Vegan Salted Cacao Thumbprint Cookies are the perfect gluten free, vegan holiday cookie that will be crowd pleasing to all of your guests!
How is Thanksgiving already over?! It seems like it came even faster this year than last. But what a wonderful Thanksgiving we had. Our Vegan besties Charles and Alicia hosted a Thanksgiving Brunch this year with food starting at noon, so those who had family dinners to go to could come have some mimosas or a Bloody Mary and hang out, before going to a family gathering. And yea... Vegan Thanksgiving?! But you know there were so many delicious dishes of such a variety, we didn't even notice the lack of turkey or butter. Plus, we had a well stocked bar so we ate and drank in waves until after 9 pm.
Dan and I brought a few vegan friendly sides and then I decided to make these Vegan Salted Cacao Thumbprint Cookies, too. Since one of their good friends who was coming over is gluten free, not only were the sides and these cookies vegan, but also gluten free. Which to some people (ok probably most people) sounds horrible. My mother-in-law after we told her our Thanksgiving plans gave me an "Ewwww. Good luck with that." But honestly, I love the challenge and these cookies were wonderfully simple. Almond flour, 100% cacao baking chocolate, pure NH maple syrup, coconut milk, and virgin coconut oil.
Super easy. Just a mix of the almond flour, maple syrup, and coconut oil.
Mixed well...
...then rolled into about 16 little balls.
Then a 'thumbprint' in the center of the ball to create a little well that the cacao will eventually be poured in. Then they're popped into the oven for about 12 minutes.
While they bake, in a make shift double boiler melt the baking chocolate and coconut milk. For added sweetness you could add honey or agave syrup too, although I like the cacao flavor so I just used the coconut milk and bars.
Melted and mixed until nice and creamy.
Then, when the cookies are done, I added the cacao into the little thumbprint impressions in the balls. The cookies are really really soft and crumbly so some of them I made a deeper thumbprint for more of the cacao.
Once filled, I added a sprinkle of coarse sea salt for a wonderful salt touch.
Super simple, Vegan Salted Cacao Thumbprint Cookies.
Vegan and gluten free. Although it wasn't nearly as good as the lemon frosted apple cupcakes and pecan and date crust pumpkin pie that Charles and Alicia made, they certainly made a delicious addition. Especially when we cracked open the 5th bottle of wine 😉
Vegan Salted Cacao Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups of almond flour
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil melted
- 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup of coconut milk
- 2 oz 100% cacao baking chocolate
- coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350°.
- In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, coconut oil, and maple syrup.
- Roll out dough into 16 small balls. Place on an un-greased baking sheet and with thumb, indent the center of each ball.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes.
- While the cookies bake, in a double boiler melt chocolate with coconut milk until combined and creamy.
- When cookies are done, fill the indents with a bit of the cacao. If needed, create a larger indent in the cookies. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over cacao if desired.
Oh Thank you!!!!! 🙂
Do you know if you could use coconut flour instead? Looks yummy! I want to make this recipe this weekend for family!
Absolutely! I hope they turn out delicious!!
Ohhhhhhhh......I just tried these out! They are heavenly!!! Very rich but not sweet. I added a little brown sugar to the chocolate filling 🙂 yummmmm!
Thanks, Shalena!! What a great idea adding brown sugar to the chocolate! I'll have to try that on my next batch 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing, these look so amazing I had to try them straight away! Unfortunately mine look nothing like yours 🙁 Perhaps you can share some tips? Mine just fell apart when I tried to put the thumbprint in the cookies. After adding a lot more oil and sirup i finally made them stick. I made the topping following your exact measurements, but it turned into a runny liquid and nothing like on your picture. I have now added chia seeds to make the liquid creamier. I tried tasting one but it wasn´t cooked through all the way so it tasted a bit strange. I am wondering where I went wrong and if you have any tips 🙂
Hi Ina! Thanks so much for stopping by and trying these! I can definitely see how the dough would fall apart- it's soft and can be loose. To help with this, you can substitute 1/2 a cup of arrowroot flour from the almond flour- so 1 1/2 cups of almond flour and 1/2 cup of arrowroot. The arrowroot will act as a binder. I didn't have any on hand so I gave them a go without it.
For the topping, you can always add more bakers chocolate if it's too runny. Or even better, try 1/4 cup of coconut milk first, and then just add more a little more coconut milk at a time if it's too thick to get it to the consistency that you'd like.
Also, you can bake them a bit longer too if it tasted like it wasn't cooked through - bake until they just start to brown slightly. Also, be sure you're using a fine grain almond flour. The courser ground almond flours will effect the overall texture of the cookie. But also, since the dough is just almond flour, maple syrup, and coconut oil, they wont be the same texture as a normal cookie. Almond flour, since it doesn't contain the gluten that normal flour does (and therefore the structure that the gluten proteins bring), the cookies are going to be a much softer, crumblier, cookie. The arrowroot flour will help bind and add more structure. For the cookies picture in the recipe, I didn't use arrowroot but I did have to be gentle with the dough and made sure that when I rolled them into balls, I really made sure that the balls were compact and dough was held together.
I hope this helps! Let me know how they come out! 😀
xo
Thanks so much, I will try that next time 🙂
Do you know if you could use coconut flour instead? Looks yummy!
Im sure this one wil b a winner here at home. Must try. Btw lovely fotographs.
Love this, Miss Tracy! That salt topping makes them oh so gourmet!
Thanks, Angie! xo
yum! might be one of my Christmas present for some lucky person!
Oooh they'll love it! 😀