Gluten-Free Coffee Almond Cookies

When I was  in elementary school, something was introduced to us, called “New Math”.  It had to do with sets and subsets. I’m not sure what else it had to do with, or if it was really all that new, but the concept of sets and subsets stayed with me and has proven to be relevant to all manner of things in life. Take gluten-free desserts and Passover desserts, for example.

While both can be considered a subset of desserts, neither one is a subset of the other, unless you are making gluten-free desserts that have no flour made from grain. As some of you know, there’s no flour and no leavening to be had during the Jewish holiday of Passover. So if you’re making gluten-free desserts from almond meal (almond flour), that can be considered a legit subset of Passover desserts.

Have I completely lost you?  Am I boring you to tears?  Well, I’m a little weird that way. This actually excites me, because I’m a food nerd (but you knew that already) and I now have a whole new area from which to mine Passover desserts! Which brings us to today’s post.

clouds in my coffee…

I found it at Healthy Green Kitchen, a terrific healthy food and living blog, offered as a gluten-free cookie. And it occurred to me, hey, this would make a great addition to the Passover Seder dessert array. Plus, people could use a little shot of caffeine to make it to the end of the Seder. The flavor combo is an interesting one that will be a nice complement to some of the heavier items weighing down that poor dessert table.

cool gluten-free cookies

Gluten-Free Coffee Almond Cookies

from Healthy Green Kitchen, who adapted it from Clean Eating Magazine (Jan/Feb 2010)

Ingredients:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C). Line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper.

Combine almond meal, coffee, sugar and salt in a bowl.

Using stand or hand-held mixer, beat egg whites until stiff.

With wooden spoon, mix a spoonful of the beaten egg whites into the nut mixture. This will make the folding process easier.

Fold nut mixture into egg whites with a rubber spatula using the following movement: a gentle cutting of the egg whites with your spatula , folding the nut mixture into the egg whites, rotating bowl a quarter-turn and repeating until incorporated. Add vanilla and cinnamon and mix until just blended.

Spoon batter onto cookie sheets. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown at edges.

Makes 15-24 cookies, depending on the size you make them.

NOTE: If you prefer to grind your own almond meal,  grind almonds in food processor and mix with coffee, sugar and salt.