I have been making these cookies for over ten years when my son was 3 and first diagnosed with Autism. We made little faces on them with all kinds of different emotions. This was to help with understanding the different emotions and prompt communication when eating them. My son is now 14 and still enjoys them as a snack. They are a great lunch box filler and always easy to accompany a cup of tea with visitors. We also mix this recipe up with other things by adding sultanas or cranberries. Sometimes we make a jam and make jam drops and these are a favourite too. This cookie mix can also be used as a pie or cheesecake base. it is a must have and very versatile in terms of things that you can add to it for texture flavour and colour. The cookie dough can also be made with tiger nut flour (instead of almond flour) and tahini (instead of nut butter) for those who have food allergies to nuts. All you have to do is play around with the flour and tahini ratios to make sure that you form a dough suitable to roll and cut with.
Basic GAPS Cookie Dough
Suitable from Stage 6 onwards
You can make little faces on these cookies with a variety of different expressions and call them emotion cookies or you can make small gingerbread men for Christmas.
Servings 20 Cookies
Prep Time 10 Minutes
Cook Time 10 Minutes
Instructions
Cookie Dough
Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes (no hotter)
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with a spoon, followed by massaging the contents in the bowl into a ball. Depending on the consistency of the mixture, add more nut butter or coconut oil if it is too dry or more nut flour if it is too moist. You want to create a cookie dough so keep mixing and squeezing the contents with your hands so that the mixture can be pressed and ready for rolling.
When you have rolled the cookie mixture into a ball on the bench top, push down with the palms of your hands to flatten it a little and then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a flat surface approximately ¾ cm thick.
Use small cookie cutters (approximately 4cm diameter) to cut your desired shape. We use a round one for this recipe but any shape can be used.
Place prepared cut cookies onto an oven baking tray lined with bleach free baking paper.
At this stage, you can create different face imprints on the cookies using a teaspoon for a smile and a pointy object of sorts for the eyes. There are lots of things you can use in the kitchen to do this. Alternatively, you can just keep them plain or add jam to the top.
JAM DROPS: If you wish to make jam drops, refer to the prepared jam mixture from the below instructions and spoon a teaspoon of the jam on the top of the cookie.
Place the tray in the preheated oven at no more than 150 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, keeping a close eye on them to ensure they do not burn. Almond flour burns easily so do not cook any higher than 150 degrees Celsius.
Remove the tray from the oven after 10 minutes and let the cookies cool on the tray before trying to pick them up as they will be soft and may crumble. If left to cool, they will become firmer.
Only when the cookies are completely cool, you may store in an air tight container.
Strawberry Jam
Add all ingredients to a saucepan on a low simmering heat and use a wooden spoon to stir the ingredients whilst applying pressure to the strawberries to squash them into a jam sauce.
Continue to do this for approximately 15 - 20 minutes on a low heat so that the mixture will thicken.
Pour the jam mixture into a jar and refrigerate. This will set when cooled.