cookies Archives - dani california cooks

Apple Pie Oatmeal Cookies (vegan, gluten free)

November 19, 2015 by Dani 24 Comments

These slightly sweet oatmeal cookies have apples, raisins, walnuts, and plenty of cinnamon. Let’s just say the celebrate the best apple pie, sans the wheat or butter!

I had my new book club come over to my place for our first session the other week, and while it was sunny (yay, California!) it still was a tad blistery. Seems like no better time to indulge all of my fall fantasies! So before everyone arrived, I started out strong by making a fire, wearing slippers, making some hot apple cider, baking some cookies…and then I totally unraveled and went off the deep end and made some sweet and spicy almonds, then took some photos for the blog, then vacuumed the apartment, then rearranged the furniture (why?), then made Nate some breakfast sandwiches, then packed for my upcoming trip, and goodbye to all of my snuggly fall fantasies.

Let’s just say that the last 100 pages of the book that I had planned to read went completely unread as I whirled myself around the house like a crazy person doing all of these unnecessary things.

It’s really tough when you travel every week for work to find downtime on the weekends. And I take relaxing super seriously! I sleep 9 hours a night (that’s not a joke). I nap every weekend. I can (and have) binge watched TV shows like it’s my job. But I find it really hard when I’ve been traveling M-Th and go into the office on Friday, to use my weekends to relax and just hang around. I start buzzing around prepping for the week ahead, and especially pushing all of my blogging photography into just a few days.

These cookies were the fruit of all of the labor on Sunday, and I have to say - they were worth it. I think I ate four of them, and they were a hit with the book wormies. And now I’m glad I took the time to make them and share with you! They are gluten free, vegan, and just celebrate the best flavors of apple pie in a healthier cookie.

Speaking of relaxing and downtime - this Friday, at 5pm, MARK MY WORDS, I am shutting down my work computer and turning off my work e-mail notifications and taking my FULL vacation through next Sunday. Lucky for me, I have an awesome team that I’ve prepped for my absence. I didn’t think how excited I would be to take all of this time off, but I can’t WAIT! First stop is DC, to catch up with some girlfriends. Then Nate and I are headed to his family’s farm for several days. Then we’re going to Raleigh for Thanksgiving with his extended family. I packed my Lactaid pills and it’s going to be a dairy bonanza. Hallelujah.

Looking forward to updating you all from the farm!

Apple Pie Oatmeal Cookies (vegan, gluten free)

These slightly sweet oatmeal cookies have apples, raisins, walnuts, and plenty of cinnamon. They are apple pie, sans the wheat or butter!

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 14 cookies

Ingredients

1½ cup rolled oats
¾ cup gluten free flour blend
2 tsp cinnamon
¾ cup chopped dried apples
½ cup raisins
⅓ cup chopped walnuts
¼ cup maple syrup
⅓ cup coconut oil, softened
3 heaping tablespoons of applesauce
½ tsp baking soda

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Mix oats, flour, cinnamon, maple syrup, coconut oil, baking soda, and applesauce
Fold in raisins, apples, and walnuts
Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough and quickly form into balls using your hands
Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and slightly press down
Bake for 15 minutes
Remove from oven, but allow to cool on the baking sheet
Store in a tupperware!

If you like this, you’ll love: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Muffins

Vegan Gingersnap Cookies (gluten free)

September 3, 2015 by Dani 28 Comments

This super easy vegan take on the gingersnap cookie is spicy, sweet, crispy and chewy. They only require a food processor and a baking sheet! Chocolate drizzle not required, but encouraged :).

Apologies for being kind of MIA in the blogosphere this week! I was wrapped up in a big client presentation culminating mid-week. Everyone is going back to school, and I feel like I just finished finals period! Woohoo!

Since I graduated college a little over three years ago, the whole concept of “back to school” is just not on my radar anymore! September would have breezed by me if many of my fellow bloggers hadn’t been posting awesome recipes to pack for kid lunches or easy schoolnight meal ideas. But while we’ve had the most gloriously summer weather in SF recently, I’m kind of looking forward to what the end of summer brings. Fall means that everyone is in town - no more vacation plans! I hope Nate is ready for the onslaught of dinner parties I’m about to organize!

While I may not be going back to school, I am certainly all for buying new outfits for myself. And enjoying fall flavors too! I whipped up these vegan gingersnap cookies, and they are just filled with the flavors and ingredients that certainly epitomize the season. Cinnamon, pumpkin seeds (pepitas) and spicy candied ginger. The whole house started to smell kind of like, well, fall!

I baked this recipe, and thought to myself, “Oh, I’ll post this in September” thinking that September was still far off, and not, in fact, YESTERDAY. My how this summer has flown by! Maybe because it was my first summer in SF, or because we had so many fun weekend plans, or maybe it was because the travel for work really breaks up the week, but it really doesn’t seem like that long ago that we were hiking in Big Sur or vacationing in NYC or just moving in..

I’m happy to say that Nate snagged a couple of these cookies as they were cooling off on the counter before I could even photograph them. Just to provide some credibility on how good they smell and look.

We’re headed to LA for Labor Day this weekend to visit my parents and see my mom in her opening weekend of the play she’s in. My dad says he’s been getting some good surf sessions in, so I’m looking forward to some beach days, bike rides, SUSHI, and quality time with the family, and sun! And then while I won’t be headed back to school come Tuesday, I will be back on the road for work. Looking forward to spending next week in Seattle!

5.0 from 3 reviews

Vegan Gingersnap Cookies

This super easy vegan take on the gingersnap cookie is spicy, sweet, crispy and chewy. They only require a food processor and a baking sheet!

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 8 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup candied ginger pieces
¼ cup coconut oil, warmed
¼ cup rolled oats
½ cup pepitas
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
Dash of salt
½ cup non-dairy chocolate chips
¼ cup coconut milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
In the food processor, place the ginger and cover in the warmed coconut oil. This will help for the pieces to soften a bit and allow for easier processing
A couple of minutes later, place the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well-combined. There should still be someone whole pieces of oats and pepitas
Place a piece of parchment paper onto a baking sheet
Taking the cookie mixture, roll into 1½ inch balls and press into a cookie shape onto the baking sheet
Bake for 15 minutes until the cookies are golden
Let cool until room temperature
Using a double boiler, melt the chocolate with the coconut milk until "drippy"
Using a spoon, "splatter" the chocolate over the cookies. This may be a little messy
Allow cookies to set in the freezer or fridge
Store in the fridge

If you like this, you’ll love: Extra Fudgy Paleo Zucchini Brownies

Raw Apricot Crumble Cookies (gluten free)

August 23, 2015 by Dani 40 Comments

This four-ingredient recipe reincarnates an apricot crumble into a healthy, no-bake cookie! They are chewy, sweet, and require zero use of the oven.

I certainly don’t do this enough, but every once and a while I take a step back and think about where I was a year ago today. Given that you change so much in your teens and twenties, it shouldn’t be any surprise to me that I feel so different and my life situation is so different year after year! Today, for example. A year ago today I was living on friends’ couches in DC, as I transitioned from the DC office to the SF office for work. My lease was up, and I had already taken a bunch of my stuff home to California, but I was kind of in a waiting zone. I had just gotten back from visiting Nate in Turkey, and he was in Israel by this time. I don’t think we had determined when we were going to see each other next (last June Nate embarked on an 8-month global adventure) and I wasn’t sure if my transfer to SF was going to be approved and I was certainly all over the place emotionally and physically with no home! Well a year later…

A year later we just hosted our housewarming party in our new apartment in San Francisco, and it was amazing to see that in the short time we’ve been here, how many friends we can round up. A year later, Nate isn’t traveling anymore, and is enjoying his snazzy new start up job. A year later, I am loving the SF office that I transferred to and adore my project team. A year later, I have my own home again - no friends couches or living with my parents! (Although both were awesome). I wish I had been able to tell myself a year ago that everything would kind of settle out. And probably even if it didn’t work out as well as it did, there would still be a great change from where I was before, and probably for the better! I don’t consider myself a person that gets stressed out easily, but I definitely look back on last August as a time that I did not recognize that I was actually really stressed out. It took a toll on my eating habits too - when I didn’t have control over my house/transfer/relationship - I became very controlled with my food.

Anyways, the only reason why I started down this path this morning is because there are a few things that remind me of my first visit to Nate, a year ago, during the beginning of his travels. One of the biggest memory triggers is dried fruit. We SUBSISTED off dried fruit in Turkey. Or at least I did. Dried figs and dates and apricots galore! Turkish food is pretty incredible, and they are great at drying just about anything and they take great pride in the fact that they can “stuff” just about anything too - eggplants and grapeleaves, to name a few. I truly have to limit my dried fruit or else I would happily eat it all the time. Something about the texture reminds me of gummy candy! My dad and I used to polish off a bag of twizzlers like it was our jobs growing up. It’s still a father/daughter indulgence to this day.

I know I haven’t talked much about these cookies, but their easy ingredient breakdown and flavors make these a win/win in my book. I love that they hold up really well so you can saran wrap one and bring to work as a snack. They also freeze wonderfully, so just take them out and let thaw a bit before digging in. We had a couple of recipe fails the day I put these together so I was so happy when this turned out well - but it is a foolproof recipe. Hey just thought about this - a year ago, I didn’t have this food blog in this amazing community of food bloggers!

Apologies if you weren’t expecting this ramble today - sometimes I’m inspired by the food I’m writing about and sometimes I go down a completely different path! I write it to you, slightly hungover from our housewarming party, with Nate snoozing away next to me looking like a princess with a sleeping mask on and ear plugs in. I think it’s time to wake him up. If you had told me a year ago that we’d be happily hosting parties in our new apartment in San Francisco, I’m not sure I would have believed you. But I’m so grateful and thankful and at peace now, it seems worth the wait.

5.0 from 2 reviews

Raw Apricot Crumble Cookies

This four-ingredient recipe reincarnates an apricot crumble into a healthy, no-bake cookie! They are chewy, sweet, and require zero turning on of the oven.

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 6 large cookies, 12 small cookies

Ingredients

1 cup dried apricots
½ cup raw almonds
¼ cup oats
2 tbsp softened coconut oil
3 tbsp raw honey
3 tbsp cinnamon
Optional: shredded coconut for dusting

Instructions

Place all ingredients into the food processor
Pulse until combined
Mold into a large ball and cover in saran wrap; place in freezer for 10 minutes
Remove and for 1½ inch balls and press into a "cookie" shape
At this point, you can sprinkle a little coconut flakes on top of each
Store in the fridge!

Notes

You can store these in the freezer for several months, just remove before eating and let "thaw" at room temperature.

Note: these are not vegan due to the honey used. I have not tried these using maple syrup instead of honey, but I believe they still would hold up together well.

If you like these, you’ll love: No-Bake Vegan Brownies

Flourless Triple Chocolate Nutella Cookie Sandwiches

March 4, 2015 by Dani 2 Comments

These grain-free chocolate cookies are pretty awesome on their own…but taking them over the top by forming sandwiches with a little Nutella? Ohhh boy.

FYI, I’m about to get a liiiiiittle inappropriate. This post as an R rating. Have you ever played the game “kill, screw, or marry”? Like, “Oh, I’d kill Channing Tatum, screw Leonardo DiCaprio, and marry Ben Brad Pitt” (in case you were wondering). I have to say…these didn’t start out as Nutella-stuffed delights. No, they started out as dainty little paleo cookies that just happened to have double the rich chocolate. They would be cookies I’d marry for sure. Buuuuut I didn’t stop there. It was a sunny Friday afternoon, and I was feeling creative. So I eyed the jar of organic chocolate hazelnut spread in my fridge, leftover from the Valentine’s Day poptarts, and had an “ah-HA moment. TRIPLE the chocolate? YES YES YES. And these sandwich cookies were born. These are cookies you’d do dirty things for, although you may not be able to handle them more than once. Screw-worthy cookies, but maybe not marriage material. Too over-the-top.

Alright, I’ll get my head out of the (food) gutter and make this more of a respectable reading situation. On a completely different note, sometimes I enjoy paleo or raw treats over the “real” thing. Not even because I know it’s better for me, but I love the nuttiness that almond meal brings to paleo baked goods, and I go crazy for the use of dates in raw treats. On their own, these cookies are sweetened with only maple syrup and chocolate chips, and they really are delightful. Adding the Nutella and sandwiching two together? Well, they are no longer paleo (or particularly waist-friendly) but they certainly become one special treat. And they look so RICH and IMPRESSIVE. That’s my favorite kind of recipe - one that is easy to make, healthified (to the lamenting sighs of my boyfriend, the taste tester), and something that is really crowd-pleasing. And one that you can make dirty jokes to in your blog about. Anyone remember my “balls for all” reference? #newlow

But seriously, if you can spread jam on toast, you can make these cookies. Which I know is all of you. I even thought about turning these into mini ice cream sandwiches instead of the Nutella, which would be awesome for eating but much more difficult when photographing in the morning. Sigh, the woes of a food blogger. Anyways, I hope this recipe kicks off your weekend right with a little sweetness, and little chocolate, and definitely something kind of naughty ;).

Flourless Triple Chocolate Nutella Cookie Sandwiches

These grain-free cookies are sweetened with maple syrup and are taken over the top when sandwiched with a little Nutella.

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 9 sandwiches

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour
1 egg
2 tbsp maple syrup
¼ cup coconut oil, softened
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Nutella or another chocolate hazelnut spread

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients but the mini chocolate chips together
Slowly fold in the mini chocolate chips
On a greased baking sheet, form one-inch sized balls of the dough and press into a cookie shape. Aim for same-sized cookies
Bake for 10-12 minutes
Let cool completely
Using a knife, spread Nutella on the flat side of one cookie, and then press another cookie to form a sandwich
Repeat until you have 9 cookie sandwiches
Enjoy!

Paleo Almond Joy Thumbprint Cookies

December 16, 2014 by Dani 2 Comments

These Almond Joy inspired grain-free treats are almost too cute to eat, but you can’t say no to chocolate and coconut!

So I wrote a whole post and then it deleted itself…so I snacked on a couple of these instead and started over. I think most of the writing was just me rambling on about how much I love chocolate and coconut. Blah blah chocolate on its own, coconut on its own, chocolate and coconut together - probably for the best that it’s lost in cyberspace. We had a bunch of Almond Joys around after Halloween, and after scarfing most of them I realized that I could probably create my own treat with similar flavors, just no processed sugars. Also, do you know how hard it is to type thumbprint?! I must have used three variations of that word throughout this post. Thumpbrint sounds like the next big dance move. Anyways, I feel like my eating has been quite decadent recently with lots of holiday parties and birthday soirees so I needed to make something to satisfy a sweet tooth and bring me back on track.

The basic paleo cookie dough batter is really simple, and I think that’s why I often gravitate towards paleo baking when I want to whip up something sweet and healthy. I like that I usually have the ingredients that I need on-hand already, and then I can step up the recipe with any other items that I may have in my pantry at that moment. Like for example, my Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies with Dried Cherries. I think (I know) the dried cherries were an afterthought. But back to the dough - all it is is almond flour, eggs, baking powder, coconut oil and maple syrup. I usually add some cinnamon for warmth, and this time, I added a ton of shredded coconut.

I think these look particularly festive, and you can even change up what you place in the thumbprint spot to have a variety of cookies. Any types of jam would work great here, or if you wanted to melt different kinds of chocolate and filling these up before letting them set. I even thought about sprinkling additional coconut on top of the dark chocolate, for a “snow effect”. Unfortunately, my dark chocolate didn’t melt well. I used Lily’s brand of dark chocolate, which are sweetened with Stevia. Either I messed up the double boiling process (definitely possible) or this chocolate doesn’t melt well. Didn’t matter, because these still tasted delicious.

You can let these beauties set in the fridge, but since the chocolate melted so funky I just let them stay on the counter and they hardened up very fast. We enjoyed these on my birthday, the day after Osteria Mozza’s decadent meal for a lighter dessert option. Although it’s hard to have just one!

Paleo Almond Joy Thumbprint Cookies

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

35 mins

Enjoy this paleo cookie twist on your favorite Almond Joy classic.

Author: Dani California Cooks

Serves: 14 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour
¼ cup coconut oil
1 egg
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
½ tsp baking soda
¼ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 bag of chocolate chips (use Enjoy Life or similar brand if strict paleo)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Mix all your ingredients but the chocolate in a large mixing bowl
Form dough into little balls on a cookie baking sheet
Press your thumbs down into each ball to form thumbprints
Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your cookie. They should look golden brown in the oven!
Double boil your chocolate
When the cookies have cooled, fill each thumbprint with chocolate
Let set and enjoy!