Monday, January 29, 2007

Easy Almond-Cashew Cookies

Gluten-Free Girl is the goddess of gluten-free writing on-line, which is why I'm sticking mostly to recipes on this blog. Well, two reasons for the focus on recipes, really: 1) I bow to Gluten-Free Girl's supremacy and 2) I have a baby who is keeping me preoccupied.

Recently, I experimented with the almond cookies she shared a recipe for, and I made a few variations that suited our household's tastes very well. All the ingredients I used were organic or fair trade. Just Us in Nova Scotia distributes fabulous fair trade coffee, sugar, and chocolate products that are easier and easier to get in stores in Atlantic Canada now. FYI -- Their chocolate has a "may contain wheat" allergy alert.

1 cup smooth organic almond-cashew butter
1 cup raw fair trade sugar (or regular granulated sugar)
1 large egg
2 tsp GF baking powder
1 100g bar fair trade organic dark chocolate, broken into 24 pieces

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Combine almond-cashew butter, sugar, egg, and baking powder, stirring well until combined.

Divide dough into 24 small balls (about 1 tbsp of dough per cookie). Place balls 2 inches apart on a parchment paper-lined pan and press lightly with the back of fork to make cross-hatched lines and to flatten the cookies slightly.

Cook for 9 minutes. Remove from oven. Drop one small square of chocolate on each cookie. Return to oven for one minute or 90 seconds, just long enough to melt the chocolate. With an oiled or greased knife, spread the melted chocolate over the top of the cookie. Allow cookies to cool on the pan until they are solid enough to be moved to a rack to cool.

Makes 24 cookies.