Chocolate Craisin Almond Meal Cookies, Using The Leftover Almonds From Almond Milk

In the previous post I shared my second take on Almond milk. Your feedback and excitement is great, thank you so much. Perhaps I convinced many of you to try almond milk for the first time or even converted you to being almond milk drinkers. Let's face it cow juice milk is kinda gross! Though I still drink it in my tea and use it for many recipes, I find the smell of cow milk repulsive. Too harsh? Maybe, maybe not. While I can easily chug a giant glass of almond milk, I've never been able to drink 1 tablespoon of plain cow milk without gagging. No glass of plain cow milk for me. Hum, I wonder if that is why I'm such a shorty.

So now that I've got you nice and grossed out on the whole cow milk thing you'll definitely be rushing to make almond milk, haha. But seriously on the previous almond milk recipes I told you not to throw out the ground almonds. Today I'm going to show you one awesome way to use those ground almonds. Cookies, but not just ordinary cookies. I'm talking happy dance-butt wiggling (not giggling) good cookies! If you haven't already discovered that craisins and almonds paired together are like an explosion of tangy sweetness, O-M-G this is so good, then what planet are you living on? Go on grab an almond and 2 craisins, sandwich the almond between the craisins, eat. Trust me this is really, really good! Of course adding chocolate to anything makes it a whole religious experience, am I right?

**The ground almonds called for in my recipe were leftover from the homemade almond milk recipe. I refrigerated the leftover ground almonds and used them the next day. They were still moist, and I am not sure how the recipe would work using drier or commercial almond meal. **

Ingredients:
Makes 16 small cookies*

dry ingredients:
80 g or 1/2 cup of fresh ground almonds (**the exact amount leftover from the almond milk)
120 g or 1 cup a.p. flour
1 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
100 g or 1/2 cup craisins

3 tbsp. melted butter
1/4 cup whole milk (or soy or almond milk)
1/4 tsp. almond extract, optional

1. Preheat oven to 220c/428f and line a cookie sheet, set aside. Mix all dry ingredients until well combined. In a separate bowl mix the melted butter, milk and almond extract. Fold in the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients until well combined.

2. Scoop out even sized amounts to form the 16 cookie balls. (*I used a 1 tbsp. scoop to measure the amount evenly.*) Evenly spaced out place the cookie balls on the cookie sheet, flatten down with your palm. Bake in center of oven for 10-15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before eating or storing.

These fantabulous little cookies filled the kitchen and house with such a sweet smells I couldn't wait to taste them. When I took the first bite I was so happy at how moist and delicious they tasted. Then I got so excited because I didn't have to share any with my hubby, or so I thought. He hates craisins so when I sat done next to him stuffing my mouth I said "I made cookies, but you're not going to like them." He got up and grabbed one, "Oh these are really good!" Me, "Really? You like them? They have craisins you know?" Sending him subliminal messages to say he didn't like them. He grabbed another one, dang it I have to share! Ok, it was actually a really cool feeling seeing my hubby like the cookies as much as I did. So if the craisin hating hubby loved them then so will you.

Don't you love recipes that aren't wasteful? With one ingredient you can make 2 great treats. Waste not want not! In case you missed either of the almond milk recipes you can find the Homemade Non Separating Almond Milk recipe here, and the Raw Almond Milk recipe here. Save money by blanching your own almonds, it's easey peasy.