Jam Thumbprint Cookies

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I’m still eating vegan and still going strong! It’s been nice to get so much support from friends & family, but it’s also been (truly) not that big of a deal. Which is awesome! It’s a good feeling.

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I’ve also really enjoyed making vegan versions of things, including those yummy peanut butter balls. Funnily enough, Angela of Oh She Glows made her own recipe for those that looks a whole lot healthier than mine but seems just as tasty! I wish she’d posted it just a week earlier…oh well, at the rate they’re disappearing in my house, I’ll probably have to make another batch soon enough, and maybe I’ll give her recipe a try.

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In the meantime, I tried my hand at another old classic, the jam thumbprint cookie. I found the recipe on Keepin’ It Kind, a vegan website that actually hosts a virtual Christmas cookie swap every year! How cool is that? These are raspberry almond thumbprint cookies by Ketty of Luminous Vegans.

These cookies taste different than the non-vegan version, but since I haven’t had a regular jam thumbprint in a very long time, I can’t tell you exactly how they differ (helpfulness is my specialty, obviously). These are chewier, and taste deliciously of almonds, that much I know.

Ingredients

Makes 24 cookies

  • 4 tbsp of solid coconut oil (don’t melt it!)
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup packed ground almonds (the original recipe doesn’t state if the ground almonds should be packed into the measuring cup, but I did and they turned out great. I ground my almonds whole and raw in the food processor.)
  • 2-3 tbsp almond milk (I found I needed a bit more almond milk than the recipe called for to hold the dough together)
  • ~2 tbsp jam of your choice (I used a summer fruit jam)

Set your oven to 350F. Mix together the oil, sugar and extracts until you get a consistency similar to creamed butter and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and ground almonds.

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Incorporate the dry ingredients into the sugar and oil mixture. It will probably not seem to come together very well, but after you add the almond milk it should form a dough that holds together when it’s squeezed. Knead the dough and shape it so it forms a ball.

Roll the dough into approximately 1 inch balls. Now for the fun part! Use your thumb to press indentations into the cookies. If they crack a little it’s okay, that’s part of their rustic charm don’t cha know.

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Bake for 6 minutes in the preheated oven. Then remove the cookies and use the back of a teaspoon to press the indentations in again, as they might have flattened out during baking. Then spoon about a 1/4 tsp of jam into each one. Bake for another 6-10 minutes (mine took around 10 more) until they are slightly browned around the edges. Sprinkle with powdered sugar!

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My house is slowly becoming dangerously full of delicious vegan treats. Yikes! Happily, they’re so tasty that even the non-vegans who live here are eating them too.