Healthy Vegan Thumbprint Cookies
These delicious vegan thumbprint cookies are naturally sweetened with dates. The recipes is also oil-free and can be made gluten-free.
Servings 12 cookies
Ingredients
for the dough
- 60 g dates ~ 10 small dates
- ¼ cup tahini
- ⅓ cup plant milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup ground almonds
- ½ cup whole-wheat flour see notes for gluten-free substitutions
for the berry chia jam filling (enough for 12 cookies)
- ½ cup frozen berries raspberry, blackberry, blueberry or mixed
- 1-2 tbsp chia seeds
for the peanut butter filling
- 3-4 tbsp peanut butter
Instructions
to make the dough
- Place the dates and tahini in a food processor and blend until you have a sticky paste.
- Add the vanilla extract and plant milk and blend again until it comes together nicely.
- Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the ground almonds and whole-wheat flour. Combine to form a dough. Add a little more flour if it is too sticky to work with (a little sticky is fine).
- Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
to make the berry chia jam filling
- Microwave the frozen berries until soft and mash with a fork/spoon. Add in the chia seeds and mix well. Let it sit for ~5 minutes and add more chia seeds if it is not firm enough.
to bake the cookies
- Take about 1 tbsp of the dough and roll it into a smooth ball. Place on a baking sheet and repeat.
- Using a small measuring spoon, gently press down on each dough ball to form the hole in the middle.
- Spoon about a teaspoon of the filling (either berry chia jam or peanut butter) into the middle.
- Bake in the oven for 12 minutes. Remove when the cookies are slightly browned and let cool.
Notes
To make this recipe gluten-free, sub the whole-wheat flour (1:1 ratio) with buckwheat flour, oat meal or your favorite gluten-free flour blend.
You can also add the filling after or half-way through baking. This way, the filling will not set as much (which is totally fine if you're using chia jam), but it will prevent the cookies from getting too soggy.