Raw Gingerbread Energy Bites

When I first started thinking about all of the holiday goodies in the world and which ones I wanted to make (and share) this season, I jumped to gingerbread pretty much from the start. Even though I already have this recipe for grain-free gingerbread men on the site, I wanted to share another recipe because the cozy combination of spices is just quintessential wintertime for me. 

What I hadn't thought through yet, was how many sweets come with the holiday season, and how every year I wish for those classic holiday flavors in a healthier form. It was right around the time that I began researching for a chewy gingerbread cookie that my friends over at Made in Nature asked me if I would help them with some holiday recipes. Ding! It was as if the stars had aligned and everything came together. Of course. Why not make a chewy gingerbread bite using Made In Nature's Dates? 

I went to the Made In Nature test kitchen this morning... The end result is delicious.

These raw gingerbread cookies are something I would take climbing or skiing, but I also just grab one out of the fridge when I need a little something sweet. Heck, I'd even take a batch to a holiday cookie swamp-- it's always so nice to have something a little healthier in the mix. 

Made in Nature provided me with product and compensation for this blog post, but the recipes and opinions are all my own. Working with brands to develop wholesome recipes is one way I keep Foraged Dish going! Made In Nature helps me stock the pantry and keep the blog going. I only work with brands that I truly enjoy and use.  

Raw Gingerbread Energy Bites

Published December 15, 2016 by Caitlin Sherwood

Yield: 12   |    Active Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

6-ounces pitted Deglet Noor dates

1/2 cup pecans

1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated on microplane

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and run until the a sticky crumb forms. Everything should stay together when pinched between two fingers.
2. Roll mixture together by the tablespoonful to make a single bite. Place on a plate and repeat until all of the mixture is used.
3. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Paleo Almond Flour Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodle cookies fill your house with the best, homiest, sweetest smell. Especially these snickerdoodles, which are made with cinnamon, coconut sugar, honey and almond flour.

It is snowing here today — giant flakes that drift like feathers on their way down. And lucky me! I have the day off. I’m sticking around the house, and this weather is PERFECT for cookies, which is exactly why I jumped in an made this recipe, which I originally created in 2016, but am revisiting today (January, 2019).

I’m using my go-to combination for cookie dough here: almond flour with a tiny bit of salt and baking soda, and honey and coconut oil. It’s miraculous to me that those five ingredients are all you need (plus a little vanilla) to make a gluten-free, grain-free, better-for-you cookie dough, but it’s true. What’s more, they come out of the oven a little bit chewy and crispy on the outside. Dipped in a glass of milk they are SO tender and melt-away delicious.

I LOVE cinnamon — in snickerdoodle cookies, but also in pie and almond butter and chai and more. Apparently that love does not run in the family, something I learned some time in high school:

It started at my Mom's house. When I found the cinnamon jar empty, I asked her if we had anymore. She mentioned something about being surprised we were out, she didn't like cinnamon at all and would never use it. I'm not sure which put more of a rut in my baking plans: finding out we didn't have cinnamon, or finding out I might need to just skip it all together. After all of these years, how could I not know that my own mother didn't like cinnamon?! I had been putting it in next to everything.

It was only a few days later I was to find out my dad agreed with her. After the missing cinnamon debacle, I tried to make the same exact recipe a week later at my dad's house. You can probably guess what happens next. He was out of cinnamon as well! I asked him the same thing: "Do we have any more?" and he respond in almost an identical way: "That's weird that we're out, I hate cinnamon." My eyes just about popped out of their sockets. Hate cinnamon?

I hadn't realized anyone had a problem with cinnamon until that moment in my mom's kitchen, and now you're telling me both of my parents are holding a grudge against the stuff?! 

For the record, I replenished both cinnamon supplies, kept baking with cinnamon, and they both continued to eat my baked treats happily. I guess their distaste for cinnamon only went so far. 

Watch the video below, or click here if you do not see the video player.

Paleo Almond Flour Snickerdoodle Cookies

Published August 2, 2016 by Caitlin Sherwood

Yields: 12   |    Active Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup honey, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Fit a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine almond flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine.
3. Add melted coconut oil, honey, and vanilla and stir to make a stiff dough. Scoop dough by the tablespoonful into your hands, and gently shape into a sphere. Repeat until all of the dough is used.
4. In a small bowl, combine coconut sugar and cinnamon. Stir to incorporate. One at a time, place the cookie dough balls in the sugar mixture, and roll to coat. Place coated cookie dough ball on the prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 1-inch between each cookie. Repeat until all of the cookie dough balls are coated.
5. Using a fork, gently press down on each cookie to flatten it to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
6. Bake for 10-14 minutes, until cookies are puffy, fragrant, and golden. Allow to cool 10 minutes (they will continue to set as they cool).

Blueberry Almond Muffins (Paleo)

The light came in through a window behind my back, over the sink and past the counter where my grandpa would make breakfast sausage in the mornings. Next to that was the fridge, decorated humbly with only a few cards. On the wall hung an off-white phone, it's cord long and tangled from use. The counters and the oven door were a faded tawny orange color, the wooden cabinets a deep mahogany, with golden stain--or at least that's how it is my memory. They're given no help from the rusty colored vinyl floors, which reflect an extra orange glow onto everything in the room. 

I sit in a kitchen chair with metal legs and a faux leather cushion. My grandma has pulled my hair back into a pony tail but it's like you would expect from any toddler: the stray wisps are everywhere, escaping the elastic ponytail holder and doing their own thing. That's where time is frozen: I'm pouring fresh blueberries into a bowl of batter, while my grandpa snaps a picture. The mixing bowl, bigger than my head, is also orange. Daringly, I'm wearing no apron, just a floral dress with puffy, short sleeves (it is the '90s). 

If it weren't for that picture, I wouldn't remember this day. Actually, I'm not sure if I do remember this day--my memories from being in this house are fleeting, single moments that fade and disappear before they really emerge. But because of this photo, I feel like I remember making those muffins. Not just those muffins, but many muffins. I feel like I remember preparing that same recipe every time I visited, setting my fate as a baker early. 

Many years later (and many times in-between), I would go back to visit. Everything was as it had been: orange vinyl, white phone, that dated oven door. Most of the cards on the fridge were the same, only a few were added to the mix. This picture sat in a frame in the living room, amongst 20 or 30 others. My grandma told me that when my younger cousins found the photo, they asked her if they could also learn to make muffins. Instead she taught each of them a different recipe, leaving her legacy behind in the whisks and folds of homey pastries.

Blueberry Almond Muffins (Paleo)

Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Sweet blueberries are accented by toasted almonds in this tender muffin.

Yields: 6    |    Total Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/16 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoon raw honey
• ½ cup canned coconut milk, full fat
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup fresh blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 2 scant tablespoons cassava flour
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and fit a muffin pan with 6 muffin liners.
2. Next, in a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: almond flour, cassava flour, salt, baking soda.
3. In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: honey, coconut milk, vinegar, vanilla, melted coconut oil, and eggs.
4. When the wet ingredients are fully combined, add the dry ingredients to the wet 1/2 at a time, stirring in-between. A batter will form. Once no clumps remain, fold in the blueberries gently.
5. Using two spoons, scoop the batter into muffin liners until they are about 5/6 of the way full. Top each muffin with a sprinkle of slivered almond and then bake for 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Set on cooling wrack to cool 10 minutes.