Description
An easy to make shortbread recipe with a twist—raspberry jam! The optional dried cranberries, powdered sugar and chocolate drizzle, make these gluten-free, grain-free, vegan, and allergen-friendly cookies extra special!
Ingredients
6 tablespoons vegan butter, softened*
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar
1 cup almond meal/flour**
1/2 cup Otto’s cassava flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour (or arrowroot starch)
1/8 teaspoon sea salt*
1/4 cup raspberry jam***
1-4 to 1/3 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped
Decoration (optional)
2 tablespoons organic dried cranberries, finely chopped
1/4 cup organic powdered sugar
2 tablespoons dark chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
- To a medium bowl, combine the soft butter and sugar and mix until smooth.
- Add the flours, salt and mix well. Note: It might appear crumbly at first but keep mixing and pressing down on the butter and mixture until well combined.
- Add jam and mix in. Add chopped chocolate and mix.
- Scoop out 16-18 small dough balls and gently flatten (just a little) each top with your fingers or a spoon.
- Decorate each cookie with a few pieces of chopped dried cranberries (optional).
- Bake the cookies for 17 to 20 minutes on the middle oven rack. The edges will be slightly golden.
- Remove from the oven, leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
- Once cooled, dust a thin layer of powdered sugar on each cookie with a tight mesh sifter/shaker (optional).
- Melt some dark chocolate with a little coconut oil, mix and drizzle over top of each cookie and enjoy!
Notes
1) TIP: When I bake this recipe, my cookies are usually ready in 19 minutes. 2) Kitchen Hack: I often use my tea strainer to dust a thin layer of powdered sugar on my baked goods! It works well! 3) Simpler Shortbread Cookies: You can make these cookies without the addition of jam, powdered sugar or the chocolate drizzle and the recipe will work equally well!
*If your vegan butter is salted, the 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt might not be necessary. Taste the dough, if it needs it, add a touch. I used soy-free Earth Balance. Six tablespoons of butter is a little less than half a cup if you don’t feel like measuring it out.
** Or try a 1-cup combo: pumpkin seed, tiger nut, almond meal/flour. For a nut-free version, replace the nut flour with more seed flour. You can use sunflower seed flour too with the pumpkin and tiger nut flour. TIP: To make seed flour, you will need a spice grinder or small blender. Add your raw organic seeds to the container, cover and blend until transformed into a fine flour. Don’t blend too long as it might turn into butter. Sift the flour to remove unwanted larger bits. You can also dry roast (in a cast iron skillet) the seeds beforehand to create an even more amazing flavourful flour.
*** I used a no sugar added store-bought raspberry jam. Incorporating a good quality jam will make your cookies taste amazing. If you have a homemade jam, it will be even better!