Mostly Paleo Almond Cookies

A cookie should be sweet, at least in my mind. I tried to cheat as little as possible and re-create a gluten-free cookie I had tried from a box once. I think these are pretty darn tasty!

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large/ x-large egg
1 stick butter, softened
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 cup (however much you want) slivered almonds (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until smooth, then drop in hefty spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. I pressed the bottom of a small cup into mine to give them decoration, but it's not necessary. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10-15 minutes.

Soul Cakes

Soul Cakes are an echo of the sacrificial foods of the Celtic festival of Samhain held in early autumn. These little cakes were traditionally set out with glasses of wine on All Hallows Eve (31st October) for the souls of the dead. On All Saints Day (1st November) children would go "souling" calling out "Soul, Soul, for a Soul Cake: pray you good mistress, a soul cake". You can read the Wikipedia entry, at least part of which I wrote myself, here: Soul Cakes.
I try to make these every Halloween, so we can have a treat and leave some out for our dead ancestors in memorium. I realized this year that I made mine a little too big; if you can get the dough a good consistency, try rolling it out and cutting circular cookies so you can get more out of a batch.


Ingredients
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup caster/superfine sugar
4 cups plain flour, sifted
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon allspice
3 tablespoons currants
a little milk


Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture. Beat in the egg yolks. Fold in the sifted flour and spices. Stir in the currants. Add enough milk to make a soft dough. Form into flat cakes and mark each top with a cross. Brush the tops of each lightly with the leftover egg whites. Bake on a well-greased baking tray in a hot oven until golden (350 degrees F for about 17 minutes worked on my big cakes).

Loaded Oatmeal Raisiny Cookies

I'm having some friends over tonight and a yard sale tomorrow, so I need something sweet to feed everyone. So I found this recipe on the back of a generic tube of oats and messed with it to make these cookies explode with raisiny goodness!

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups Quick Oats
1/2 cup dried currants
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup regular dark raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Beat shortening and sugars until creamy (use your Kitchenaid mixer if you have one). Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together onto a piece of waxed paper and add to mixture, beating together well. Add oatmeal, raisins and currants and mix well.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. YUM! Makes as many cookies as you have dough left after eating raw cookie dough.