Last night I really, really fancied cookies, in that way that sometimes the sweet tooth takes a hold. Usually it’s late at night. Usually when I have resolved to be healthier, and better, and eat less baked goods in the smallest hours. Like, on New Years Day.
Succumbing, I pottered downstairs to the kitchen, and rummaged in my flour bin (really, a bread bin full of various flours, with the ethos that if I want bread I will have to make it. Like a proper little bread martyr). The bread/flour bin turned out to be neither, as I have fed a few dozen people over the last few weeks of festivities, and somehow have managed to bake my way through my usual 3kg of plain flour kicking about the house. Instead, I had an array of what we might call ‘experimental’ flours, purchased in varying fits of panic over the last year or so, usually coinciding with some new health blogger or clean eating trend, and then sitting, untouched, in the bottom of the flour bin. Until now.
I tipped the bin out. Quinoa flour. I definitely didn’t buy that for myself. Brown rice flour – ah that was for making pasta for my coeliac friend as a gift, that’s legit, it can stay. Coconut flour – cheaper than coconut milk but can be blended into a rough approximation of it as required. Gram flour – useful for binding falafels and bhajis, and also makes an excellent fudge, allegedly, although I am yet to try it. And almond flour, simply a bag of ground almonds by another name. I will have cookies, I thought to myself, from one of these bags, I *will* have cookies.
I plumped for the almonds; crumbly, sweet, a relatively known entity, and accessible in a way that quinoa flour may not be on a bootstrap recipe blog, and these crumbly little morsels were born. I added thyme and lavender to mine – thyme as it was hanging about from Christmas, and lavender as it grows in my neighbours garden, but neither are essential, so if you don’t have them to hand, don’t worry about buying them especially.
Makes 10, at 12p each. As ever, prices based on Sainsburys, Basics range where available, and correct at time of writing. Other supermarkets offer similar products at comparable prices. When checking the prices on moneysupermarket.com I did notice that 200g of ground almonds were £1.39 at LIDL right now, so if you have a LIDL nearby, you might want to check it out…
100g ground almonds, £1.10 (£2.20/200g)
5 tbsp./70g butter substitute, 12p (80p/500g)
2 tbsp./40g marmalade, 3p (30p/454g)
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of lavender
Turn the oven on to 180C to pre-heat, and lightly grease a baking tray. Grab an egg cup, shot glass, espresso cup or small cookie cutter, and set to one side.
Tip the ground almonds into a bowl and add the thyme and lavender, if using.
In a separate small bowl, mash the marmalade and butter substitute together eith a fork until well combined. Tip into the almonds and mix well until it forms a consistent dough.
Shake a little ground almond onto your worksurface and press or roll the dough out until around 1cm thick. Cut tiny cookie shapes – smaller than you think you need – and place on the baking sheet. Leave a large space in between each as they spread out when they warm through!
Smoosh the dough back together and repeat until there are no more cookies to be made.
Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a further 10 minutes to harden before trying to move them- they are deliciously crumbly, so they need some time to firm up before they are solid enough to cart about!
Enjoy warm, and don’t forget to send me photos if you make them – I love seeing you making my recipes! 🙂
Jack Monroe.
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