St. Patty's Day Cookies

Happy Fun Food Friday!!! Over the past week, I have been trying to come up with a treat to make for St. Patty's Day, and there was only 1 criteria - it had to be GREEN!! I wanted to make something that was different and without food coloring (since liquid food coloring is a paleo no-no) and so I came up with these cookies. They turned out awesome!! I was so pleased with them, and proud of myself! I made these earlier in the week just to practice and see if my "experiment" would actually work - and it did!!!

 Here is the magic: Sunflower seeds contain chlorogenic acid (chlorophyll) that will react with baking soda/powder and turn green, once cooled. Sure enough, the following day, the inside of my cookies were green! PERFECT! This is in no way harmful, nor does it change the taste - it is just merely a chemical reaction. This reaction can be stopped by several methods, but I wanted the green effect for my St. Patty's Day cookies!

I baked another big batch Thursday night to share with Iron Tribe, and Adam's work on Friday. This recipe makes 24, so I doubled it for the occasion.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups blanched almond flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tbsp SunButter (brand name of sunflower butter)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Drizzle of honey (optional)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda, heaping
• 1Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
• Coconut Crystals (optional for garnish)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients 

3. In a small mixing bowl, mix egg, maple syrup, vanilla extract, honey and SunButter until well combined

4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until well combined

5. Pour melted coconut oil into batter and combine

6. On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop balls of cookie dough (about 1 Tbsp in size)

7. Sprinkle with Coconut Crystals if desired
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cookies pass the knife test

At the last minute, I came up with a simple icing to put on some of the cookies. All you do is combine the following ingredients: 1/2 cup coconut milk, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tbsp raw honey, 2 tbsp coconut flour. Voila!

Let the cookie cool down in order for the "magic" to take place. These reheat well in the microwave! Enjoy, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!