Almond meal – something that we weren’t familiar with at all this time last year, but is now a huge part of our lives.
When we make our nobó ‘ice-cream’ we are left with almond meal pulp and we’ve started to have some fun with this nutritious leftover. I hate waste and it’s taken some amount of restraint not to throw a tablespoon into everything just to use it up. Only recently have we begun to realise that there are endless uses for this interesting “waste” product. We reckon that an entire blog could be dedicated to the many uses of almond meal alone!
I momentarily cringe to think how, during the first few batches of ‘ice-cream’ that we made, we threw away the meal. Not immediately, but each time we would put it in a tuber-ware container in the fridge with the intention of using it, but days turned into weeks and it eventually had to be thrown out. Now we’ve discovered that you can just freeze it! Ideally though if you have time, I would recommend laying it on a baking tray and popping into the oven on a low temperature to dry it out. This transforms the moist meal into a fine flour. It’s important to stir it occasionally to help break it down and allow it to dry out evenly. If you feel that it’s still too lumpy, just pass the dried meal flour through a sieve.
This recipe is inspired by ‘Elana’s Chocolate Chip Cookies’ recipe. Her blog is a great resource for anyone looking for gluten free recipes. I decided to split the base mix and used half to make chocolate chip and the other half for apricot, walnut and coconut cookies – both were delicious.
almond meal cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 F and line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper.
- Mix almond meal with ground almonds, salt and baking soda in one bowl, and mix grapeseed oil, agave, and vanilla extract in another. Combine the two until fully integrated. Then throw in your favorite additions; chopped nuts, apricots, chocolate chunks, whatever you like and as much or little as you like.
- Fold in your additions and stick it in the fridge for 20 mins covered with cling film.
- Spoon cookie size amounts of the mixture on to the paper and flatten slightly.
- Bake for around 8-10 mins until they are getting nice and golden.
Those who know me, know all too well of my love for wrapping. Nothing brings me as much joy as a room full of unwrapped presents, lots of lovely tissue paper, sheets of wrapping paper and of course RIBBON! What’s not to love. So eager was I to wrap things when i was younger that I voluntarily took it upon myself to wrap all the families Christmas presents some years. I’ve since discovered that I’m not the only one with an unnatural love of all things wrapping related (you know who you are!).
So it will come as no surprise that I’ve moved on to wrapping food. A little parcel of home baked cookies makes a lovely gift when going to a friends house. I wrapped these in some parchment/grease proof paper and tied it up with bakers twine like a cookie cracker of sorts. The variations and possibilities are endless. Try different ribbons or cellophane instead and slip on a homemade card label if you’re feeling crafty!
