ALMOND COOKIES

These cookies are beautiful and perfect for a special treat if you like almonds. They taste like almond biscotti. The recipe calls for orange zest but if you prefer use lemon zest or a combination of both. It also calls for dipping half the cookie in chocolate but I chose to drizzle the chocolate instead.

The recipe is by Ania at “Lazy Cat Kitchen”: VEGAN ALMOND COOKIES

Here's a quick explanation of the difference between almond flour and almond meal: Almond flour typically has the skins removed (called "blanched") and is finely ground. Almond meal still has the skins on and has a more course grind. You can easily make your own almond flour using blanched almond slivers...best to use a high speed blender but if you don't have one you can make it in a food processor. There are plenty of blogs online you can read for details.

Why does this recipe call for ground flaxseeds or ground chia seeds mixed with water? They form a gelatinous mixture which acts as a binder in place of using an egg.

ALMOND COOKIES

Go to the blog site for the recipe since I did not need to make any significant changes.

Clarification and what I did differently:

-I was feeling lazy so chopped the almonds using a food processor

-Used almond flour

-Next time I will use half lemon and half orange zest per my family's preference

-Each cookie ball weighed 1 ounce and I made 12 cookies

-Baked 20 minutes then cooled on a cooling rack

-For the chocolate on top I melted 1/8 cup of 70% dark chocolate chips in the microwave (it was not orange flavored chocolate). I dipped a small spoon in the melted chocolate and waved it briskly over the tray of cookies to create the thin lines.