Although my family is not grain-free, I often make these cookies. They’re chewy and delicious, but I especially like that there’s no waiting on soaking or souring. That’s because the recipe uses blanched almond flour for the cookie base. To make this flour, almonds are first blanched so the skins pop off, then they’re dehydrated and ground into flour. The removal of the skin is all the preparation that’s needed for good digestion.
I have made my own almond flour before. I found it time consuming, to say the least. But the real kicker is that it costs more per pound for me to buy my own almonds than to buy blanched almond flour. If you’re buying a package of almond flour off the shelf of the health food store, it could be around $8 or more per pound — ouch! But, you can order it in bulk online or through your health food store for a much better deal. My 25 pound box was less than $4 per pound.
Almond flour gives these cookies a fabulously moist, chewy texture. We’ve taken them to church too many times to count, and we always get compliments on how yummy they are. If you’re willing to learn, baking with almond flour yields delicious baked goods.
Easy Almond Cookies
This recipe, which I have modified only slightly, originally comes from Cara at Health, Home and Happiness. She calls them Cowboy Cookies. 🙂
Ingredients
- 2 organic or pastured eggs
- 1/2 cup grass-fed butter softened, or unrefined coconut oil
- 1/3 cup raw honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract OR 1 teaspoon vanilla extract plus 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2-3/4 to 3 cups Blanched Almond Flour
- 1/2 cup crispy walnuts chopped
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit, chopped
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Cream together the eggs, butter or coconut oil, and honey.
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Add the vanilla, sea salt, and almond flour.
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Mix until you get a cookie-dough consistency batter.
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Mix in the chopped walnuts, coconut and raisins.
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Drop by teaspoons on parchment paper lined cookie sheet(s).
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Bake for 8 to 11 minutes, until lightly browned.
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Remove from oven and put on drying rack (or slip parchment paper right off the cookie sheet onto the counter).
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When cool, store in an air-tight container at room temperature, or freeze for later.
Recipe Notes
They stay moist and delicious for days! I usually double the recipe. 🙂
Let me know if you like them — and also please share — what else do you bake with almond flour?
Looking for more Valentine’s Day treats? Check out last year’s roundup of 17 Healthy-er Valentine’s Day Treats. Or what about our Chocolate Mousse Cake?
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I had heard somewhere else that most of the anti-nutrients are in the skin. Do you have an article that talks about this?
Where did you purchase your almond meal for so cheap? I have bought from Amazon before, but it was not that low priced.
Rebecca — That is true. The anti-nutrients are in the skin. That’s why blanched almond flour (where the skins have been removed after blanching) is pretty much good-to-go.
My grocery store ordered the almond flour for me. They got it through UNFI (United Natural Foods) and gave me a good deal for a 25 lb. box.
I use it in place of bread crumbs and for Elana’s Pantry’s chocolate chip cookies.
Kelli — Ooh, breading is a good idea!
Wardee – did you really spend $100 on almond flour? I guess if you’re using it a lot, but that still seems steep to me! Although these cookies really do look yummy. Wonder how they’d taste w/ chocolate chips instead of dried fruit…
Lisa — Yes, I did. 🙂 I bought it last summer and it is only halfway gone. Up front it was an expense, just like a 2 gallon pail of coconut oil or something else in bulk. But in the long run, the savings are worth it for me. I have often wondered about using chocolate chips, too!
Those cookies are mouthwatering! I love cookies so much that i got to make some of those. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Thank you for sharing….I was looking for something to make for my family.
Thanks for this delicious recipe! Our family of 8 (all on GAPS right now) just made these for a Valentine treat and they were a huge hit. I used the almond extract/vanilla combo, and fresh dates for the dried fruit, which added a bit of luxury to the texture. These will definitely be on my go-to list.
You can get the almond flour from nuts.com for $99.75 for 25 lbs. That’s even better than Honeyville. The shipping is higher, though, at $13ish, but they deliver in one day. But they do have a lot of other organic items to choose from.
I made these last night and they were delicious! I used walnuts, raisins, and mini chocolate chips. They are so satisfying and tasty! Yum!! Will definitely make them again! Thanks Wardee for sharing!
What are chopped “crispy” walnuts?
Judy — They are soaked and dehydrated nuts. Here’s a link with more info: https://traditionalcookingschool.com/2009/12/02/how-and-why-to-soak-and-dehydrate-nuts-and-seeds/
HI Wardee:
I made almond milk with raw almonds, skin and all, would you not recommend using the remains of the sieved milk for anything? Do you have any recipe for homemade almond milk?
Patricia
These look fabulous, we use almond flour quite a bit and love it! I will DEF be trying these – thanks Wardee!
If you have crispy almonds, can you make your own almond flour?
Azure Standard is selling it for $4 or less if you order from them. An example is $12.15 for 4 pounds — just over $3 a pound.
I don’t have almond flour, but will be blanching some today just for this. Thanks, Wardee!
I am having trouble finding affordable blanched almond flour. I am thinking of trying Azure’s blanched slivered almonds and whizzing them in the food processor. Does that sound like it would work? I don’t want to make almond butter nor have it too coarse. The next best option seems to be eBay.
I used to do this as it was much cheaper buying the sliced almonds than buying the flour. But it doesn’t make most recipes well. I can make pancakes and muffins alright with the ground almonds. But other recipes just need the flour.
Wardee, I love your blog/website! You have such a presence in your articles that makes me feel like I can do it and I want to know more! God bless you! Can’t wait to try these cookies! Oh, I wish I had been able to meet you at the WAPF conference, but maybe another time will come soon! Thanks, Evelyn
I’d just made almond milk for the first time in several years when this recipe arrived! 😎 So now I’ve dried the left over meal and will give these cookies a go. Thank you.
And they worked beautifully! 😎 After drying the meal left over from the almond milk I whizzed it in the coffee grinder to make it finer then stored in a jar in the fridge. After several batches of almond milk there was enough to make the cookies. I didn’t have any raisins so I used chopped dried apricots and they are delicious. This greatly improves the economics of making almond milk and I don’t think the chooks, (hens), will miss the almond meal!!
Sue — How wonderful! We’re drying up our cow, so I think I’ll be making almond milk for a few months…. now I know what to do with the pulp. Thanks!
Sue or Wardee, How long do you dry your pulp? I just have a regular dehydrator. I’ve been making homemade coconut milk for my son and it would be wonderful to be able to dry it and store it for later use! The chickens will be disappointed but I’m sure they’ll live!
Hi Judy. I can’t help you with the timing for a dehydrator, sorry, because I cook with a woodstove so I just spread the pulp in a roasting dish on a cake rack on the least hot part of the cooktop and leave it until it is dry, with an occasional stir along the way.
Hi! I’m. New to your website and your recipes look amazing. I made the chocolate chip cookies from Elana’s Pantry and they were wonderful, but I had bathroom issues the next morning. 🙂 it happened both time I made them using JK blanched almond flour.
Should I be soaking the flour first? If so, how should I make that conversion in almond flour recipes? I’m afraid to ruin the flour trying to soak it and then lose most of it in the liquid.
One last question. What are your thoughts on the safety of almond/nut flours in baking and consuming so may nuts at once? I found information sating that nut flours are high in Omega 6 and PUFA, especially when heated. Would you please comment on this?
I love cooking with blanched almond flour, so any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I do nor want to worry about free radicals floating around my body every time i bake with it. 😉
Thank you!
Empowered Sustenance updated her post regarding baking with almond flour (although she still isn’t a fan of it) but another real food blogger (don’t remember who) did a counter-post. You might want to check those put. After reading both, I’ll continue to use almond flour for occasional treats. I do also use coconut flour sometimes.
I wouldn’t eat a ton of nuts. Ppl don’t realize when theyre eating all these alternative flour baked goods, theyre rly eating sweetened or savoury nuts balls. The expense alone should tell u, its a once a wk treat or something. At least it does for us! I can not afford to bake with almond flour and coconut flour, etc. Not very often. We fill up on fat now…well the kids eat carbs too but starchy vegs and fruit and some dairy. Baked goods are seldom. Kudos if u can afford them more!
Thank you thank you for this awesome recipe! I just made a batch, and they came out great. The kids love them! I used Lakanto as a sweetener instead of honey, as I can’t have sugar.
I’ve made these two times using both coconut oil and butter (because I ran out.) With the coconut oil, they were wonderful!! But with the butter, they were a disaster. The butter melted and they were flat and oily tasting. The kids wouldn’t even eat them! So if you’re going to do this recipe justice, use coconut oil only!! Trust me! You’ll be glad you did!
I couldn’t get the softened butter to cream with the eggs and honey. They remained two separate entities- eggs and honey liquid with butter floating in it- til I just went ahead and added the almond flour and then it came together.
Then when the cookies were done, there was melted butter all over my pan and the cookies just tasted like ground almonds. What in the world did I do wrong?!
Years ago when I first heard about cooking with almond flour I bought the blanched flour recommended by the lady who wrote my Almond Cookbook. While I enjoyed the recipes, I’m of the mind that the “entire” nut has nutritional value and didn’t want to waste any of it. Plus I wanted my nuts to be organic and sprouted.
Tossing all the rules, I found a family farm in California and purchased 25# of freshly harvested organic “Carmel Variety Almonds.” I vacuum pack about 2/3 of my order.
The rest I sprout for about 36 hours, rinse and dry, and place on stainless racks and dehydrate for about 20-22 hours. I can fit about 1 pound per rack.
Using my Vitamix, I grind several pounds using the dry container, skin and all, and freeze the meal for when I want to use it. The remaining dehydrated unground nuts I vacuum pack, label, and freeze until I need more. Of course I could grind them all but I’m usually tired by this point and I think the nutrients are best preserved in the unground nut!
I have successfully baked many things with my home ground almond meal – crackers, cookies, loafs, brownies, and even shortbread. And I feel it’s more wholesome!