It's the time of year for Christmas Baking!

This versatile, simple recipe is free from eggs, dairy, gluten and refined sugars. No butter and icing sugar here! It is delicious as is, or as a healthy base for your favourite icing or glaze.

You can sprinkle these with cinnamon or coconut sugar right out of the oven for a heavenly festive biscuit. I love combining 3 teaspoons Maple Sugar with 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean powder to sprinkle.

Happy Holiday Season! Enjoy x

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups blanched Almond meal

1/2 cup Sorghum flour

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking soda

1/8 teaspoon Sea salt

1/4 cup Maple syrup

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1/2 cup Grapeseed oil**See Note

Optional: 1 tablespoon coconut sugar or vanilla bean powder or lemon zest or cinnamon etc. to sprinkle.

METHOD

Pre-heat oven to 165°C/330°F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl combine almond meal, sorghum, baking soda and sea salt.

In a small bowl whisk together maple syrup, vanilla and grapeseed oil.

Add wet mix to dry and stir well to mix.

On your kitchen bench, lay a large rectangle of trimmed parchment paper, or plastic wrap.

Pour cookie dough onto parchment and cover with an equal size piece of parchment. Using a rolling pin roll out dough between the two sheets into a large rectangle about 1cm /1/3” thick.

As is, in your parchment or plastic wrap layer, transfer to a baking sheet and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.

Remove from fridge and cut out desired shapes. Using a cake knife or spatula transfer cookies one by one to a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate a further 30 minutes**

Bake immediately in pre-heated oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and if desired sprinkle with coconut sugar or cinnamon etc. and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

With the leftover dough scraps, form a ball and re-roll between parchment and refrigerate again for 30 minutes. Repeat process until all dough has been used. Enjoy!

NOTES: You can substitute the grapeseed oil for 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted. The additional 30 minutes refrigeration is not required. Cut your shapes after the 1 hour chill time and bake immediately. If using a coconut oil opt for odourless if available. If not, cookies will have a slightly coconutty taste but that is ok too! I choose grapeseed as it has slightly sweet undertone but is essentially flavourless. Both oils produce the perfect cookie dough for holiday shapes!