Cashew butter cookies – vegan + gluten free

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cashew butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/8 t salt
• 1/3 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t ground allspice
• 1 T espresso or strong coffee

Method

• Heat oven to 160 degrees celsius.
• In a large bowl, mix cashew butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon together.
• Add the almonds and baking powder and mix until combined with the cashew butter mixture
• Add the coffee and stir in – the mixture will be firm.
• Grease a baking tray. Scoop up one tablespoon of mixture per cookie and place on the tray. If the mixture is too dry or crumbly to do this, add a little more coffee or water. Gently press each cookie down with a fork.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes then allow to cool for five minutes before transferring to a wire back rack to cool completely.

About this recipe

Struggling to come up with vegan and gluten free baking ideas? Then let cashew butter be your friend. My lovely Fix and Fogg jar of cashew butter was a gift and gosh I love it. It’s creamy and rich and quite the treat – I may not have splurged on it for myself, but once in my possession it has provided a great opportunity for some experimental baking.

Cashews are fascinating little nuts – did you know the bit we eat as the nut is not really a nut at all, but a seed that hangs off the actual fruity bit (more correctly, an ‘accessory fruit‘)? The accessory fruit in this case is the cashew apple with an attachment that houses the seed – our beloved cashew nut. And if that weren’t quite enough cleverness all on its own, cashew tree wood is useful for practical items such as shipping crates in its own right.

I hope you enjoy these cookies – the dough is quite firm that makes it easy to work with, and they have a lovely richness due to the cashew butter. The spices can be mixed up for some variation too – mixed spice and nutmeg go well too. I will keep on experimenting with this cashew butter too so keep watch, I hear it’s good in stir fries!