Spice cookies

Photographer: Adam
Makes 12 large cookies

These cookies have a delicious spicy flavour and are fabulous dunked in a steaming hot coffee—plus they have the added bonus of being gluten and dairy-free.  Bake a little longer for crispy cookies, or take them out a couple of minutes earlier for softer, chewy treats.

INGREDIENTS


2/3 cup soft brown sugar — Muscovado is great in this recipe, Demerara also works well
1/2 cup macadamia oil — or any baking oil, but the nutty flavour of the macadamia oil is delicious
1/3 cup golden syrup
1 egg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1 cup gluten-free flour—I used a gluten-free mix, but you could use rice flour, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour or a mixture of all three
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup ground almonds
12 whole nuts (almonds or walnuts are nice), one to top each cookie.

METHOD


Preheat oven to 180˚C on Bake.
1. In a large heat-proof bowl, combine the sugar, oil and golden syrup. Gently heat (either in the microwave or over a double boiler), whisking to dissolve the sugar and achieve a syrup-like consistency.
2. Allow to cool, stirring to prevent the oil separating. Add the egg and beat briefly.
3. Add all dry ingredients and mix.
4. Put tablespoonfuls of mixture onto a lined baking tray, leaving a generous distance between each cookie* (you may only do 6 or 7 at a time). Top each cookie with a nut.
5. Bake for between 12-15 minutes, until golden. Keep an eye on these cookies when cooking—the high sugar content means they can burn quite easily.
Place on wire rack to cool.
*This is quite a wet mixture and the cookies will spread out a lot as they cook.