Almond Butter Blueberry Cookies
I used to be a pack-a-day Sour Patch Kid eater. Candy, cake, cookies…those were my friends. I ate them when I felt happy, sad, mad, or for no reason at all. Last year, after I had successfully changed my diet, I was feeling awesome pretty much 90% of the time. But 10% of the time, I was feeling like shit. After a while, I realized that it was sugar that was still messing up my game, and I knew it was time to say goodbye. It wasn’t easy. It took a couple of months to finally let go. During one low point, I actually went to 7-11 just to look at the candy and sniff the doughnuts. This is true.
But I wasn’t about to give up sweets altogether. I started experimenting with honey and maple syrup and found some desserts I loved. The biggest inspiration was a peanut butter cookie recipe I found by the queen of clean food, Terry Walters. I tweaked it a little (ditched the chocolate, for one), and it’s now my go-to cookie recipe. I love bringing these to parties, because without fail, someone always asks for the recipe. And then I get all geeked out to tell them that there are only SIX ingredients…and not one of them is refined sugar.
{Almond Butter Blueberry Cookies}
1 1/2 cup brown rice flour (or teff flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup crunchy almond butter
1 cup real maple syrup
1 cup blueberries (frozen is fine)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, mix the almond butter and maple syrup. Pour flour mixture into your almond butter mixture. Stir until combined. Gently fold blueberries into the mix, trying your best not to squish them. Scoop spoonfuls of batter onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes. They should still be a little soft when removed from the oven.
Tips:
I like Bob’s Redmill flours, which you can find at most bigger grocery stores and at Whole Foods. If you have a hard time tracking it down, Vitacost has a great selection of flours. Including the ones for this recipe: Vitacost Flours.
If you don’t have time to let your blueberries defrost on their own, just place the amount you need in a colander under hot water until they’re thawed out. Make sure to shake out all the extra water before placing in your batter.
This is a great basic cookie recipe to have fun with – experiment with fruits, nuts, and chocolate to make this recipe your own.
13 Comments
A. Rams
March 19, 2013Can you sub almond flour? I have a lot of almond flour now that I make my own almond milk and dehydrate the pulp. Thanks!
Jessica
March 19, 2013Oh, I’ve never tried that – but I bet it would be good!
Carol
March 19, 2013Just started looking at your site. Love it!. Do you have any recipes that calculate the carbs/sugars? We watch this very carefully in the diabetic diet restrictions.
Jessica
March 19, 2013Carol, thanks so much for checking out the site! I’m not able to calculate the carbs/sugars…but I will make sure to include more recipes that are strictly veg. Thanks for the suggestion!
A. Rams
March 21, 2013I didn’t have all the ingredients but had to make these…. so this is what happened:
-Made almond butter with omega 8006
– made oat flour (3/4 C) from oats with magic bullet
– made almond flour (3/4 C) from dehydrated almond milk pulp with magic bullet
– maple syrup, baking soda, salt… Had
– crushed up some 100% cacao bar
The dough was ridiculously tasty. No need to put in oven, you’re right about how good it is, but put them in for about 13-15 mins. They didn’t spread like normal cookies but got a little shell on them and gooey on the inside. Delicious! I like drinking water with dessert and it was so good with these cookies. Next time I have store bought almond butter I’ll try again with the berries. Thanks!!!!
Jessica
March 21, 2013Alissa,
WOW! Nice. You are a baller…making your own nut butters.
Tracey
March 22, 2013These cookies sound wonderful! I can’t wait to try them! I would love to add some chocolate chips in with the blueberries. YUM!
Just a note…these cookies do actually contain sugar, since you are adding maple syrup to them. The most prevalent sugar in maple syrup is sucrose, which is what common white table sugar is (http://www.pamf.org/teen/health/nutrition/sugar.html). Maple syrup has some water and antioxidants as well, and a slightly lower glycemic index, so it is probably a little healthier than regular white sugar.
Anyway, I just thought you might like to know… 🙂
Jessica
March 22, 2013Tracey, thank you for the note and the link. I definitely should have noted refined sugar / high fructose corn syrup-free. These cookies are for sure still a dessert, but don’t leave you with the achy stomach pains you can get from regular sugar or even cane juice. I’m all about the baby steps.
Tracey
March 22, 2013Baby steps are definitely good! I am in the process of eliminating gluten from my diet and am limiting grains in general, as well as refined sugar (and definitely HFCS). I am also a baker at heart, so any recipe that reduces either or both is a plus!
I will probably try this one with almond flour also, like Alissa did, and am betting it will be great! Thanks again! 🙂
Ct
May 25, 2014I don’t like maple syrup, or keep it in the house, so I used honey instead. The”batter” never came together for me, ending up in a crumbly mess. So as not to waste expensive almond butter and honey, I added some milk just to try to get it to come together. It did. I baked them. They don’t taste that great.
Jessica
June 1, 2014Sorry they didn’t work for you, Ct! Unfortunately, I think you have to use maple syrup for this one as a binder. Since you don’t like maple syrup…maybe these cookies aren’t for you. Sorry!
Adam
January 14, 2018We have your cookbook and love your recipe for oat, almond butter and blueberry cookies. Unfortunately we are traveling and don’t have your book with us. This recipe seems very similar, would we just substitute oats instead of the flour?
Jessica
January 16, 2018I’ve never tried that before! But thinking it will work. You can always blend the oats in a blender (if you have access to one) to make the flour. If you need the recipe while you’re on the road…happy to send it!