Virtual Cookie Exchange 2017 Blog Hop

Carol (Just Let Me Quilt Blog) asked me to be a part of her Virtual Cookie Blog Hop this year. Carol said it will not only be a cookie (recipe) exchange, but also to share holiday traditions as well. The Hop runs from December 5-7 and there are giveaways too!!!

When my children were young I would bake a lot. Bread, cookies, cakes, pies; plus cooked meals too. But as the years passed and the kids left to be on their own, the baking stopped, except for an occasional birthday or Thanksgiving pie. Mr. P began cooking when I was still working and it became an enjoyable hobby for him to do the cooking. I wasn't complaining, as it left me more time to sew, quilt, knit and craft! He stills enjoys cooking and shopping for food, so I rarely am in the kitchen anymore, except that I do the dishes.

Anyhow back to the cookies, one of my favorite cookies that I made was Almond-Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies. These delicious cookies are vegan too. We have been vegan for about 30 years now. In November, I wanted to make a little something for a friend's birthday, without making a big cake, so I decided to  bake these cookies. I had always made them with almonds (even though the recipe suggest that you can use pecans, hazelnuts too). So I thought I would experiment a little and used almonds and pecans both in the cookie. Mr. P cannot seem to tolerate most berries like strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and the like, but blueberries he is okay with. So I swapped out the raspberry jam for blueberry jam. (I definitely prefer the raspberry jam!) The recipe also calls for using maple syrup (another thing Mr P cannot eat), so when I was shopping in the market, I saw there was an amber coconut syrup now that says right on the bottle it can be used in place of maple syrup. The coconut syrup is low on the glycemic scale too, better for Mr P. The syrup tasted good, but didn't have the maple flavor that I personally like, so I would use the maple syrup (I use 100% pure maple syrup, not the corn syrup flavored kind). I also used vanilla extract since I combined the nuts. When using only almonds I would use almond extract only and that gives the cookies a better flavor too. I did use nutmeg as usual for the spice. The recipe says you can use cardamom or other spices, but I have always used nutmeg.

So with all my substitutions this time, I found out that I prefer the almonds, maple syrup, raspberry jam, and almond extract that I had always used to make these cookies in the past. I would bake these and take them to holiday parties and they were always a hit. No one knew they were vegan! They are crisp, but if you put them into covered containers, they soften and aren't as good as when they are crisp. They have a great flavor and with the nuts and oats are healthier than some other cookies and full of fiber too.

Here is the recipe~

Almond-Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

1-cup whole raw almonds

1 cup rolled oats

1-cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1-teaspoon baking soda

pinch sea salt

large pinch of ground nutmeg (or you can use cardamom, cinnamon or coriander instead if you like)

½ cup maple syrup

½ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon almond extract

¼ cup raspberry (or other berry) preserves

Grind almonds in a food processor with a metal blade until they become a course meal.  Transfer to a mixing bowl. 

Grind oats in the food processor until they become a course meal.  Add to the almond meal.  Stir in flour, baking soda and spice.

Combine maple syrup, oil, lemon juice and almond extract in a small bowl.  Add to dry ingredients and stir well with a wooden spoon.  The dough should be soft and wet.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Using a tiny ice cream-style scoop or spoons, place a walnut-size scoop of dough onto a nonstick or lightly greased cookie sheet spacing about 2-inches apart.  With your thumb or index finger make a “thumbprint” into the center of each cookie.  Fill each indentation with about ½ teaspoon of preserves.

Bake cookies for about 20 minutes, until light and golden and fragrant.  The cookies should be lightly browned on the bottom.  Allow to cool thoroughly before eating.

Makes 36 cookies.

Variations:

Instead of almonds, substitute walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts.

Substitute rice syrup or honey for the maple syrup.

Substitute vanilla extract for the almond extract, or lemon or orange rind for the spices.

Substitute apricot, pineapple, or cherry preserves instead of raspberry.

Now as far as holiday traditions go, well that's something I never really grew up with. When my children were young and we lived in Washington state, we did start a tradition of going to a Christmas tree farm and choosing and cutting a tree. I love and miss that fresh tree smell! The first time we got a cut tree from a farm it cost us all of $5!!! Oh those were the days, huh? After a few years, we decided to choose a living tree each year so that we could plant it in the yard. We lived in several different homes in our 17 years of living in WA. Last year while we were there visiting, we drove by the house my son was born in and the tree we planted in the front yard, a Colorado Blue Spruce, was a lot taller than the single story home we had lived in! It was fun to see it was thriving and how tall that little tree had grown. My son is 31 year old now and we probably planted it when he was 2 or 3 years old.

Then once they were teenagers, we were living here in New Mexico and so we couldn't do that anymore. It's so dry here, but Mr P got a live tree for the kids the first year we were here, but the needles kept falling off and before long we had a Charlie Brown tree! So then came the artificial tree for a few years.

Well I am sure these other ladies on the blog hop have some interesting traditions to share with you, so please be sure to hop on over each day of the hop. There are giveaway prizes too.

December 5~

 Creatin’ in the Sticks

Creative Latitude

Gray Barn Designs

Domestic Felicity

Pieced Brain

Quiltscapes

Ms P Designs USA
Cynthia’s Creating Ark

 December 6~

 Sew Incredibly Crazy

Freemotion by the River

Moosestash Quilting

One Old Goat And Her Little Farm

A Little Bit of Everything, from Mike & Alisa

Hazel’s Daughter

Patchouli Moon Studio (that's me!)

Bumbleberry Stitches

Selina Quilts

Brenda's Blog

 December 7~

 Quilt Doodle Doodles

Kris Loves Fabric

Life in the Scrapatch

Home Sewn By Us

For The Love Of Geese

Stitch Days

Val’s Quilting Studio

Tu-Na Quilts

It's a T-Sweets Day!

Just Let Me Quilt

I am giving away a little wall hanging (or can be a small table topper too). It says NOEL and was made using the Alphabet Pattern that I designed. The quilt will be given to a USA winner only. If a winner is chosen from another country, then I will email them a pdf of their choice from my Craftsy store. Winners will be chosen on December 8th.

This quilt was made using The Alphabet Quilt that I designed.

Good luck in the giveaway!


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