Grain Free Gingerbread Cookies

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To get in the Christmas spirit this year, I made gingerbread cookies with my daughter, using  mini holiday cookie cutters. Here is a healthier and more digestible version of gingerbread cookies using homemade nut flour instead of refined wheat flour. I adapted this recipe from The Healthy Home Economist blog which was adapted from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. It is important to find truly raw Italian organic almonds because most U.S. almonds, even those labeled as raw are either steam treated or sprayed with carcinogenic propylene oxide. It is also important to make your own almond flour, as store bought almond flour has already lost most of its nutrients from being on the shelf for so long and it hasn’t been soaked or sprouted to eliminate the phytic acid, which causes digestive problems and blocks mineral absorption. I always had a hard time digesting store bought almond flour and didn’t like the taste, until I started making my own flour from soaked and dehydrated almonds. The taste of homemade almond flour doesn’t compare.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups raw organic Italian almonds

1/2 cup pastured organic butter, melted

1 cup arrowroot powder

1 pastured organic egg

1/2 cup Sucanat or Organic Whole Cane Sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground organic ginger

1 tsp ground organic cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground organic nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground organic cloves

1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt

Preparation:

Soak the almonds in a bowl of salted, filtered water for 18 hours, then spread them out on a baking tray and put them in the oven set at warm for several hours (this varies depending on the oven) until they are crispy, or dry them in a dehydrator.

Set the oven to 300F degrees. Grind prepared almonds in a food processor or blender until they are ground into almond flour.  It is not necessary for the almond flour to be extremely finely ground as a more coarse texture turns out fine when mixed with the arrowroot powder. Mix in remaining ingredients. Roll the dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper. Press the balls till they are 1/4″ thick and cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Bake at 300F for 15 minutes.