Almond cookies

I love to cook and to bake. For me it is stress-reliever in two ways. First, the simple act of making something, and being creative is enjoyable to me. Second, I can gain some peace-of-mind by having a better idea about what is in the food I'm putting in my body and giving to my family. The things I try are not elaborate or time-consuming, because I simply don't have time for it. I hope by posting them here I can give some ideas to people who want to try to incorporate new, healthy dishes into their diets, without much additional work.

However, this recipe is a great example of how vegan food is not necessarily healthy food. Cookies!

I tweaked a recipe from 1,000 Vegan Recipes (1,000 Recipes)for peanut butter cookies (really a great recipe book!), but used almond butter instead. They have a rich almond flavor, are slightly sweet, but a little dry, so I'd recommend eating them with a cup of tea or coffee. As you'll see below, the dryness is likely due to my substitutions.

Almond Butter Cookies

3/4 cup creamy almond butter

1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine

1/2 cup sugar

6 tablespoons water (originally calls for three, but the ingredients didn't stick together... the final product might have been less dry if I'd used more fat instead of water)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups wheat flour (also probably contributed to the dryness, as the recipe calls for regular flour)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt (Called for 1/4 teaspoon, but I don't like salty cookies)

Combine dry ingredients first, then add wet ingredients and mix until smooth. Chill at least an hour in the fridge. Roll dough on a floured surface and cut out shapes (or make traditional balls and compress with criss-cross fork marks), and bake at 350 F for approximately 10 minutes.

These cookies were not baby-approved, but they were husband approved (although, I think he likes anything in cookie form).