Maple and Almond Cookies

I have to hold my hands up on this one.  I have no true idea of the difference between a biscuit and a cookie.  The English are crazy about their biscuits, dedicating aisle upon aisle to their sugary based deity and bickering over whether a jaffa cake is actually a biscuit or indeed, as the name would imply, a cake.  I for one feel a certain amount of relief at not being able to indulge in the frenzy that is tea and biscuits; that is, of course, unless I decide to bake some of my own.  I recently had the pleasure of going to New York on holiday and it was there that I experienced the most delectable biscuit experience of my life.  I say biscuit, but actually, officially, it was a cookie.  A cookie that came from a brilliant health food store that offered counters worth of delicious raw food, juices, allergy –friendly cakes and a whole host of other goodies.  You’ve got to hand it to the Americans: they know how to offer the full service.  It was here that I came across the most incredible tasting Maple and Pecan cookie, more scrumptious than any other sweet baked good I have ever had.  I put it down to just one of those great holiday experiences until I realised that I’ve spent the last few months quietly trying to work out how they made them.

After a little bit of experimenting and tweaking, my ideas have come to fruition and I have produced these lovely Maple and Almond Cookies.  I have called them cookies both for their source of inspiration but also because they possess a delicately soft, almost chewy, centre, while being surrounded with a golden and biscuit like outer body.  This, to me, is the definition of a cookie: crisp on the outside with a buttery heart.  Here, the combination of almond butter, flax and maple syrup give them that yielding interior and offer a wonderfully mellow, caramel flavour.  Should you wish to indulge in a little bit of afternoon allergy-friendly tea and biscuits, then these beauties will do just the trick.

MAPLE AND ALMOND COOKIES

Makes 20 cookies

160g/5½ oz Doves Farm Gluten Free Flour

140g/5oz almond butter

70g/2½ oz soft light brown sugar

60g/2oz butter replacement – Pure Sunflower Butter

60g/2oz maple syrup

1 egg – made up from 2 tbsp ground flax seed plus 1/8 tsp baking powder mixed with 3 tbsp water

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 190c (170c Fan) and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.  Make up the egg replacer mixture by mixing together the ground flax, 1/8 tsp baking powder and 3 tbsp of water.  Leave the flax to absorb the water, you will see that it swells up and forms a thick paste.  Next, cream together the butter replacement, sugar, almond butter and maple syrup until smooth.  Mix in the flax egg replacer.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and then beat until the mixture clumps, then pulls together.  Take a tablespoon of the mixture and roll into a ball.  Place on a baking sheet and then using the back of a fork, flatten slightly.  Bake in the oven for 10 – 12 minutes until golden at the edges, remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack for 10 minutes before eating.