As always around Christmas time I feel the urge to grab my children, gather in the kitchen, and bake and decorate cookies. I have the most vivid memories of my father spending time together in the kitchen. As in many other families too, it was and still is a tradition to bake delicious cookies at Christmas time.
It has been always important to me to keep family traditions alive, the same way as old traditional recipes, but sometimes I have a hard time to cook or bake with the same ingredients as my parents did. Modern agriculture and manufacturing practices have consequences, which can be noticed in decreased food quality and increasing health problems.
Today’s wheat is a problem
In regards to wheat, William Davis MD, the author of Wheat Belly says,
So why has this seemingly benign plant that sustained generations of humans suddenly turned on us?
For one thing, it is not the same grain our forebears ground into their daily bread. Wheat naturally evolved to only a modest degree over the centuries, but it has changed dramatically in the past fifty years under the influence of agricultural scientists. Wheat strains have been hybridized, crossbred, and introgressed to make the wheat plant resistant to environmental conditions, such as drought, or pathogens, such as fungi. But most of all, genetic changes have been induced to increase yield per acre.
Thus wheat consumption has been linked to many symptoms such as increased blood glucose, which over time leads to insulin resistance and diabetes. Other symptoms might be brain fog, fatigue, headache, joint pain, eczema, disturbed gut health, mood disorders, and many other inflammatory health problems.
Modern agriculture also includes the use of pesticides, such as glyphosate, which has shown to kill bacteria and thus alter our gut microbiome. Already known by our ancestors and often confirmed by science, we learn that an increasing number of diseases start in the gut.
I usually bake with coconut flour or almond meal to avoid any negative effects of grains, but sometimes it is difficult, or let’s say, not as easy as simply substituting grain flour with nut flour. I often had a hard time to bake a crispy cookie, which would successfully satisfy the taste buds of my family. Until now…
This recipe contains 50g of Einkorn flour and yields around 15-20 cookies. The result is a crispy cookie similar to a regular sugar cookie but healthier. They will keep their crunch when stored in a tin box or other not completely air-tight container.
A word on Einkorn flour…
Compared to modern wheat Einkorn is an ancient grain which is not altered as regular wheat. It is richer in protein, vitamin A, vitamin B6, carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin and has less gluten. Thus it might even be tolerated by some people who usually react to gluten. It is overall a healthier choice of a grain flour.
And yes, organic is important. Especially with wheat products. Farmers do make use of glyphosate as a desiccant to dry down mature crops close to harvest. Current tests show the residue of glyphosate in our food and other products. Learn which common cereal brands are contaminated.
I hope you enjoy this cookie as much as we do! Leave a comment to share your thoughts!
Einkorn - Almond Meal Cookies
Ingredients
- 70g coconut sugar
- 70g butter, cold
- 50g Einkorn flour
- 170g almond meal
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp ice water
Instructions
Preheat oven to 165ºC/329ºF.
You can literally put all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until butter isn't visible and all blended well.
The dough will be soft but not very sticky. Form the dough into a big role, wrap with parchment paper and let it cool and get firmer in the fridge.
When you are ready to make the cookies cut off one-third and place the rest back into the fridge.
Roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper until 0,5 or 0,7mm thickness.
I used a little piece of parchment paper, a cookie cutter, and cleaned the remaining dough from around the cut cookies, and flipped them over with the parchment paper onto a baking tray also layered with parchment paper.
Do the same with the remaining dough from the fridge. Split up into 2 pieces. It is simply easier to work with the dough when it comes straight out of the fridge.
Bake until the edges are slightly browned around 13-14 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on a baking grid and decorate them with melted chocolate, nuts, and seeds, or other decorations of your choice.
Enjoy!
Notes
This is a wonderful base recipe and very versatile. You can also fold nuts, chocolate chips or dried fruits into the dough and quickly form cookies by hand. The dough can be prepared one day ahead and stored in the fridge overnight. Update Dec 12: You will get a softer dough and cookie when you substitute the coconut sugar by erythritol even partially.
No Comments