Spelt Cranberry Almond Cookies

Spelt Cranberry Almond Cookies

Alison Murray Recipes 6 Comments

Sometimes you just really crave biting into a cookie. Other times you discover you have 3 opened bags of cranberries in your pantry and need to make something with them before you forget and buy even more! Then other times you buy a book called  The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur. So many cookies!!!

A beautiful book, it’s hard to know where to jump into cookie-making. Brownies and blondies and choc chip, oh my! Not a fan of the refined sugar, refined wheat flour and margarine used in most of the recipes, I do find myself substituting a lot even if I stick to the general vein of the cookie. Here I replaced 1/2 cup white sugar + 1/4 light brown sugar with just 1/3 cup agave, 2 1/4 cup white flour with 2 cups spelt flour + 1/2 cup rolled oats for extra fibre and a chewy texture. Canola oil was also swapped out for grapeseed and soy milk with almond milk. Perfection!

Spelt Cranberry Almond Cookies

Generally not a fan of anything almond flavoured, Kam called these cookies ‘amazing’ and even ‘scrumptious’, going back to the cookie jar the moment he had finished chewing the last mouthful.  Studded with sweet cranberries and the tender chewiness of oats these were just what my sweet tooth was calling out for, lucky it makes a large batch!

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Spelt Cranberry Almond Cookies
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
(dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, wheat-free, vegan)
Author:
Serves: 20
Ingredients
  • ½ cup coconut oil
  • ⅓ cup maple syrup (or agave syrup)
  • ⅓ cup almond milk (or other non-dairy) plus 2 tsp chia seeds - mixed together and left to stand for 5 minutes
  • ¼ tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp almond extract
  • 2 cups whole spelt flour
  • ½ cup rolled oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ⅔ cup slivered almonds
  • ½ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Stir together oil, agave and milk/chia combo and extracts in large bowl.
  2. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt, almonds, cranberries in another bowl. Gradually add dry ingredients into wet until well incorporated. Add more milk if mixture it too dry. Knead in cranberries and almonds if necessary.
  3. Roll tablespoon amounts of dough into balls, flatten on lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, let cool on tray for minute then transfer to wire rack to cook completely.
Notes
Gluten-free : Substitute wheat flour with gluten-free plain flour, gluten-free pastry flour or white rice flour. Substitute rolled oats with rolled rice or quinoa flakes.

Comments 6

    1. Post
      Author
  1. These were soooo good! I made them yesterday with some minor substitutions (coconut oil, maple syrup and almond milk) and wished I had made a bigger batch. They were gobbled up at the event I brought them to. Curious about the chia seeds, though. I have never used them and didn’t know if they were crucial to the recipe, but thought I would chance it and just leave them out (I don’t even know where to get chia seeds :)). The cookies came out fine. Thanks so much for sharing. I will definitely be sharing this recipe around.

    1. Post
      Author

      I’m so glad you liked them, and I agree I wish I had made a bigger batch last time I made some too. Sometimes I have some cookies left I need to throw out, but not these babies, always a favourite! Coconut oil and maple syrup as alternative ingredients sounds divine 😀
      The chia was replacing linseed meal from the original recipe I adapted from, I just didn’t have any on hand – I believe they used it the same way I do chia, as a binder for dry ingredients. I don’t think it was crucial anyway, especially with the wet ingredients you used. Thankyou so much for your gorgeous comment!

  2. Spelt, may be a healthier wheat BUT is NOT gluten free… Can you please change that in your description for the new GF bakers? Your recipe could easily be made GF w coconut flour… Yum

    1. Post
      Author

      Thanks for the comment Kelly, you’re right about spelt flour not being gluten free. This recipe is not actually listed as being gluten free though as it contains both spelt flour and oats- I’ve only correctly described it as being wheat-free.
      There is also already a note at the bottom of the recipe for converting the cookies to be gluten free. Further, using coconut flour would require some tweaking, you can’t simply swap the two that easily unfortunately.

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