Chefs and Cookies

I’m back at it with an update and a recipe for you.  I had a great day today.  This morning I went to see Alex Guarnaschelli do a cooking demo at Market District and I got her autograph.  This is the second time that I have seen her.  I really like her and enjoy watching her on tv.  Then as soon as that was over, I raced to Soergel’s Orchards to see Brittany Angell from the blog RealSustenance.com.  I love her blog and I have made a lot of her recipes.  My favorites are the cinnamon rolls and the blueberry lavendar scones.  It was a real honor and joy to get to meet her.  I got her autograph and a picture with her.  🙂  Then I went and enjoyed the sunshine at our local winery to hear a very good band perform-Good Brother Earl.  And thus I am ending the beautiful day by telling you all about it.

I have started my day countdown for school.  I have only three weeks (9 days of classes) and four weeks til I graduate!!!  I can’t wait. I am so excited.  I have applied for a few jobs, but I don’t have anything yet.

Baking for me is therapy.  It’s relaxing and enjoyable.  I get to be creative and I enjoy giving my baked goods to friends.  So in the past couple of weeks I have been doing quite a bit of baking at home (because I don’t do enough at school).  I have mainly been making almond flour things, but I also made two new cookies that were far from anything I could ever eat, but they got good reviews.  My almond flour items also turned out pretty well.  One recipe was a fail, but the other three were a success.  Sometimes everything I make doesn’t turn out, but I’m not done with that recipe yet.  I want to make them for a friend because she told me her favorite kind of cookie when she used to be able to eat regular cookies and I want to recreate that for her with almond flour.  I just need to adjust my recipe and try again.  One of the ones that turned out is a favorite combination of mine.  I have always liked maple and vanilla together and when you add almonds, it gets even better.  So I decided to make vanilla maple almond flour cookies.  I’m currently not eating nuts or maple syrup, so I don’t even know how they tasted.  But I gave them to friends and family and they said they were soft and chewy with very good flavor.  They had never had anything like it before and even non gluten free people said they would eat them again.  Now I can’t wait until I someday that I can eat maple syrup so I can make them for myself.  I might have to look for some maple extract to use because that day is a far ways away if ever.  But nonetheless, I thought I would share this recipe since it seemed to be a hit and it’s something I long to enjoy.  The great thing about this recipe is that it is so easy to make; there are only four ingredients.

Chewy Vanilla Maple Cookies
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Combine almond flour and salt in a bowl.  Add vanilla and then stir in maple syrup.  The dough should be moist and hold together when you form a ball.  If you need more liquid, you can add more maple syrup.  Use a cookie scoop or spoon to form balls and place them on your cookie sheet.  Flatten the balls with your hand or bottom of a cup.  You want the cookie to be about 1/8″ thick.  Bake cookies for 15-20min.
Makes about 5 large cookies.

You can adjust the vanilla flavor to your liking.  I like a strong vanilla flavor, so I chose to put more in.  No one I gave them to complained.  These cookies had a slightly crisp edge, but a very soft and chewy middle.