Easter Nutty Sugar Cookies

Prepared and photographed by NutraMilk nutritionist, Florencia Tagliavini.

Recipe inspired by Heavenlynn Healthy.

Egg shape cookies to get into the Easter spirit! This is a perfect craft project to make with your kids! No need to be good at decorating, I´m clearly not! Have fun with it, get into cooking – that´s what its all about! Even though these are sugar cookies- they offer lots of nourishing nutrients from the ground almonds, almond butter, oats, chia and even the natural colors we used for the icing (matcha, turmeric, beet powder, freeze-dried blueberries). Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of oats (gluten free certifies if necessary)
• 1 cup of gluten-free flour
• ½ cup of ground almonds
• 1 cup of coconut sugar
• 1/3 cup of extra-virgin coconut oil
• 3 tbsp. of almond butter or any nut butter made with the NutraMilk
• 1 tbsp. of of ice water
• 1 tbsp. of chia seeds + 3 tablespoons of water
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 tsp. of aluminum-free baking powder
• a pinch of salt

For almond butter

• 2 cups (300g) almonds
• 1/8 teaspoon Pink Himalayan salt (optional)

For cashew icing:

• 1 and 1/2 cups raw cashews (to make cashew butter in the NutraMilk)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/3 cup agave nectar (or maple syrup)
• 4 tbsp. refined coconut oil, melted
• 1-2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch of Himalayan pink salt
• Extra powder sugar for white icing

Icing colors:

• Matcha powder: for green color
• Turmeric powder: for yellow color
• Beet powder or beet juice for red color
• Blue Butterfly Pea powder or freeze-dried blueberries-for blue color

INSTRUCTIONS

• Start by making cashew butter for the frosting. Once done it will need to chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
  • Place cashews and salt in the NutraMilk container.
  • Press Butter cycle, set for 5-6 minutes.
  • Press Start.
  • Open the container lid.
  • If necessary, set for an additional 1-2 minutes for a creamier butter.
  • Add everything the rest of the icing ingredients the NutraMilk along with the cashew butter. Process until the frosting is super smooth and creamy. Add water, if you´d like to obtain the consistency you desire. 

• Making almond butter
  • Place almond and salt in the NutraMilk container.
  • Press Butter cycle, set for 12-13 minutes.
  • Press Start.
  • Open the container lid.
  • If necessary, set for an additional 1-2 minutes for a creamier butter.

• Place the oats into the NutraMilk and grind to a flour (Mix for 1 minute). Set aside.
• Place almonds into the NutraMilk and grind to a flour (Mix for 1 minute). Set aside.
• Place the chia seeds and water into a small bowl, stir and set aside to thicken for about 10 minutes. Stir it at least once again.
• Add coconut sugar, peanut butter, chia-mix, melted coconut oil, the inside of the vanilla bean to the NutraMilk and mix until well combined, for about 30 seconds to one minute.
• Now add the ground oats, ground almonds, gluten free flour and mix well. If the dough is too dry, add one tablespoon of ice-cold water.

• Place the dough into the fridge for one hour.
• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
• Place the dough on the kitchen counter that you sprinkled with gluten free flour. Knead it quickly, then roll out the dough with a rolling pin. If you have an egg cookie cutter you can use that to cut out cookies. Since I didn’t have one- I made a stencil (I traded it on a paper from my computer then cut it to have the egg shape), then I used a cutter knife to cut out shape.

• Place the cookies onto a baking sheet aligned with baking paper and bake for 8 - 12 minutes. Be sure to check them after 8 minutes to determine the final baking time. They burn quickly.

• Let the cookies cool and when ready to decorate.
• For the icing: Powdered sugar icing is very simple to make. All you need is powdered sugar (about 2 cups) to ¼ cup liquid (plant-based milk or lime juice for example, you can toss in some vanilla extract if you like also). I mixed the cashew icing with a little bit of this basic powder sugar icing to make the cashew icing a lighter color and use it for most of the bases of the cookies.
• Add just a little dash of each powder color to the basic icing, add a little water if necessary and mix with a fork. See the tone of the color, if necessary add more powder. Play around with this a bit to get the color you like!

• Now decorate cookies as you like. Get your kids involved in this fun project!