Today was a big day –I taught the first in a series of cooking classes that I will be offering quarterly.

The theme of this class was Valentine’s Day –we made the Cranberry Apricot Truffles that I have previously posted on this site, a new experimental flavor of truffles (to be revealed someday soon) and the black and white cookie recipe below, of course using heart cookie cutters, given our theme.

The class was held in the spiffy little commercial kitchen at my children’s school in Boulder. It seemed as though fun and learning were had by all, as well as too much taste testing. We had to sample everything many times to try out all of the different versions and all were stuffed by the end. Alas, my poor taste testers.

Black and White Cookies
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ cup agave nectar
½ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate drops

1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour and salt
2. In a smaller bowl, combine grapeseed oil, agave and vanilla
3. Stir wet ingredients into dry
4. Chill dough in freezer for 30 minutes
5. Between 2 pieces of parchment paper, roll out dough 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick
6. Using a 2 inch cookie cutter or the top of a 2 inch wide jelly jar, cut out cookies
7. Bake at 350° on a parchment lined baking sheet for 5-7 minutes until brown around the edges
8. Cool for ½ hour
9. In a small saucepan, melt chocolate over very low heat, stirring continuously
10. Remove saucepan from heat and one by one, dip cookies into chocolate
11. Set cookies to cool on a parchment lined baking sheet –refrigerate if necessary to harden chocolate
12. Serve

Makes 24 cookies

These vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free cookies are simple to make and super fun for children to roll out and cut into different shapes. The chocolate dipping part of the recipe is also a captivating activity for the little ones.