Last weekend I had a sudden craving for cookies. Probably because of the first snow fall in Southern Finland, that just makes me want to curl on the sofa, with a hot cup of tea and biscuits. Generous chunks of dark chocolate and chopped hazelnuts came to my thoughts, as I was in the kitchen collecting the ingredients for my cookies. I made a first batch with ghee butter and muscovado sugar. The cookies were hardly out from the oven that I got inspired to make a new batch, this time with almond butter in place of ghee and maple syrup as a natural sweetener: that recipe was my winner, and the one I am sharing today!
Did you know that when it comes to baking, almond butter (or purée d’amande as we called it in French) is a great alternative to regular butter? Not just because it is dairy free, but almond butter is rich in unsaturated fat and minerals. I first baked with almond butter last summer in France, after buying a (long awaited) food processor. The first task for my new kitchen toy was to make almond butter I used right away in a batch of chocolate cookies – and what a treat! Now comparing my first and second batches of cookies, I personally enjoy more the nutty taste of almond butter to the buttery flavor of ghee.
(My food processor did fly back to Finland with me, but that is just one of those crazy things from France I packed in my suitcase over the years, along with of a dinnerware set, or my wedding dress occupying two front seats in the plane cabin).
These almond butter cookies with dark chocolate chunks and hazelnuts are so gourmands yet pretty guilt free! The recipe is ideal when you crave for cookies ‘right now’, since you need no more than 30 minutes to bake them.
If you have a food processor, I warmly suggest you make your own almond butter to save money, as store-bought version can be a bit pricey. It is pretty easy to do homemade almond butter, although it takes some patience: with my Magimix Mini Plus (not the most powerful processor on the market but it does the job!) it takes 20 to 30 minutes to go from whole almonds to a smooth butter, with ‘cooling’ times every now and then. I simply pour almonds into my food processor and grind until oils are released from the almonds and a mass starts to form, moving around the bowl. Eventually you get a thick and smooth butter that can be stored in a glass jar for many weeks.
- {Edited 9.2.2018}
- 50 g organic brown rice flour
- 50 g gluten free oat flour
- 50 g almond powder
- ½ cc baking soda
- 100 g almond butter
- 80 g sugar (I used 40 g coconut sugar + 40 g xylitol sugar)
- 60 ml vegetal milk
- 1 egg
- 40 g chopped hazelnuts
- 80 g chopped dark chocolate 70%
- ½ cc vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Preheat oven 180 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, whisk the egg and mix in the almond butter and vegetal milk.
- Mix well together the flours, baking soda, vanilla, salt and sugar.
- Pour in the almond butter mixture and mix until well combined.
- Fold in the chocolate and hazelnuts chunks - I usually keep a few aside that I press down on top of each cookies before putting the baking sheet to the oven.
- Using a teaspoon, scoop small mounds of the dough and spread well apart on the cookie sheet.
- Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool down on the baking sheet few minutes then transfer them on a cooling rack.
Leave a Reply