the process of blending these almonds into a flour)

1 1/2 cups oat flour

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or barley flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 cup neutral cooking oil (such as canola, grapeseed, safflower, or sunflower...we use canola)

2 teaspoons almond extract

About 3/4 cup raspberry preserves, apricot preserves, or apple butter

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line two heavy baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. If you have the raw whole almonds, pulse the almonds in food processor until they form a fine flour with some small speckles of nuts still visible. Leave some small bits of the almonds for a nice crunchy texture.

3. Stir the ground almonds, oat flour, pastry flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk the maple syrup, apple juice, oil, and almond extract in a medium bowl. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until blended. (At this point, we add a little bit more whole-wheat flour to combat the stickiness of the batter. We don't want it dry, but just a good texture for handling).

4. Make 1-inch balls of the dough using a teaspoon and place them 1-inch apart on the cookie sheet. Make an indention in the center of the cookie. 

5. Either spoon the preserves into the indention (with them mounding just above the level of the cookie as they will melt down a bit while baking), or put into a pastry bag and pipe into the cookies.

6. Bake the cookies until they puff and become pale golden on the top and bottom, about 25 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to cooling racks and let cool.Cookies will keep for two days, stored in an airtight container at room temperature (our family sticks the cookies in the fridge). You can also save your parchment paper from your cookie sheets and use them between your layers of cookies in the storage container. Enjoy!

For more recipes like this one, go to humanesociety.org/recipes.

Also, let it be known that my family can't talk about anything vegan without quoting Kelly MacDonald's character, Katie, in the movie Decoy Bride: "I've gone vegan...man vegan" (*in a Scottish accent, no less*). Promptly puts us in a fit of giggles every time.