Guest Post: Thumbprint Cookies with Vanilla Cream Filling
With my new cookbook well under way and keeping me very busy, I’ve lined up some fellow bloggers to do guest posts for me every Saturday. My autoimmune condition is heavily fueled by stress, so in an effort to stay healthy, these friends will help relieve some of the stress and keep recipes still coming your way! I am excited to introduce Lauren from Empowered Sustenance to you today! Lauren is a young passionate blogger who, like me, is fighting Ulcerative Colitis with a grain-free diet. She will be a great resource for many of my nut-free readers as she frequently uses homemade sun-flour in her baking. Today she is sharing a nut/egg/dairy/grain free cookie recipe with you. Please welcome Lauren to Against All Grain!
Why am I passionate about a grain free diet?
Like Danielle, I stumbled into the world of grain free living when I discovered the Specific Carbohydrate Diet as a solution to my ulcerative colitis. At 19, I had spent five years of my short life traipsing from hospital bed to hospital bed, receiving numerous prescriptions with unbearable side effects. Nine months ago, I ditched the grains and began therapeutic doses of healing foods like fermented veggies, coconut oil and homemade bone broths. The results were instantaneous. The best part? I was eating the best foods I had ever tasted!
Grain, dairy, nut and egg free!
We all get excited about free things, but I get enthusiastic about an unconventional use of the term. Grain free, dairy free, nut free, egg free… that’s my kind of free! Creating treats on a limited diet presents challenges, but, with a little creativity, the results taste delicious.
Here, I’ve utilized my favorite technique for creating a creamy filling without dairy and eggs. I set coconut milk with gelatin, let it set, then whip it until creamy. It’s the same technique I use in my Paleo Pumpkin Mousse.
Finally, I recommend soaking and dehydrating the sunflower seeds to neutralize the anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors naturally present in all nuts and seeds.
For the cookies:
1 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, raw or soaked and dehydrated
2 Tbs. coconut flour
1/4 cup raw honey or pure maple syrup
1/4 cup soft butter or coconut oil
Heaping 1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
Pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a food processor, grind the sunflower seeds until fine, 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until combined.
Roll into 16 balls and create a thumbprint in each one. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before filling.
Once cooled, the cookies will be slightly chewy with a crunchy exterior. Store the cream filling and cookies separately, filling only the cookies that will be eaten that day. Keep the cream filling in the fridge.
For the cream filling:
1 cup coconut milk
2 tsp. gelatin, preferably grassfed gelatin
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. raw honey
In a saucepan (with the burner off), whisk together the coconut milk and gelatin. Let sit for 5 minutes. Then, heat over medium heat and whisk until the gelatin is dissolved. Chill until set.
In a food processor, blender or mixer, whip the set filling until creamy. Add the vanilla extract and honey. Taste and add more sweetener if desired.
- For the cookies:
- 1½ cup sunflower seeds, raw or soaked and dehydrated
- 2 Tbs. coconut flour
- ¼ cup raw honey or pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup soft butter or coconut oil
- Heaping ¼ tsp. ground cardamom
- Pinch of salt
For the cream filling: - 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tsp. gelatin, preferably grassfed gelatin
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 tsp. raw honey
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, grind the sunflower seeds until fine, 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until combined.
- Roll into 16 balls and create a thumbprint in each one. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before filling.
- Once cooled, the cookies will be slightly chewy with a crunchy exterior. Store the cream filling and cookies separately, filling only the cookies that will be eaten that day. Keep the cream filling in the fridge.
For the Cream Filling - In a saucepan (with the burner off), whisk together the coconut milk and gelatin. Let sit for 5 minutes. Then, heat over medium heat and whisk until the gelatin is dissolved. Chill until set.
- In a food processor, blender or mixer, whip the set filling until creamy. Add the vanilla extract and honey. Taste and add more sweetener if desired.
About Lauren
Lauren discovered the healing power of a grain free diet when the GAPS diet halted her debilitating ulcerative colitis symptoms. She is now abnormally enthusiastic about coconut flour, raw milk and fermented cod liver oil. She shares creative grain and nut free recipes at Empowered Sustenance. For more recipes, download her free Grain Free Holiday Feast E-Cookbook. Stay in touch on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Google +.
Hi Lauren,
What a beautiful recipe! And your pictures are gorgeous too! I am definitely going to try this. I’ve shared with you before that I don’t do so well with nuts/nut flour, so this is just great. I’m really loving your ingredients here.
Hugs,
–Amber
Thanks, Amber! I’ve been working on my photographs, so I’m glad to hear to like these. I’m with you–I just can’t do the nut flour right now, so I’m definitely glad to have alternatives. Hugs!!
Yummy! I love the touch of vanilla cream in the cookies!
hi!!! I love this post so I was giving it a try, and as i’m making the cream filling it turns out not white but a cream color and is not creamy is more like a sticky ball any suggestions on what I can do or maybe did wrong!?
tku!!
I love the idea that you are using Sunflower flour that you created yourself. I too have problems with nuts, seem to have some problems with coconut. So, I am looking for an alternative to those. Love the taste of both Almond and Coconut flour, just seem to have sensitivities to them booth along with all other nuts. So, I need to test seeds. I did try pumpkin seeds, but do not like the taste. Anyway, I will have to give it a try. Keep of the good work with Sunflower Flour.
Catgross
If I used almond flour instead of sunflower seeds, would I still use 1 & 1/2 cups of ground almond flour? Thanks!
The cream filling didn’t set at all for me. Just liquid. I used Great Lakes gelatin and followed instructions….
That is so odd! Did you let the gelatin and coconut milk sit before heating it?
Is the coconut milk the type from the carton or the heavier type from the can?
What kind of coconut milk did you use? How much fat should be in there?
We liked these! I opted for a quicker filling options..one was dark chocolate with coconut oil for a ganache, and then for the other I mixed coconut butter with maple syrup….which was our favorite! I had to cook much less time, they were browning quickly. I baked mine at 12 minutes. thanks!