Originally published 10/15/13

I love reinventing old favorites. As a child, my knowledge of jam cookies came from Pepperidge Farm on one hand, and from a Scandinavian jam sandwich cookie called "spritz" which my family makes every Christmas. On one hand there was the novelty of moving through each layer of the stacked cookies held in their ruffled paper with a slightly stale but comfortingly consistent chew of jam and crunch of cookie. And on the other hand there was the best butter cookie with just the right texture from the ridged cookie gun design, with each cookie log having been cut into diamond shaped individual cookies creating so many sharp points of mouth melting salty sweet deliciousness. So when I went to make these cookies for a catering gig last week, I pulled in all the joy from both sides and came up with these vegan thumbprints. They melt in your mouth with coconut oil and coconut sugar, and the almond flour's protein keeps the blood sugar spike lower. Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than many sugars and is great because you can substitute it one for one for refined sugar in recipes without the chemistry headache. These make a wonderful after school treat for kids and adults alike.

Vegan Thumbprint Cookie

Ingredients:

1/4 C coconut sugar
1/2 C extra virgin coconut oil, melted

1/2 C maple syrup
1/2 tspvanilla extract, pure

3/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
21/4 Cwhite spelt flour
1 C almond flour

jam, raspberry, apricot, orblueberry 7 oz minimum

Procedure:

-Preheat oven to 350 F.
-In a large bowl, combine coconut sugar, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla.
-In a separate medium bowl, combine salt, baking soda and powder and flours. Whisk to combine.
-Add flour mixture to coconut mixture and mix until dough forms.
-After dough is evenly mixed, scoop onto parchment lined 1/2 sheet trays (large home baking trays), press in thumbprint and fill with jam.
-Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 16 min or until lightly golden brown around edges.
-Cool on rack before serving.

Makes about 28 2.5 -inch cookies with a 1 1/2 T scoop.