Season: Living WILDFIT Fall
Challenge Weeks: 1 & 13
Prep Time: 10 mins
Bake Time: 15 mins
Makes: 24 cookies
These are delicious cookies that are great to serve to those who are not yet WILDFIT Community members. They taste like a mix between a scone and a shortbread cookie – a soft and thick texture with a slight crumble. The lemon and raspberry flavor combination creates a slight sweetness and zing which makes them perfect for late spring. These cookies also come together really quickly with just a handful of ingredients!
Ingredients:
Cookie:
1 cup almond flour, sifted
½ cup tapioca flour
¼ cup coconut flour
½ cup coconut sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
⅓ cup cold coconut oil
⅓ cup coconut cream
½ lemon, juice and zest of half a lemon
1 cup frozen raspberries, I like using the pieces which have broken off at the bottom of the bag
Glaze:
1 Tablespoon of honey
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons arrowroot starch
Preparation:
The key to this recipe is to put it together quickly so that the oil doesn’t have a chance to melt. This will result in a nice texture and buttery flavour. Using frozen raspberries is also important to keeping the oil cold and making sure that the cookies bake up properly.
Start by preheating the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a medium sized baking bowl, combine your almond, coconut and tapioca flours together with the baking powder and coconut sugar. I prefer to use a brand of baking powder like Purest, as it doesn’t contain corn starch or aluminum. You can also make your own baking powder using baking soda, a bit of apple cider vinegar and a bit of arrowroot starch. I also prefer to put all the flours through a fine mesh sieve to make sure there are no clumps. This particular mix of flours creates a nutty rich taste from the almonds, a depth and heaviness from the coconut flour, and a light fluffy texture from the tapioca. If you don’t like any of these three or have aversions, substitute hazelnut or sunflower seed flours for the almond flour, arrowroot starch for the tapioca and tiger nut or chestnut flour in place of the coconut flour. The most important thing is to create a combination of alternative flours so that you get a great blend of flavours, moisture and fiber.
There are always individual drupelets at the bottom of my frozen raspberry bag. However, if you don’t have small pieces of frozen berries, add a cup of whole berries to your food processor and pulse several times to chop them, then pour the pieces back into a bowl and keep in the freezer until ready to use.
Next, add cold coconut oil to your food processor and pulse several times to break it up into smaller pieces (without heating). You want it to flake into the cookies and not be greasy. If it gets too warm, place the bowl of your food processor in the freezer for a few minutes to make it solid again. Then pulse a few times more. Once it is in small pieces, add the flour mixture to the bowl of the processor and pulse several times until a fine crumb texture has been created.
Add in the coconut cream, lemon juice and zest and pulse again several times until just combined. The dough will be cold and easily shapeable. Finally, gently fold in cold raspberry pieces with a spoon, ensuring that the pieces are evenly distributed throughout the dough. The colour will bleed out a bit, but unfortunately fades once they are baked. I wish they would stay pink!
Once your dough is ready, use a spoon to drop small balls of dough onto a prepared cookie sheet, evenly spaced making sure to stagger the cookies. I like to press the dough down slightly so that they are flat and round, rather than high, however this is your preference.
Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges and on the bottom. It make take a few extra minutes, depending on your oven, so be sure to watch them carefully. Once baked and golden, remove from the oven and let cool. As they are cooling, make the lemon glaze.
A glaze is usually created with icing sugar and water or butter, which we obviously don’t like to use. Instead, we make a delicately sweet mix of honey with bright lemon juice and arrowroot starch. Here you need to use arrowroot, as when tapioca is combined with the acidic lemon it tends to become watery. The arrowroot also creates a glossy shine on the glaze once set. You may of course skip the glaze, but it is a nice touch if you are serving the cookies as dessert. Simply mix soft honey, lemon juice, and arrowroot together in a small bowl and whisk with a fork until well combined and thickened. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit more lemon juice or water, one teaspoon at a time. You want to be able to have it drizzle off of a spoon as smooth icing. Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies and allow them to harden.
These cookies are best refrigerated in an airtight container and set out a few minutes before serving. They also freeze well. Enjoy!!
