Summer Meltaways

Hello everyone!  I hope you all had a nice Fourth of July.  I am back from both of my vacations and I have had a week of classes already.  I had a nice break from school and thoroughly enjoyed meeting some new people and watching fireworks on the beach.  It’s back to reality, though, and busy with classes.  However, I am enjoying my lab class much more this quarter because it is baking!!  Finally!  So far we have made two batches of blueberry muffins, cream scones, country biscuits, and sour cream coffee cake.  My parents have thoroughly been enjoying these treats that I am bringing home.  I am also taking nutrition, so maybe eventually I’ll have some tidbits to share with you.

Before I left for vacation though, I did some baking and I wanted to share a recipe that I made to take with me.  I went to Michigan for a family reunion and found out before I went that I would not be the only gluten free person there!  There would be two others.  I was super excited and knew I had to bake something to take for us to enjoy.  I couldn’t wait to have someone else try something I made.  So I took some scones and cookies.  One of the cookies I took was a lemon coconut meltaway.  For some reason lemon screams spring/summer to me and I thought it would be a refreshing dessert to take for our cookout and picnic on the beach.  I found a recipe for these cookies, but I ended up changing several things.  The cookies are delicious and really are melt-in-your-mouth-creamy.  Oh, and by the way, they are no bake, so great for summer when you don’t want to turn your oven on and heat up the house.  Just remember to store them in the refrigerator (or freeze for longer storage).

Lemon Coconut Meltaways
1 1/4 cup almond flour
2/3 cup coconut flour
2 cups shredded coconut
1/4 tsp. stevia powder
1/4 cup lemon oil*
1 tsp. vanilla powder/extract
3/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup water (as needed)

Mix together the dry ingredients.  Stir in the lemon oil and vanilla.  Gradually add the coconut oil.  Once all oil is added, decide if you need a little water to make this a cookie dough and hold together.  I ended up using slightly over half a cup.

Drop the cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place the sheet in the refrigerator for about an hour to let the cookies set.  Then you can package them into another container for storage.
*Lemon oil=I don’t use extract because of the acid and/or alcohol that is usually in it, so I buy a mix of lemon oil and sunflower oil.  I assume it measures the same as extract, but I can’t be positive.

     

Because they are not baked, the cookies remain soft and very moist.  Super yummy and cooling for a hot day.  Be careful though: the cookies hold together by the coconut oil being hardened in the refrigerator, so if you leave them out in the heat for a long time, they might just melt a way!