Raw Gingerbread CookiesNouveau Raw

Gingerbread Cookies

I dunno, this may sound odd coming from a grown woman who doesn’t have any children… but my all-time favorite movie is Shrek (the first one). Somehow it became my own little tradition to watch it over and over during the holiday season. One of my favorite lines is when the little gingerbread man says, “Oh noooo, not my gum drop buttons!!!” I love saying, hearing and watching it. haha So needless to say, I had way to much fun with these cookies. I must warn you… I got a bit carried away with taking pictures. :)

Ingredients: yields 16 gingerbread people

Dry Ingredients:

2 cup raw cashew meal/flour
1 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut flakes, shredded
1/4 cup raw coconut flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp freshly milled black pepper

Wet Ingredients:

1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp water

Lemon Buttercream Frosting for decorating

Preparation:

In a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, break down the cashews, and shredded coconut into a flour – individually. See photo below for the texture of my cashew flour.
Pulse together the cashew flour, coconut flour, shredded coconut, and salt.
Measure out the maple syrup and to that add the vanilla extract, fresh grated ginger and water. Stir together and pour into the food processor along with the dry ingredients. Process until it starts sticking together and forms a ball. The dough is very sticky.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for approx. 40 minutes or until chilled through. This step is very important. If you attempt to skip it you will find the dough to sticky to deal with. You could also place the dough in the fridge overnight if you wanted to do this in phases.
Once chilled, line your surface with plastic wrap and place the chilled dough ball in the center. Cover with another piece of plastic, then start to roll the dough out to about 1/4″ thick. Remove the top plastic piece and using cookie cutters, cut out your shape(s) and transfer them to the mesh sheet that comes along with your dehydrator.
Dry at 115 degrees in the dehydrator for approximately 10-16 hours or until desired dryness is reached.
Frost, decorate and eat!

Suggested Sous Chef Substitutions:

Cashews ~ use macadamia nuts or almonds with their skins removed
Raw coconut flour ~ I don’t recommend substituting. This flour helps to absorb moisture. It is unique in that way.
Maple syrup ~ raw coconut nectar, raw agave
Dehydrating ~ I have not tested baking these in the oven. So if you are interested in that method, you will need to experiment.

Gingerbread Man on a stick! he don’t look to happy about that, does he? hehe

Serving idea: fill a bowl with shredded coconut to look like snow and position the cookies in it.

Gift idea: using cardstock paper, place the cookie on it and slide into a plastic bag.
Tie some curling ribbon around it and voila! On the back of the card stock paper, write
down the name of the cookie and the ingredient list. It’s always good to inform people that
nuts were used in the recipe.