Ginger Almond Flax Cookies

Gluten-free, dairy-free, flourless, eggless, vegetarian

makes 12 cookies

This is one of the most unique cookie recipes you’ll ever come across. It consists just of 3 main ingredients – almonds, flax and honey 🍯. This cookie doesn’t need an egg to hold the ingredients together, honey does double-duty as egg-replacement and sweetener.

First, the back story of this cookie –

Many years ago, A1 Nutrition in Toronto sold a very  popular almond flax cookie made by Olivia’s Kitchen, but as almond prices kept increasing, it became economically unviable to continue making these cookies commercially. Sadly Olivia’s Kitchen went out of business, but before it did I managed sneak an approximate recipe from one of the employees. With many experimental batches, I’ve come up with this final version with ginger….. may I say it’s even more better than the original! 

Ingredients:

• 160 grams of whole almonds (1 heaping cup, but it’s more accurate to weigh it)
• 1/3 cup ground flax seeds
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup crystallized ginger (more or less depending on your tastes for ginger)

Instructions:

1. Put the almonds in a food processor, pulse in small, short bursts. The result should be a fine meal that looks and feels like coarse sand. Refrain from running the food processor continuously, as over-processing almonds results in almond butter! 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine almond meal, ground flaxseeds, baking soda, ground ginger and honey. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly with a spatula. The mixture will be crumbly and sticky. I find it easier to take a piece of Saran Wrap and wrap the dough, then knead it with my hands. The Glad wrap prevents the dough from sticking to your hands.
3. Roll the dough out between two Glad wraps (to prevent sticking on the rolling pin) to 1/4 inch thick. A silicon non-stick, non-slip will help the dough not stick to the bottom. 
4. Use a 2-inch circle cookie cutter and cut out round shapes, gather the extras dough, roll it again and cut more round shapes. You’ll make approximately 12-13 rounds 
5. Place all the round cut outs on a parchment lined baking sheet.
6. Cut the crystallized ginger into small pieces and arrange on top of each cookie. 
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the bottom and edges are golden brown.
8. Carefully transfer each cookie to a cooling rack.The cookies will be soft right out of the oven, but they will harden to a nice crunch once they cool.