Delicious 2 ingredient holiday cookies that are made with two healthy whole foods and high in protein. The cookie batter can be cut out into shapes, pressed or just rolled into balls and baked. Step by step video is below.
2 Ingredient Holiday Cookies
These incredible 2 ingredient healthy cookies taste like shortbread but are snappy like traditional sugar cookies. And they really are so easy to make. And don't provide a sugar-rush as do traditional sugar cookies, and instead are high in protein and thus provide you with an energy boost and a feeling of fullness - depending on how many you eat. lol. Decorate them with my snowy vegan royal icing !
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Let's start by saying what is not in these cookies. These healthy sugar cookies have no eggs or milk. They are also oil-free sugar cookies. And they don't have butter. Not even vegan butter. And they don 't have bananas. These are banana-free vegan cookies.
These cookies are only made of two ingredients - almond flour and maple syrup. I used fine almond flour with is a light cream color. You can use almond meal but the cookies will have dark speckles.
These cookies basically stay the height and width that you roll them out so they are perfect as.
cut out cookies
pressed cookies
slice and bake cookies
chocolate covered cookies
shortbread cookies
sandwich cookies
What Do These Cookies Taste Like?
Incredibly, these cookies taste just like classic sugar cookies, all crunchy and buttery. And provide the perfect base for any sugar or frosting topping you can think up.
How Do You Make 2 Ingredient Cookies?
Making my 2-ingredient healthy cookies could not be easier! My complete recipe is below and a step by step video is here but here is a brief overview:
Step 1. Simply mix up dough, and chill.
Step 2. Roll flat between floured parchment, cut shapes, and pick away the excess dough around the shapes.
Step 3. Refrigerate those cut out shapes, and re-roll the excess dough, cut out, chill and repeat until all dough is used up.
Step 4. Sprinkle chilled cookies before baking (or after baking) and bake for 20-25 minutes at 250 F. Did you catch that lower temperature? It's lower because these are only 2 ingredients and you are really drying them out more than baking them. Sprinkle after baking if you choose, then cool and coat.
Cookies High in Protein
A quarter cup of almond flour contains 6 grams of protein. Since this cookie is primarily almond flour, you are getting a mouthful of protein!
This awesome flour is also high in fiber, calcium and iron. Specifically, ¼ cup contains 3gms of fiber, 60mg of calcium and 2 mg or iron. Pretty good for a sugar cookie!
Substitutions
One reason this recipe works so well is almond flour is so high in fat. So if my nut-free friends want an option, they can probably swap the almond flour for sunflower seed flour or tiger nut flour, although I haven't tried it.
Aren't alternative flours like almond flour and sunflower seed flour amazing? I have even seen banana flour recently. (Read Whole Food's article here on how alternative flours are a big trend)
FAQS
I have answered some relevant questions below.
What thickness is best for cut out cookies?
The best thickness for your rolled dough is ¼ inch.
How do you get cut out cookies to keep their shape?
Use a flour that is high in healthy fats like almond flour. Using almond flour helps these cut out cookies keep their shape.
Flavor Variations
Great question! Here are some ideas I have tried:
Spice Sugar Cookies - add teaspoon of spices, maybe pumpkin spice or chai.
Chocolate Sugar Cookies - add ½ teaspoon of cacao powder or melted chocolate.
Gingerbread Sugar Cookies - remove 1 teaspoon of maple syrup, and replace it with a teaspoon of molasses, and gingerbread spice mix.
Lemon Sugar Cookies - add 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 1 teaspoon rind.
If you want to try, add new ingredients a little at a time and taste-test the batter. So many options, so little time!
5. Does the dough take a cookie press imprint well?
Yes! I used a Nordic cookie press. I chilled a few cut-out cookies in the freezer about 15 minutes. Then placed them on the parchment-lined cookie sheet that I intended to bake them on, and pressed the mold on top of the chilled cookie.
I did not grease the mold. The cookie stuck a little, but tapping and prying gently did the trick. As you can see, the imprint stayed through baking. Next time I will press harder to get a crisper imprint.
More Easy Healthy Cookies:
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2 Ingredient Holiday Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour (see blog post for nut-free option)
- ¼ cup maple syrup
Instructions
Make 2-Ingredient Cookies
- Preheat oven 250 F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.Mix the almond flour and maple syrup together into a dough. I used a spoon.
- Wrap the dough in parchment paper and freeze 15 minutes
- Roll the dough out on a cookie sheet, between two sheets of parchment paper, to about ¼ inch-to ½ inch in height. Peel the top parchment paper layer off. No chilling necessary.
- Cut shapes with a cookie cutter, and pick away the dough between the dough shapes, leaving the cut out cookies on the parchment paper. Don't dust with flour to roll; depend on the parchment paper layers to keep dough from sticking.
- Bake at 250 F for 20-25 minutes. Let cookies cool.
About Toppings
- Sprinkle cut out cookies before baking.
- Or sprinkle after the cookies come out of the oven when they are still warm.
- To dip them in chocolate, allow the cookies to cool. Then microwave ½ cup of chocolate chips for 60 seconds, stir until smooth, and dip each cookie into the melted chocolate halfway. Allow chocolate to set.
Storing Cookies
- Store the cookies for 3-4 days in a sealed container at room temperature. Or freeze them for 3 months or longer.
Jackie
Mmmm Im exited to try this recipe!!
Dee Dine
Thank you, it really is amazing. Share your results, I'd love to see. Dee x