Ginger Spiced Cookies

‘Tis the season!’

What is Christmas without ginger-spiced cookies? And, if you’re planning on baking up a batch this Christmas, we’ve got the perfect festive recipe for you! These cookies are gluten-free, dairy-free (if you sub butter for coconut oil) and refined sugar-free, yet they taste and look very festive! You can garnish with anything from nuts (pistachios would look great), rose petals to dehydrated raspberries. You can also sub the hazelnut flour for any other nut-based flour and change the spices/omit the ginger for different flavouring options.

Ginger Spiced Cookies (makes 12 large cookies)

1 hour (depending on whether you have hazelnut flour)

Ingredients for the cookies

  • 2 cups hazelnut flour (To do this roast the hazelnuts in the oven at 180 degrees C for 5 – 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and put in a dishcloth. Rub the nuts around in the cloth. This agitates them enough so that the skins peel off. Then process the nuts in a food processor until they are of a flour consistency.)
  • ¼ cup of coconut sugar
  • 50g grass-fed butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 tbsp grated ginger

Ingredients for the garnish

  • 70g dark chocolate
  • 1/3 cup goji berries
  • 1 tbsp desiccated coconut

METHOD

1. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl; hazelnut flour, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt. Keep the oven on after making the hazelnuts.  

2. In order to get the ginger really fine, blend it in a high-speed blender with the eggs. This helps the ginger flavour infuse more evenly rather than having chunks of ginger that can happen when you just leave it grated.

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry; grass-fed butter, eggs and ginger mixture and vanilla essence.

4. Place this mixture in the fridge for 20 minutes until it’s firmed up.

5. Roll the mixture into 30g (approx.) balls. Place balls on the baking tray and press down with fingers until each one is 6cm/7cm in diameter.

6. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until browned.

7. Let cookies cool on a cooling rack.

8. In the meantime, chop the chocolate into smaller pieces and melt in a glass bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.

9. Dip half the cookie into the chocolate and place back onto the baking paper.

10. Sprinkle goji berries and coconut onto the melted chocolate. Set in the fridge.