My baking mojo has been lacking lately. I think this is part because I have been: a)busy; b) trying not to eat as much; and c) disappointed with the results because of my crappy crappy oven.

#firstworldproblems

Anyway, yesterday I felt the urge to bake, and also wanted to use up some of the random ingredients in my cupboards. (I bought some Date Sugar from Bob’s Red Mill while we were in Portland last year, and it has sat forgotten since!)

The use of date sugar rather than the white stuff makes these things not very sweet, you even could pretend that they are healthy, with just a little touch of sweetness from the jam on top.

(They even baked up just fine, the recipe below features baking time just as it should be from the original recipe that I adapted – I have to bake these for almost twice as long, and use a baking tray shield between whatever is baking and the heating element so things don’t burn!)

Almond Thumbprint Cookies Recipe – adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Ingredients

1/3 oil – canola or some other flavourless oil is good, I used peanut – just because I had it on hand

1/2 cup packed date sugar

1/2 almond butter – I used crunchy for extra texture

1/3 cup almond milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

~1/3 cup raspberry jam

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Line a tray with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the oil, date sugar, almond butter, almond milk, and vanilla.

Add the flour, cornstarch, salt and baking powder, and mix until a stiff dough forms.

Form walnut sized balls of dough, and place on the prepared baking sheet (don’t be scared to put them close together, they don’t spread), then indent (or I prefer the term smoosh) the surface with your thumb, or the end of a wooden spoon.

Add a small blob of raspberry jam to each indent.

Bake for 18 minutes, then allow to cool and firm up for around 5 minutes before removing them from the tray.

We’re going hiking today and I think these will be ideal!

Kate and I can stuff them in our faces while chanting our mantra “Healthy and Strong!”

Happy #sundayfunday everyone!