Almond Cookies

The recipes that follow are from Nourishing Traditions pages 528 and 529. Please be sure to see the raspberry jam, cashew orange, carob and pecan cookie variations included as you scroll down the page. In addition, learn about arrowroot flour at the end! Rapadura is the commercial name for unbleached, unrefined, dehydrated cane sugar juice, which the people of India have used for thousands of years. It is rich in minerals, particularly silica. Rapadura has a wonderful flavor and closely mimics sugar in chemical properties. It gives the best results for cookies and cakes but be careful not to overdo—in large amounts Rapadura can upset the body chemistry just as much as sugar. This recipe makes about 18 cookies:

Ingredients

1 ½ cups crispy almonds
½ cup butter, softened, or coconut oil
1 cup arrowroot or ⅞ cup bulgur flour
½ cup Rapadura
½ teaspoon sea salt
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
about 18 crispy almonds

Ingredients

Place almonds in food processor and process to a fine meal.
Add remaining ingredients, except 18 al-monds, and process until well blended.
Form dough into walnut-sized balls and place on buttered cookie sheets.
Press an almond into each.
Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes.
After 5 minutes in the oven, press cookies down lightly with a fork.
Let cool completely before removing to an airtight container. Store in refrigerator.

Variation: Raspberry Jam Cookies

Omit 18 almonds and use ¼ cup naturally sweetened raspberry jam. After 5 minutes in the oven, press cookies down slightly, make an indentation and fill with raspberry jam.

Variation: Cashew Orange Cookies

Use 1 ½ cups crispy cashews in place of 1 ½ cups crispy almonds and grated rind of 1 orange in place of grated rind of 1 lemon. Omit almond extract and 18 crispy almonds.

Variation: Carob Cookies

Add ½ cup carob powder, 1 teaspoon chocolate extract and an additional ⅛ cup softened butter or coconut oil. Omit lemon rind, almond extract and 18 crispy almonds.

Variation: Pecan Cookies

Use 1 ½ cups crispy pecans and 18 crispy pecans halves in place of almonds. Reduce butter or coconut oil by ⅛ cup and omit almond extract.

Arrowroot Flour

“Arrowroot flour, the only starch with a calcium ash, is a nutritious food, obtained from the fleshy root stock of a tropical American plant. It is an easily digested food well fitted for infants and the convalescent.

It resembles cornstarch in being white, fine and powdery. When heated in water in certain portions, it thickens to form a jelly, an excellent thickening agent. It is also considered more desirable for gravies, sauces and pastries than some of the more com- mon starches and flours. It is used primarily for food in dietetic use, where it enjoys a reputation for smoothness and palatability.

Arrowroot was once widely used in baby formulas as a superior carbohydrate, experience having shown it agreed with babies better than any other starch or sugar. We now find the reason. It is the only starch product with a calcium ash. In this regard, the calcium chloride, in the form of calcium found in arrowroot starch, is very important for the maintenance of proper acid and alkali balances in the human body.

Arrowroot only thrives on tidal flats where the sea minerals are avail-able. Its known health-building prop- erties may be due to trace minerals from the sea, as well as from the calcium it gets from the sea water. If it is used in ice cream formulas in place of cornstarch, arrowroot imparts a vanilla-like flavor, a smooth texture. Arrowroot as it comes to you is not a refined product; it is simply the dried and powdered root.” — Royal Lee, DDS Journal of the National Academy of Research Biochemists

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