Naturally Sweet & Gluten Free is a new cookbook by my Toronto-based friend, Ricki Heller. Many of you know Ricki as the long-time blogger behind the recipe blog, Diet, Dessert, & Dogs (which is now Ricki Heller.com). Her first cookbook, Sweet Freedom, is a cherished book in my collection so I was grateful to receive a review copy of her latest work.
Naturally Sweet & Gluten Free features 100 dessert recipes all free of gluten, eggs, and dairy. Many recipes are also free of corn, soy, or nuts. Ricki transforms classic dessert favourites that we all know and love, such as cinnamon crumb cake or cheesecake. As she writes in the intro, “you won’t see any ‘out there’ recipes in this book – no seaweed cookies, miso frosting, or mushroom pudding.” Sweeteners like stevia, coconut sugar & coconut nectar, and agave nectar are used throughout this book and all of the flours she bakes with (such as millet flour, garfava bean flour, potato starch, almond flour, and more) are gluten-free.
60 lovely photographs, shot by the talented Celine Saki, are scattered throughout the book.
I’m sharing a recipe straight from the book with you today – Easiest Almond Cookies. These cookies require just one processor bowl and about 10 minutes of prep time. If you are a fan of ultra-soft, nutty cookies these are for you. I made a couple minor substitutions in the recipe so be sure to see the footnote for details! Congrats again, Ricki, on your new cookbook!
Easiest Almond Cookies by Ricki Heller
This recipe is from Naturally Sweet & Gluten Free by Ricki Heller. Recipe re-printed with permission from Sellers Publishing, 2013.
Yield: 15 cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 cups (12 oz or 340 g) natural raw skin on almonds, preferably organic
- 1/4 cup (25 g) finely ground flax seeds (from about 2 Tbsp or 30 ml whole)
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) baking soda
- 1/4 tsp (1 ml) fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) agave nectar
- 2 Tbsp (30 ml) sunflower or other light-tasting oil, preferably organic
- 1 tsp (5 ml) pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp (5 ml) pure almond extract
- 1 Tbsp (15 ml) water, if necessary
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F (180˚C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, or spray with nonstick spray.
- 2. In the bowl of a food processor, whir the almonds, flax, baking soda, and salt until you have a very fine meal (it should be the consistency of a coarse cornmeal or fine breadcrumbs, with no large pieces of almond visible). Watch that you don’t blend so long as to obtain almond butter, however!
- 3. Add the agave nectar, oil, and extracts, and process again just until the mixture holds together and leaves the sides of the bowl. It should look like a moist dough. If the mixture is too dry, add the water and pulse quickly to blend.
- 4. Using a small ice-cream scoop or tablespoon (15 ml), scoop the dough and roll into balls; place them about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Wet your palms (or use a silicone spatula) and press down to flatten each ball to about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.
- 5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating the sheets about halfway through baking, until the edges are barely golden brown and the cookies are dry in the center (the tops will still be light). Allow to cool completely before removing from the cookie sheets; the cookies firm up as they cool.
Angela’s notes: 1) I swapped agave for maple syrup, 2) I swapped sunflower oil for virgin coconut oil, and 3) I baked the cookies on 1 baking sheet for a good 10 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottoms.
On an unrelated note – Is anyone having problems with the new recipe tool that I’ve been using over the past week or so? (see the No Bake Elvis Bars post for an example, if you don’t know what I’m talking about). I heard from a reader that it’s printing out ads along with the recipe for her. This hasn’t happened on our end before, so I’m just wondering if it’s happening elsewhere too. If you have experienced this issue please let me know what web browser and operating system you are using. Hopefully we’ll have it fixed soon! Thanks for your patience as we work out the quirks. :)
Happy Friday the 13th!!
I am having the issue with ads printing out along with the recipe :(
Thanks for letting me know Ash. can you tell me what web browser and operating system you use? this will help us determine if it’s a certain type where the issue is popping up.
Oh, I also wanted to confirm that you are hitting the green print icon within the recipe?
Ok, I have an update for you! Are you by chance using Internet Explorer 8 browser (or below)? Eric found an issue with that browser – it’s fixed now. Let me know if you continue to experience problems. :)
Yum! I’m always looking for more homemade sweets recipes to A) cut out dairy more and B) cut back on my refined sugar addiction! I’m allergic to almonds, do you think cashews would work?
Ali, I think another firm nut like hazelnuts–or cashews–would work just fine! I’m guessing that, since cashews have a little less natural fat than almonds, they might be drier, so you might want to add a wee bit more oil if you use the cashew variation. Let me know how they turn out!! :)
Thank you so much, Ricki! I’ll try to get my hands on some cashews or hazelnuts this weekend and try them out!
I was going to suggest hazelnuts too – their flavour would be so nice with the almond extract I think.
Thanks for the recipe Angela. I have a question though…I am searching for a granola you posted, nut-free, with sunflower seeds and millet. I made it a few times and now I cannot find it. Do you remember what it is titled? Thanks!
These look awesome! They remind me of those Walnut Peak Frean cookies I used to love so much! Thumbs up for low sugar, gf, and vegan!! PS I like the new banner :)
And it’s gone! :S
Mmm…I was just wondering whether to make cookies or chocolate mousse cake this weekend – maybe I’ll use these as a base for my mousse… Thanks Angela and Ricki!
Love these cookies and love that they’re super easy and are naturally sweet!
Yes, Angela, I have been having difficulty printing recipes too. When I printed The Big Salad it printed ads and ended up being scattered over 3-4 pages.
Thanks for all the awesome recipes! I get excited to check your blog every day!
Hey Stacy, Thanks for letting me know! Are you by chance using Internet Explorer 8 (or below) for your web browser. Eric just detected a problem with that browser and it’s fixed now. Let me know if you continue to have any issues with printing! Thanks :)
Thanks so much for this, Angela! That’s one of my favorite recipes, too! (And I have that same plate in the top photo!!). I should just note for your readers that my blog name has changed–it’s just rickiheller.com now (much easier to remember). ;) I know that agave browns/bakes much faster than maple syrup, so that may be why your baking time was a bit longer. In any case, your cookies look beautiful! :D
Ah, yes I don’t know why I can’t remember the name change! Sorry about that. I guess I’ll always know you as DD&D. hah. Will update the post. :)
I couldn’t find it so I made the lightened up granola (one of my favorites) with sunflower seeds instead of almonds…I want to send it to my son’s school and I cannot send nuts. I will let you know how it turned out. Also, I used date sugar instead of sucanat. We will see!
Yes, these look so good! I need to make these for my GF friends stat!
Lucky for me I’ve got a ton of homemade almond flour just waiting to be used!
I LOVE almonds, especially recipes that involve almond extract. When I made your superseed protein balls, I added in some almond extract along with the vanilla and they were SO good.
Thanks for this recipe; I will try it out this weekend!
I LOVE how easy these are! I think I would use your swaps as well, like the pure maple syrup and coconut oil. Can’t wait to try!
I think those sound fabulous, too, Alexis! Sadly I no longer consume maple syrup as it’s too sweet for my metabolism. . . but I sure do love it. :)
Definitely easy and they looks delicious. They kind of remind me of a vegan version of amaretti cookies. I could justify these as a healthy snack for sure :)
I love easy cookies!
I also love that cookbook :)
I was wondering if the oil is a necessity in the recipe. I have eliminated oil from my diet. Can I substitute apple sauce here? These look yummy. Thanks!
Kathy, you could probably leave it out, but I wouldn’t expect the texture to be as nice. . . they would tend to be a bit gummy without it. What about adding almond butter? I’d use 2-3 Tbsp and see how that works.
The almond butter is a great idea! I’ll try that. Thanks.
Congrats to Ricki on her book. Such beautiful recipes and love the looks of these cookies with all that texture going on!
Thanks, Averie! :)
these look just right up my alley.
Any thoughts on using almond pulp instead of raw almonds? I’ve been making so much almond milk lately and have been freezing the pulp to make energy bars – but there’s only so many energy bars a girl can eat.
What would the substitution be? 1 cup almonds for 1 cup pulp?
Alex, I think if you used almond pulp, you’d need to adjust the other ingredients, especially the fat content (since the milk will take some of the fat out of the almonds). It’s worth a try, but not sure how they’d come out! Normally, I’d use less pulp than full almonds, maybe 2/3 cup pulp per cup of almonds (but that’s just a guess, since I’ve never done it). Worth experiementing, though! :)
I used 1 cup of almonds and the pulp from making 1 batch of almond milk. I’m not sure exactly how much pulp it was, it was1 cup of almonds before I squeezed all the water out. They worked really well! I didn’t sub in any extra oil.
I love the simplicity of this recipe! This is how cookies should be made – with real ingredients. Congrats on your new cookbook, Ricki! :)
Thanks so much, Angela! :)
Looks yummy!