Today was a big day –I taught the first in a series of cooking classes that I will be offering quarterly.
The theme of this class was Valentine’s Day –we made the Cranberry Apricot Truffles that I have previously posted on this site, a new experimental flavor of truffles (to be revealed someday soon) and the black and white cookie recipe below, of course using heart cookie cutters, given our theme.
The class was held in the spiffy little commercial kitchen at my children’s school in Boulder. It seemed as though fun and learning were had by all, as well as too much taste testing. We had to sample everything many times to try out all of the different versions and all were stuffed by the end. Alas, my poor taste testers.
Black and White Cookies
Ingredients
- 2½ cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ cup agave nectar or honey
- ½ cup grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine almond flour and salt
- In a small bowl, combine grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla
- Stir wet ingredients into dry
- Chill dough in freezer for 30 minutes
- Between 2 pieces of parchment paper, roll out dough ¼ to ⅛ inch thick
- Using a 2 inch cookie cutter or the top of a 2 inch wide jelly jar, cut out cookies
- Bake at 350°F on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 5-7 minutes until brown around the edges
- Cool for ½ hour
- In a small saucepan, melt chocolate over very low heat, stirring continuously
- Remove saucepan from heat and one by one, dip cookies into chocolate
- Set cookies to cool on a parchment lined baking sheet --refrigerate if necessary to harden chocolate
- Serve
These vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free cookies are simple to make and super fun for children to roll out and cut into different shapes. The chocolate dipping part of the recipe is also a captivating activity for the little ones.
elana says
Pauline,
Glad you found us. I’m thinking about the holidays too and lots of fun fall/winter baking projects.
Thanks for stopping by!
Elana
Pauline says
I love your website! I have not baked with almond flour yet, but am excited to try out your recipe for black and white cookies. I’ve been searching for great gf cookie recipes for my annual holiday cookie exchange -yep, I’m already thinking about the holidays.
elana says
Suzanne — I use almond flour and coconut flour for my recipes as they are highly nutritious and also easy to work with.
For more information please see my FAQ’s.
Bernadette Rosa says
Hi,
How is the coconut/almond flour blend? How does the texture come out? I usually use a different flour blend and I am just curious if this comes out crummy or smooth. Rice flour can be so crummy and hard to work with if there is no flour blend. I will be making cookies soon, and would like an improvement.
Thanks!
Suzanne says
Elana,
Just found your website, and recipes look great. I too have lots of foods allergies (gluten, soy, tomatoes, carrots, preservatives, etc.) and have to make everything from scratch.
I noticed that you use a lot of almond flour in your baked goods. As almond flour is very expensive, can you experiment/recommend substitutions (or combinations of almond with other gluten-free flours) that are more cost-effective?
Thank you.
Michelle says
My son has been Dx with Rosacea. I am attempting to find foods for him. Any thing you can help me with will be great. I live in Arvada and would love to come to a cooking class. I work as a nurse so my schedule is weeks in advance. Please let me know when the next class is so I and my son can attend. Thanks Michelle Ellis 303-437-5629
amanda says
these look so adorable! i’ve never baked with any of those ingredients but when I get my next paycheck, I’m heading out to the whole foods and buying them so I can try these babies out
Cedar Barstow says
Hi Elana, I love the cookies and crackers we made. I’ve ordered almond flour. I made the cookies and crackers again, but neither recipe has baking soda listed and my body remembers putting baking soda in the cookies, or at least one of the recipes. When I made them, they didn’t seem to be like we made them quite. Baking soda? How much? In the crackers too?
Cedar
Elana says
Hi Cedar,
I double checked and there is no baking soda in either of these recipes. Maybe it’s the oven temp –I would buy an oven thermometer at Peppercorn or McGuckins, they aren’t that expensive and are worth the investment. Glad to hear that you are baking these days!
Elana
Elana says
Anina-
I’m so glad that you were at the class! It was great to finally get to meet you in person after all of our correspondence.
Thanks for all of your great ideas! I made the heart cookies with rasberry jam last night and they were delicious.
Elana
Anina says
Elana, thank you for a wonderful cooking class today. My husband said that the truffles we made in class are the best he ever had !