One of the things I love about flourless cookies is they only take a few minutes to mix together. I turn on the oven to preheat, pull everything out onto to the counter, and BOOM! All done by the time the oven is beeping its readiness.
These particular cookies I’ve made several times until I finally got what I wanted from my last batch just a few hours before sitting down to type this. I love it when I finally hit the mark. And really, with almond, cherries, and chocolate you can’t go wrong even when the mix isn’t right.
I use all natural nut butters which makes them a bit oilier than when you use other nut butters so adding liquid ingredients tends to make it wetter and harder to set. Unless you can have eggs and use an egg as a binder. I can’t use eggs so I made this with several different egg replacers and got my best result with agar agar powder. It helped firm up the batter to be like regular cookie dough. If you use a roasted, salted all natural nut butter, it can be a bit saltier so leave out the salt. If you have a nut allergy and want to use Sunbutter, you can but it may overpower the flavor of the cherries and chocolate. Before I had to give up sunflower seeds all my trials using Sunbutter with flourless cookies wound up with an overwhelming sunflower seed taste.
Make sure you allow the cookies to cool completely before eating. Well, you can enjoy before they cool, they just won’t be fully set until they are cool. Think of them as being like gluten-free bread. Better once it’s cooled completely.
You might want to double the recipe, too. I ate nearly half the batch before dinner. Yes, I did. And no, I don’t feel one ounce of guilt and you’ll understand why when you see the ingredients.
Flourless Almond Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies – makes about 1 dozen
1 cup all natural almond butter
1/2 cup palm sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon agar agar powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using almond butter already salted)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1/2 cup fresh cherries (or thawed if frozen)
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks (I chopped up some 85% Lindt chocolate)
Preheat oven to 375°. Grease or line a cookie sheet (I use a Silpat liner) and set aside. Mix together agar and water then set aside. In a small bowl, add almond butter, palm sugar, salt, extract, and agar mixture. Mix together well. Mix in cherries and chocolate. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet (I use a tablespoon size ice cream scoop). Press down slightly with the back of a spoon. Bake for 15 minutes then remove and let cookies sit on the pan for another 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before enjoying!
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