Sunday, April 1, 2018

Vegan Blueberry Thumbprint Cookies (No Flour No Oil, Puppies!)













Howdy Caterpillars!

We had a epically sweet Easter this Sunday. It included going to a Kannada Church service in the morning followed by iced black coffee, and then lunch at our favorite Asian restaurant, Nasi and Mee. That left me plenty of time to come home take a nap, do some quick yoga, and then bake.

You might have eaten packaged or home baked thumbprint cookies filled with jam or even chocolate before. I've never made them, and turns out they do need some extra attention, at least more then your average cookie.

You see, the perfect thumbprint cookies have to be slightly crispy outside, slightly chewy inside and have that perfect soft tang of the jam in the centre.

So what's the trick? Well, the trick is in the wet mixture. You have to have a thick, viscous mixture to achieve the right consistency. To do this you can use golden syrup, agave syrup, cashew butter or even peanut butter (although peanut butter gives it a very strong peanut butter flavour and the jam filling might not go with). I used a mix of cashew butter and golden syrup today. I had a bottle of my favorite Salted Cashew Caramel Butter from Jus'Amazin. I also had golden syrup at home. Worry not! If you don't have the cashew butter, you can make some of your own in a blender or just use extra golden syrup.

I put walnuts there for the heck of it. They are not in the cookies.


This recipe has no added oil or flour. I've used oat flour and semolina (rava) but feel free to use flour instead (2.5 cups).


These are super fun and relatively quick to make. It's the perfect cookie really.

Here's What You Need

1.5  cup regular Oats
1 cup semolina (rava)
3 tablespoons Cashew Butter ( I used Jus'Amazin) (optional)
1/4th cup golden syrup (use 1/2 cup if not using cashew butter)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4th cup sugar
1/4th cup coconut mylk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
Blueberry jam (or any jam of choice)
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
Dried Coconut (optional)


How to Make

Grab two bowls.

First take your oats and blend them dry into a fine powder. Tah-dah, you now have oat flour!

In one of the bowls dump your oat flour, semolina (rava), salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In another bowl add your golden syrup, sugar, and cashew butter (if using). Whisk together, it should be thick and viscous. Now add the coconut mylk and flax seed powder and stir it up well. Slowly add this thick wet mixture to the dry mixture. You should get a nice slightly wet crumbly mixture.





Wet and Dry Bowls






Nice and thick wet mixture!


Prepare a baking tray. Make small balls out of the mixture and put on the tray. After you've made balls out of all the batter use your thumb to flatten the centre of each one. That's the thumbprint folks! Now get your preferred jam out. Add 1/4th teaspoon of jam to each centre. You should have about 12-15 cookies depending on your size. You can choose to sprinkle the cookies with dried coconut right before popping them into the oven.



crumbly nice cookie batter






Shaping out well



All ready for the oven!


Pre-heat your oven to 180c. Put your tray in and bake for 12 minutes.  Take out let them cool. The jam might be slightly melty or even bubbly. It will cool into a nice glaze centre, worry not. The cookies should cool for 10 minutes. The smell of them are divine. Grab a plate and share.

Till next time. Happy Easter.



Ready to eat!