This afternoon I decided to adjust a recipe from Maria's blog and am more than pleased with the results. Maria intended these to be similar to NutriGrain Bars. Here is the link to her recipe. Instead of using a fruit or jam filling I made a simplified pumpkin pie filling. I used about a cup of pumpkin with some pie spice and an egg. I also added about a tablespoon of coconut flour to the filling because pumpkin can be so watery. I didn't want it to soggy up the insides of my cookies.
I followed the recipe for the cookie dough as Maria had it....except for the following....
- I doubled the recipe
- I used half blanched and half unblanched almond flour
- Instead of cinnamon, I used pumpkin pie spice
- I used half almond extract and half vanilla. I wanted maple, but apparently I'm out of it, because I couldn't find it.
- I didn't use Swerve. I used slightly less the amount of generic Splenda.
Here are a few pictures of the steps along the way.
I used the fancy thing-a-ma-jig from Pampered Chef to cut and seal them together. I was much easier then I expected. Maria says to spray the parchment with oil before rolling it out. I used too much. That made it a little messy at first.
Here are the finished cookies.
The next time I make them I'm going to try and roll them thinner. I probably could have gotten away with a bit more filling in them also. I had plenty left, so I didn't have to skimp. I am also going to experiment with a date filling and a raisin filling. My mom used to make a raisin filled cookie that I just loved. These would be very similar. Both those fillings would raise the carb count, but as a special Christmas cookie they would be worth skimping in other areas during the day.
A note about Splenda....I know for some (including Maria, the creator of this recipe), Splenda (sucralose) is a no-no. I would have love to have a form of erythritol to use on these. However, I cannot find an affordable local source for it. And right now, life is way to complicated to order groceries from the internet. Not to mention the expense of it. We use the generic Wal-Mart version of sucralose. Also, Splenda does have calories and carbs associated with it. It is with technical loopholes they get away with saying zero carbs and calories. All that being said. If anyone ever reads this (highly doubtful), and wants to lecture me about Splenda, save your breath. It is not my ideal choice, but it is the right choice, right now. I hope to one day be able to eliminate it, but Don and I have had several major life changes thrust on us all at once recently. We are taking one day, one moment at a time. I found a local inexpensive source for xylitol, but it made both of us sick. So for now it is Splenda.
