Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

 It must be the healthiest recipe for chocolate cookies. It is gluten free, vegan and very delicious!

If you love chocolate desserts than those cookies are definitely for you! They are crunchy on a first day. On a second day they become beautifully chewy, but still delicious! Also it is very easy to make, one-bowl recipe.

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

For about 30 cookies :

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1 cup desiccated coconut (dried unsweetened shredded coconut)
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup tapioca powder (or cornstarch)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cup maple syrup
• vanilla (optional)
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

- Preheat oven to 350F. Lay parchment paper on a two large baking sheets.

- In a bowl, combine all ingredients except maple syrup and vanilla.

- Add maple syrup and vanilla, mix in until stiff sticky dough forms.

- Use a cookie scoop to place dough pieces on a baking sheet. Because dough is very sticky, cover cookies with plastic wrap and flatten dough to about 1/2 inch with your palm.

- Cook in a preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes. 

- Enjoy!



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I actually forgot to add vanilla and it turned out very flavorful anyway. Perhaps next time I won't add it intentionally. What the point? Let's give vanilla a break :)

Place wrap on top of dough scoops - you will have no trouble then to flatten your cookies with your  palm.

Healthy Almond Chia Cookies

This is my own recipe of the healthiest and tastiest cookies ever. Just look at ingredients! You are welcome! Enjoy!

- I like these cookies a lot as it is. They are reasonably sweet to satisfy sweetness craving. Cut sugar in half if you want them lightly sweet. Also you can omit sugar completely and drop a little of your favorite fruit preserves into indentation before baking.

- Refer to a pictures below to see what brands for ingredients I used.

- Freshly baked, these cookies crispy on edges and tenderly moist inside. If they happen to live longer than one day, they will become softer and slightly chewy, with a wonderful crunch from chia seeds still there.

Healthy Almond Chia Cookies

For about 32 cookies :

• 4 cups almond flour
• 3 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/2 cup raw cane sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• vanilla
• almond extract (optional)

- Preheat oven to 350F.

- In a small bowl mix ground flax seeds with a 1/2 cup of water. Set aside.

- In a large mixing bowl combine together almond flour, chia seeds, sugar, baking powder and salt.

- Add maple syrup, flax seeds with water, vanilla and almond extract. Mix well.

- On a baking sheet with parchment paper, scoop out cookie dough. I used 1.5 inch cookie scoop. Flatten them out a bit or make indentation and bake for about 30 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

- Remove from oven and let them cool completely before transferring from a baking sheet.

- Enjoy!



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No-Guilt Rugelach

Popular rugelach is not guilty pleasure anymore! This recipe for no-dairy, no-butter, no-oil, no-egg rugelach will make you and your loved ones happy. Did I mention it's gluten-free for those who care?

- Regular recipe for rugelach calls for butter, cream-cheese, eggs and other stuff I don't eat now. If you are vegan or whole-food plant based (as yours truly) then you will love this recipe.

- Rugelach is great as a Christmas cookie option, looks festive and usually disappears first.  

- You won't miss real butter flavor of regular butter-based cookie dough because this recipe uses mostly almond flour which gives our rugelach maybe even better flavor than that buttery one ;)

- If you want even healthier version of rugelach, replace sugar with date paste and consider nut/dates mixture for filling.

- As egg replacement I use ground flax seeds, which is a really healthy ingredient as it is the main source of Omega-3 among plants.

- If you don't have tapioca flour (it's actually readily available in a most groceries these days), you can replace it with corn of potato flour. I didn't try it yet but it should work.

Healthy Rugelach

For about 24 rugelach :

• 4 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups almond flour
• 1 + cup tapioca flour (or corn or potato flour)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• apricot and black current preserves (or other your favorite preserves for filling)

- Preheat oven to 350F.

- Make replacement for eggs by mixing ground flax seeds with water and vanilla. Set aside.

- Mix remaining dry ingredients, add flax mix and make a dough. Transfer dough onto mixing surface sprinkled generously with tapioca flour. Continue to knead dough incorporating some tapioca flour until dough is pliable and no longer sticky.

- Roll the dough in 4mm circle. Use pizza cutter to cut it into 3"x3" squares.

- Spoon a little bit preserves in a center of each square. Use thin metal spatula to transfer dough square on your palm. Fold opposite corners, lightly pressing in a center for corners to stick together. If corners are unfolding, use a drop of water to moisten them to stick together. It was not necessary for me to do this, they were staying in place just fine.

- With a spatula transfer rugelach on a baking sheet, covered with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated to 350F oven for about 15 minutes until lightly gold-beige in color. 

- Enjoy!



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Ground flax mixed with water. Here I'm adding vanilla to it. My choice of vanilla is liquid vanilla mix from Mexican grocery, it gives really great flavor, better than any other vanilla, including crazy expensive real vanilla bean.

Dry mix. This recipe takes a fare amount almond flour, which is not cheap. I buy my almond flour in a big bag in Costco.

Mix wet and dry ingredients together.

It seems too dry, just continue to mix.

It's pretty sticky dough at first impossible to roll out, so keep kneading and mixing in tapioca flour.

Now dough looks good to roll it out.

Pizza cutter is great for this type of work.

I perhaps overfilled it a bit ;)

If you don't like tapioca flour on a dough, just brush it lightly with damp brush. It's not necessary though.

I new I put a little much filling. Also some preserves tend to become too runny in an oven. Anyway, cookie looked great on a plate and disappeared before I took a picture of them on a plate ;)

Shortbread Jam Bars

Unbelievable butter flavor and wonderful chewy texture are the main two characteristics of these crowd pleasing dessert. Have no doubt, everyone will love it!

Blog's Category: Cookies, Dessert, Holidays, My Staple Food, Ukrainian

These cookie bars were very popular at the time of my childhood, back in Ukraine. Every mom knew the recipe and baked these. We called it Bulk or Grated Pie. Ingredients are very simple, homemade fruit jams were readily available in every household. Although butter was sometimes a huge deficit, so our moms often used margarine. No, no, no, it's not what we are going to do here. We will be using real stuff - beautiful natural flavorful Butter! Try this recipe, you won't regret it.

Note 

- Recipe below is for one batch (one baking sheet), but pictures underneath shows a process of me making two batches, one with black current jam and one with orange jam. 

- Surprise, surprise - recipe doesn't call for vanilla. You will be tempted to add just a bit, but please don't do this - preserve the incredible pristine aroma of natural butter!

- Don't forget to take your butter out of fridge day before making these cookies. If you forgot to do this, no worry, just pop butter in a microwave for about 20-30 seconds to soften it.

Shortbread Jam Bars

For 1 batch (about 20  3"x3" bars):

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 250g (2 and 1/3 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, preferably sifted
• 1/2 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tbsp tap cold water
• 18 oz jar of orange jam (about 500g) (or any other jam)
• zest of 2 oranges (optional), to amplify orange flavor

- With electric mixer, whip together egg yolks and sugar until sugar is almost dissolved.

- Cut up your butter, add it to egg mix. Beat with a mixer just until it incorporated into the eggs mixture.

- In a separate bowl, mix in soda and salt into your flour. Now add all flour at once to a butter/egg mixture. Beat with a mixer until you get crumbly mixture. Add 1 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp water and beat again for a few seconds just until your crumbs become more moist and come together in a bigger crumbs. At this point you should be able to squeeze crumbs in a bowl into a somewhat crumbly ball of dough. Transfer it onto lightly flour surface and mix just until it forms into a hard ball of dough.

- Divide dough into two uneven parts, one should be twice bigger than other, approximately. Wrap each piece of dough into plastic wrap and place into a freezer for two hours*.

- Turn your oven on to 375F.

- Line regular size (13"x18") baking sheet with a parchment paper. Using course side of grater, grate big piece of dough right into the baking sheet and distribute it evenly. Tap dough down using your palm and fingers, not too much though. 

- Transfer orange jam from a jar to a bowl, add orange zest and mix well. Spread jam evenly onto the layer of dough in a baking sheet.

- Grate the remaining small piece of dough on top of jam layer, make sure it distributed evenly.

- Bake in a preheated to 375F oven for about 30 minutes or until it's golden.

- Remove from an oven and let it cool down completely before cutting it into bars**.

- It will keep at room temperature, covered, for a week of two. Enjoy! 

* Dough can be made in advance and froze for up to one week. Just note that if will be in a freezer for more than a couple of hours, it will be much harder to grate it - use a heavy equipment then (my husband loves to do this job ;) )
** If you will try cut it up while it is still hot or warm, it will crumble easily.



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These pictures are showing me making two batches of these cookie bars - one will be with orange jam, fortified with a zest of two oranges for a brighter orange flavor. The other batch will be with Ukrainians favorite jam - black currant. Black currant has strong unique flavor like nothing else.

Soda and salt are mixed into a sifted flour. Sifting is optional, if you are in a hurry, it's fine to omit, I believe.

Soft butter, cut in pieces, is added to egg/sugar mix.

Don't be alarmed that your dough doesn't look like dough. Just yet.

 After adding spoon of vinegar and spoon of water, it will start to come together. Now use your hands to form a ball.

 Couple pushes back and force on lightly floured surface, and your dough is done. Don't over-mix.

 Here is my two-batch dough pieces, two large and two small. I will use two baking sheets. Large pieces will go for a bottom layer, small pieces will be for a top layer. Jam goes in between.

 After two hours in a freezer, it is easy to grate. Once I froze my dough overnight and it was really hard to grate (Thank you, hubby, for a helping hand!)

 Press down.

Jar from orange marmalade (jam). I've got this one from Aldi.

 Orange jam with orange zest is spread onto the first layer of dough. I forgot to make picture of me zesting oranges and adding it to a jam ;( But I'm sure you can figure out how to do this :) I used other, finer, side of the same grater to zest oranges. Just make sure you are taking off just upper, bright orange, layer of orange skin.

 It's almost done. The top layer of dough. No need to tap down this layer.

 Ready to go to an oven!

Black current preserve. Yumm...

 As my regular size baking sheet was already taken for orange bars, I had to use half of my huge baking sheet. Well.. it worked just fine.

 They are done. Now it is important to let them to cool down.

 Now, when cooled completely, it is easy to cut it into 3"x3" cookie bars.

Later, I cut bigger bars into smaller petite ones. Chewy, with wonderful butter aroma, melting in your mouth, these are scrumptious!