 | These are amazingly good -- considering what is NOT in them! Gluten-free vegan cookies with absolutely no oil or sugar. They do require one special ingredient, that you need to have made ahead of time -- and that is a 50-50 mixture of blended apples and dates, which can be substituted for what would normally be oil, to keep the cookies from being too dry.  |
Ingredients:
- ½ cup thick apple-date paste (see cook's notes)
- 2 tbsp ground flax seed + 5 tbsp warm water
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¾ cup sorghum flour
- ½ cup millet flour
- ¼ cup garbanzo (chickpea) flour
- ¼ cup date "sugar" (ie finely ground powdered dates)
- 2 TBS tapioca powder
- 1 TBS arrowroot powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp psyllium husk powder
- 2 TBS carob powder
- 1 tsp extra apple-date paste
Directions:
- Apple-date paste is best made the day ahead, and then stored in the fridge so that it gets thick and firm -- but to make it simply blend about equal volumes of apple slices and pitted dates in a high powered blender until it is super well blended and smooth. Extra will also freeze well, so that you have it for future recipes -- it's a great substitute for oil in baking.
- Next, make the "flax egg" by mixing the ground flax seed and water in a small bowl and allow it to sit for 10 minutes -- stir it well every few minutes while it is sitting..
- Add the 3 flours, date sugar and 4 powders to a large bowl and mix well with a wire whisk.
- Mix the wet ingredients, the apple date paste, the flax egg and vanilla in a small bowl.
- Add the small bowl of wet to the large bowl of dry and mix thoroughly until it makes a nice dough that is not sticky. Split the dough in half and mix the carob powder and the extra teaspoon of apple-date paste into it. Knead this well until it is totally mixed and smooth. Then form each dough portion into a ball and then flatten these, wrap them in parchment paper and let them sit in the refrigerator for half an hour to firm up.
6 Remove the dough from the fridge, and roll out each ball on parchment paper into a rectangle very thinly and evenly into a rectangle that is about 7 x 10 inches. The place one rectangle atop the other and carefully roll up like a jelly roll -- starting at the long end. Then return it to the fridge to firm up again before cutting thin circles from the dough. Place these onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, and bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. If you want them crispy, turn the oven off and let them sit in the oven another ten minutes.
 rolling out the dough balls into 2 rectangles |  Then place on atop the other and roll up from one of the long ends. |
