Last weekend my friend Sarah and I planned to finally bake some cookies to get into the christmas-mood, despite Christmas being only 5 days away I still haven’t felt very festive yet. Every year I make christmas cookies as I enjoy baking and decorating them and it’s became quite a tradition.
It started 6 years ago when I was an au-pair in London and sent christmas cookies to all of my friends and family in Germany. The year after I did them same whilst i lived in Berlin. And the years after I always sent some cookies from London, so the tradition carried on.
This year I’ve went to Hamburg slightly earlier (no uni holding me back this time) and decided to continue the tradition, but making a slight change. I usually bake all the regular and common known cookies such as ‚Zimtstern‘ (for all my english readers, this is a little star shaped cookie made with loads of cinnamon) , ‚Vanillekipferl‘ (as you can guess from the name, a moon shaped cookie with vanilla flavour), ‚Engelsaugen‘ (cookies with jam in the middle) and so on. They are all super delicious but one thing they definitely all have in common is that they’re pretty unhealthy.
This year, I thought why not bake with my friend Sarah (who has a great foodblog, which I’ve mentioned before, find our yummy waffle recipe, vanilla raspberry cheesecake recipe and our chocolate blueberry cakes recipes on my blog as well. And if you haven’t checked Sarah’s blog out you should definitely do it now at oneslicemore). We’ve decided to make some ‚healthy vegan cookies‘. We’ve also invited some more friends over to Sarah’s and Nik’s place and had a little Christmas party with lot’s of mulled wine and Sarah even made a mulled wine cake!
Find all of our recipes below!
Spelt Cinnamon Stars
Ingredients
•300g spelt flour
•100g light brown sugar
•200g vegan margarine
•1 tsp vanilla extract
•2 tsp cinnamon
•150g icing sugar for decoration
Instructions
1. Mix all ingredients together (except the icing sugar). Stir well and wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 160°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
3. Roll out the dough (around 1/2 cm thickness) and cut into stars with a cookie cutter.
4. Place on the baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.
5. Let the cookies cool down and prepare the icing sugar with some water or lemon juice (just take a few tsp of water first, I tend to use too much and then adding lots more icing sugar to have the right consistency). Decorate the cookies with icing sugar and glitter or pearls.
Cherry Chia Almond Cookies
Ingredients
•1 cup almond flour/ ground almonds
•3/4 cup spelt flour
•3 tbsp almond butter
•4 tbsp almond milk (or any other plant based milk)
•⅓ cup coconut sugar
•pinch of salt
•½ tsp baking soda
•½ tsp vanilla extract
•pinch of salt
•2 tbsp chia seeds
•3 tbsp cherry jam
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
2. Mix all ingredients (except the cherry jam) together in a bowl and combine well. If the dough is to dry, add some more almond milk, if it is too wet, add some more flour.
3. Chill the dough for 5 to 10 min and then form small balls. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the balls onto it. With a teaspoon, press the middle to make a dent.
4. Stir the cherry jam until its smooth and drop a tiny amount of the jam in the dents of the cookies.
5. Bake for 10-15 min until the cookies get a golden color. Cool completely before serving.
No Bake Coconut Snowflakes with Dark Chocolate
Ingredients
•2 cups shredded coconut (unsweetened)
•3 tsp coconut oil
•3 tbsp coconut milk
•3 tbsp maple syrup
•1/2 tsp vanilla extract
•a pinch of salt
•organic dark chocolate
Instructions
1. In a food processor, blend 1.5 cups of the shredded coconut and the coconut oil and process on a high speed until it reaches a butter-like consistency.
2. Add the milk, the syrup, the vanilla and the salt and process until well combined. Add the remaining shredded coconut and just mix for a bit until it formed a batter.
3. Shape the mixture into small balls and put into the freezer while melting the chocolate in a small saucepan over medium heat. Dip the coconut balls into the chocolate, place on a plate and put into the fridge so the chocolate can harden.
4. Refrigerate for up to week and they taste the best when you bring them to room temperature before serving.
Gingerbread cookies
Ingredients
• 1½ cups almond flour
•1½ cups shredded coconut (unsweetened)
•2 tbsp coconut oil
•1 tsp cinnamon
•1 tsp ground ginger (I used one teaspoon as I like them on the mild side)
•pinch of ground cloves
•pinch of salt
•1 tsp lucuma powder (this is optional, but it adds some sweetness)
•2 tsp treacle (if you don’t have that, just add two tsp more maple syrup)
•¼ cup maple syrup
•1 tsp vanilla extract
•Icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
1. In a food blender, mix the dates, almond flour and coconut on high speed. Add all other ingredients and process until all is well incorporated and you a have a smooth dough.
2. Place the dough in between two sheets of baking paper and roll to around 1/2 cm thickness, maybe even bit thinner. Freeze the dough for 10-15 minutes.
3. Cut into shapes and bake cookies at 175°C for 10-12 minutes.
4. Let it cool down completely and dust with icing sugar.
I hope you like the cookies (I think they’re delicious!) and I am wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a great festive time with your family.
Love,
A.
P.S. Find some more making of pics below.
alicia loves london 