Happy Chanukah, everyone! By now, I hope you are all up to your ears in latkes, dreidel, and menorahs – if you celebrate the holiday, of course. I actually haven’t had any latkes yet, which is probably a Chanukah record, but that will change this weekend. (Can’t wait!) If you, however, are like me on past years — feeling compelled to make latkes on that fourth Chanukah dinner engagement but already well past sick of them — may I suggest my carrot-ginger latkes with green-apple sour cream to spice things up a bit? You won’t be disappointed!
But, in the words of Woody Guthrie, that’s not what I came to tell you about. I came to talk about these cookies! I’m calling them “cruncher-nutty” because they are delightfully crunchy (sometimes hard to find in a gluten-free cookie) and also pleasantly nutty and buttery (though there is no butter in this recipe). They are Chanukah cookies for four reasons:
*They are made with oil – potentially an 8-day supply of it (Jk). Side note: This has the added benefit of making them dairy-free!
*They are made with Macadamia nuts, which are etymologically related to the Maccabees (Jk). Side note: This has the added benefit of making them quite delicious!
*You can use a cookie cutter to cut them into many Chanukah-related shapes – driedels, menorahs, etc. Side note: This has the added benefit of making them fun to prepare!
*They are also yummy spread with jam, a la sufganiyot, or – especially if you make circle cookies – as cookie sandwiches with jam in the middle. Side note: This has the added benefit of, well, JAM!
So…ready to make some cruncher-nutty Chanukah cookies? Let’s do it!
A couple notes about this recipe:
-For Low FODMAP: 1/3 cup of hazelnut meal contains moderate amounts of FODMAPs (yellow in the Monash App). There are 2/3 cup in the entire batch, which means that as long as you eat less than half the batch in one sitting (and trust me, you’d really be a freak if you managed to eat more than that as this makes a LOT of cookies), you should be fine. However, since there are also macadamia nuts in the recipe, you also want to be careful not to overdue it on total nut consumption. Sticking to a few small cookies per sitting is best.
-Don’t worry if your cookies don’t seem crunchy when they first come out of the oven; they will become crunchy as they cool!
-I don’t have an exact yield for this recipe since your number of cookies will depend on your cookie cutters. However, it makes a very generous amount, and it’ll make a TON if you use a shot glass to make circular cookies.
Cruncher-Nutty Chanukah Cookies
- 2/3 cup hazelnut meal
- 1/3 cup raw macadamia nuts
- 1/2 cup sorghum flour
- 1/3 cup millet flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
Pulse the macadamias in a food processor until finely ground. Combine the hazelnut meal, ground macadamias, flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add the oil and stir until flour is coated; then mix in the egg and vanilla.
Place the dough on a parchment paper-lined, freezer-safe pastry board (or other easily frozen surface for rolling). Put another sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough and roll the dough between the two sheets of parchment until it is about 1/8 an inch thick. (Don’t make your cookies too thick or they won’t be crunchy!) Place the board with the rolled out dough in the freezer for 25 minutes.
When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 350°F and line two sheet trays with parchment paper. Use cookie cutters, shot glasses, etc. to cut out desired shapes and use a spatula to gently transfer the cookies onto the parchment paper lined sheet trays, about 1.5-2 inches apart. (You will probably need to do two batches to get all the cookies baked; mine did not quite fit on two sheet trays). If the cookies get too fragile to be transferred, return the dough to the freezer for 5-10 minutes.
Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are a light golden brown and the tops are still light. Remove from the oven and let the cookies stand for at least 5 minutes, during which time they will firm up. You can then transfer them to a plate to finish cooling. When cool, they will be completely crunchy. Store the cookies in an air-tight ziplock bag as soon as they finish cooling, to keep them fresh and crunchy.
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