What do you do when traditional family recipes are filled with unhealthy ingredients?
You give it a Real Healthy Recipes makeover, of course!
My childhood Christmases were filled with plates of sugar-glazed Lebkuchen cookies. Biting into one of those sweet-spiced treats is all it takes to light up my holiday spirit.
The problem is that traditional Lebkuchen is made with white flour and is topped with a sugar glaze. Those ingredients leave me feeling sluggish and sick, so I played around with the ingredients until I came up with this flour and sugar free version that takes just like the real thing.
1 cup slivered blanched almonds
2 cups blanched almond flour
1¾ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon Ground Cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon sea salt
dash of nutmeg
1½ cups coconut palm sugar
½ cup fruit-only orange marmalade
¼ cup candied ginger, chopped
¼ cup molasses
5 eggs
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon raw honey
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the almonds on a rimmed cookie sheet and toast for 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Let cool completely.
In a medium bowl, combine the blanched almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, allspice, salt and nutmeg.
In a food processor, pulse the cooled almonds until coarsely chopped. Add the coconut palm sugar and pulse until fully mixed. Add marmalade, candied ginger and molasses and pulse until just incorporated. Add the eggs all at once. Add the dry ingredients and pulse until the batter is uniform in color.
Scrape the batter into a bowl, cover and freeze for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets with coconut oil. Scoop the frozen batter by rounded tablespoon and press into a flattened circle on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until fully set. Once cooled place the cookies back in freezer. You want them really cold before you apply the glaze.
To make glaze: beat the softened coconut oil until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and beat until fully incorporated.
Spread some glaze on each cookie, then keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve. The glaze stays nice and hard as long as the cookies are cold.
Calories: 135
Fat: 7g
Carbohydrates: 14g
Sodium: 121mg
Fiber: 2g
Protein: 4g
Sugar: —