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I am SO excited to finally be back with a new recipe!
I’ve been sick in bed with the flu for two weeks since I’ve been back from my trip to Sri Lanka. Go figure, one day back in the winter weather and I end up sick.
Being sick in bed it was nearly impossible to cook anything, let alone have much appetite to eat anything. So after my two-week diet of orange juice and soup, I was needless to say pretty excited to get back in the kitchen and start creating some new recipes!
This recipe for grain-free orange cardamom cookies is the first of many to come!
Since it’s still the holiday season, I’m in the mindset of baking cookies…these aren’t your average cookies though. They’re also sweetened with maple syrup. (Though the glaze uses icing sugar, which you can just ommit if you want to keep the sugar to a minimum!)
These cookies are completely vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, and refined-sugar free. They’re a shortbread type of cookie made with an almond flour base, so they’re high in protein and healthy fats.
They also feature one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations: orange and cardamom! (A match made in heaven if you ask me.)
With the year coming to an end and January just around the corner, I have many more healthy recipes in the works for the new year.
I’m excited to be sharing some really healthy “detox” type recipes for January, (we all could use a little detox after the holidays, right?) along with some heartwarming recipes to help get you through the coldest days of winter.
The new year is a great time to jump into some new goals and resolutions, and healthy eating is always a great place to start.
I’m currently working on some of my goals for the new year (both for the blog and personal goals) which I’ll be sharing in some upcoming blog posts soon!
What are some goals you’ve set for 2018?
Grain-free orange cardamom cookies
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 12 cookies
- Category: Dessert/Snack
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Grain-free orange cardamom cookies will be your next favorite afternoon treat!
Ingredients
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 2 tbsp orange zest
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup avocado oil (melted coconut oil, melted butter, or vegetable oil work too)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
glaze (optional)
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 2 tsp almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking pan with parchment paper.
- Mix the almond flour, orange zest, lemon zest, cardamom, and baking soda together in a bowl.
- Next add the avocado oil and maple syrup and mix together until a dough forms. (you can also use a mixer for this if you prefer)
- Using your hands, form a ball with the dough.
- Wrap in some parchment paper and place in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper until it is about 1cm thick.
- Use a round cookie cutter to cut the cookies.
- Place on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
- To make the glaze, mix the icing sugar and almond milk together.
- drizzle on top of the cookies.
- Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 65
- Sugar: 6g
- Fat: 3g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 9g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 1g
Tips & suggestions:
- You can use a mixmaster to mix these cookies together in a dough
- If you don’t wall to use cookie cutters, simply roll the dough into small balls, press down and place on your baking sheet
- If you love these grain-free orange cardamom cookies you’ll also love these no-bake chocolate chip almond cookies!
Made these on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. The orange and spice combo is different from what I usually bake, but I really liked it. Nice little afternoon snack.
Can you sub tapioca flour for almond flour?
Hi Sophia, I don’t think the cookies will turn out well if you do.
Can I use wheat flour or gluten free flour ? That’s what is in my cupboard currently 🙂
Hi Roxana, I haven’t personally tested these out with wheat flour so I’m not sure if they would turn out the same. I’d imagine it could work ok!
HELP!
I couldn’t get the dough to form, it was just too too crumbly. Any idea what I might have gone wrong?
(I used melted coconut oil, which I’m not used to, so I wonder if it may have been the culprit. But regardless of how much of it, or reg oil I added, it was just all crumbs :'( Secondly, my almond flour might have been a bit old, but was kept in the fridge. ) Thanks!
Hi Capa! It’s possible it is because your almond flour may be old. Using fine ground almond flour will work best, and to get the dough to be sticky you can work it a bit with your hands. If you’re working with more crumbly almond flour you can try adding a little more maple syrup or oil to give it some more moisture to help it stick. You can also when forming the cookies just scoop them out as you would if you were making chocolate chip cookies so you don’t have to worry or fuss with rolling the cookies out. I hope this helps and I hope the recipe works for you!
Thanks! I can’t wait to give them another try, the whole thing smelled divine! 🙂
Pinned! Can’t wait to try these ASAP
I hope you like them Kristen! My whole batch was eaten within 1 day!
I saw them on your IG stories and they looked delicious! I love orange in cookies or cakes and I also love cardamom but never matched them together, I’ll try them soon (pinned it!), they seem to have turned out very nice being grain free! I don’t have avocado oil – didn’t even know it existed! – but will do with coconut oil as you suggested. Thanks! have a nice end of year Jess and take care xxx
Hi Maeva! The combination of orange and cardamom is one of my favourites! I’m sure you will love it too! Coconut oil or regular vegatable oil, sunflower oil…etc. will all work perfectly fine for the recipe. Enjoy!
These cookies look amazing! I love that they are vegan, gluten-free AND grain-free! Plus they contain cardamom, which tastes so yummy. Great recipe, Jess!! 🙂
Thanks Ela! Hit all the “health points” on these ones. And they taste great too! 🙂