Indy Power: Into the Baby bubble

This is my last column before I go off into my baby bubble.

I’m due in a few weeks and I’m hoping to spend the last bit of my time stocking the freezer with homemade dinners, washing baby clothes and having a few last date nights. While I’m gone, there will still be loads of new recipes added to my app (Little Green Spoon on the App Store) every month as usual, and I’ll be updating littlegreenspoon.ie with recipes as I can, too. But for now, I wanted to leave you with something sweet and delicious – and these cookies seem just perfect to me. 

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Almond Chunk Cookies

These are completely irresistible – crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle with chunks of gooey chocolate and crunchy toasted almonds.

Gluten-free and vegan

Makes 12

Ingredients

120g almond butter

110g coconut oil (room temperature)

150g coconut sugar

50ml nut milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

150g buckwheat flour*

1 tsp baking powder*

50g almonds

60g dark chocolate

*use certified gluten-free for celiac

Method

1. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to whisk together the almond butter, coconut oil and coconut sugar until creamy and smooth.

2. Then mix in the nut milk and vanilla essence. Mix in the flour and baking powder.

3. Roughly chop the almonds and dark chocolate and fold them into the mixture.

4. Roll the mixture into balls and place them on a lined baking sheet. Pop it in the fridge to chill for about half an hour. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

5. When they’re chilled, space the balls out evenly across two trays and bake for about 13 minutes until the edges are crisp but the middle is still a little gooey.

6. Leave to cool in the tray on a wire rack for 10 minutes before touching.

Bake off

My mum threw me a lovely baby shower at her house a few weeks ago. She made lots of gorgeous veggie salads and bulked it up with some amazing vegan pastries and the most beautiful cake from Rustic Honey Food (find them on insta @rustichoneyfood). My only request for the day was a vegan classic style Victoria sponge, something that I had been craving and hadn’t gotten around to making myself. I’m not a huge fan of the raw vegan cakes that are frequently the only plant-based option on offer, so I put the call out on instagram for recommendations of a bakery or caterer that could help. The cake was stunning and everything I had been craving all these weeks, as were the cinnamon swirl pastries.

Do your nut

You can use any kind of nut butter and nuts for this recipe — cashew butter works really well and I imagine peanut does too (I’m allergic so I can’t vouch for it). Pecans are particularly good for the chunks.

www.littlegreenspoon.ie

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