Lusciously laced with warming cinnamon, ginger, and spicy pepper, these date and puffed rice cookies are unassuming little treats. With caramel-like naturally sweet dates and whole grain puffed brown rice cereal, you won’t find yourself with a cookie hangover!
Chewy and freaking flavorful, made with puffed brown rice, these cookies are both gluten-free and vegan. A gelatinous slurry and flax seeds bonds everything into the sliceable vegan dough. High fives to the genius who figured out that such a mixture of flax and water behaves a lot like an an egg!
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The spiciness in every tasty bite comes with powerful health perks: Cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne all have anti-inflammatory benefits, and ginger and cinnamon are well-known antioxidants.
“These look healthy.” Robbie took one look at the plate and that’s what he said. He does that sometimes. Then I wonder if it’s a compliment or a critique. He loves the chewy texture and the fact that these cookies are not overly sweet.
Now I make no claim to get even close to being a nutritionist, the fact is, dates are a better choice for our sweet tooths. Dates are a heart-healthy sugar boasting fiber and B vitamins, and they’re low on the glycemic index, which means they won’t cause a huge sugar spike after eating one, or three, or four!
These cookies are easy to make too. All the ingredients go in the food processor for a two-minute whir until everything comes together in a ball. Then you form the mass of spicy goodness into a log. Pop the in the freezer and keep it frozen until you’re ready to slice and bake.
If you want to bake these cookies right away and not wait for the log to freeze, roll the dough into little 1-inch balls, flatten them with the bottom of a glass, and bake.
Here’s to spicy healthy good-for-you gluten free and vegan cookies!
Date and Puffed Rice Cookies recipe details:
- You definitely want to use a food processor in order to combine all the ingredients. You’d be chopping and mashing for days without the help of your food processor.
- This is a soft cookie dough. You want to slice the log into cookies when frozen. They don’t spread during baking, so place them close to one another on the baking sheet.
- For a bit of eye candy, I decorated the tops with pieces of candied ginger. (Candied ginger is made with processed sugar syrup. If you aim to keep your date and puffed rice cookies naturally sweetened, don’t add the candied ginger.)
- Adapted from a recipe on the bag of puffed brown rice cereal.
- You might also like these gluten-free Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Wishing you a fabulous week! Be sure to get in the kitchen and cook something healthy and just a little bit sweet!
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Date and Puffed Rice Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seed see note
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- 3 cups puffed rice cereal (I used Arrowhead Mills puffed brown rice)
- 1 cup pitted dates
- 3 tablespoons avocado or grapeseed oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground white or black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Pinch fine sea salt
- Candied ginger optional
Instructions
- In a small bowl mix the ground flax seed with the warm water. Set aside to jell for at least 15 minutes, until it becomes thick and gelatinous. Put the puffed rice, dates, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, both white and cayenne peppers, salt, and the flax mixture in the work bowl of a food processor.
- Process 2 to 3 minutes, until the dough sticks together in a ball.
- On a piece of parchment or waxed paper, form the dough into a log about 12 inches long. Wrap the parchment around the dough and use it to round out the log. Freeze several hours or overnight, until firm enough to slice.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a couple of large baking sheets with parchment paper. Slice cookies about 1/4-inch thick and arrange on baking sheets about 1/2 inch apart. (see note) If you wish, press small pieces of candied ginger into the top of each cookie
- Bake 10 minutes or so, until the bottoms are light brown, darker than they were when you put them in the oven.
Notes
- For vegans, this gelatinous flax seeds and water mix replaces eggs. If you prefer, substitute an egg for the flax egg mixture. Cookies made with real egg take less time to bake than those with "flax egg".
- After slicing the cookies, if I have the time, I use my fingers to reshape the cookies so they are more round. Even though they come from a round log, slicing the log takes them out of round.
