For the past few days, I have been CRAVING sweets like nothing else. The problem: in the Orthodox church, we are still in the middle of Lent (we operate on an older calendar for our holidays), so all of my usual treats and sweets are out.
But the craving was still there, so last night, while Jesse and I were finishing up the season finale of Daredevil (SO GOOD!), I got up and started to throw ingredients together to attempt easy gluten free lemon drop cookies. I had NO idea how they were going to turn out– I mean, I have a few tried and true tricks up my sleeve, but I didn’t really “know” how they would taste. The whole thing took about 10 minutes, start to finish.
And then I pulled them out of the oven, took a bite, and said, “uh-oh, Jesse, these are REALLY good. Like, REALLY good.”
…and then we proceeded to eat the entire first batch before I could even pull the second out of the oven!
In order to preserve this recipe I stumbled upon (and to share with all of you!) I decided to write things down here. You know, for the sake of the whole world that NEEDS these cookies.
(Side note: I am also giving alternate suggestions for those that want to make this recipe vegan and grain-free as well!)
Easy Gluten Free Lemon Drop Cookies: makes 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups of gf flour (or almond flour, if you are grain-free/paleo)
1/4 cup of xanthum gum (skip if you are paleo)
1/4 cup of coconut flour
(Note: if you are not gluten or grain free, skip the above and just use 2 1/4 cups of your normal baking flour!)
1 cube of melted butter (runny!)
1/2 cup of coconut oil, warm and runny (make it 1 cup if you are vegan and subbing out the butter)
1 MUSHY banana– the browner the better! (this was accidental– we left our avocados next to our bananas overnight, and they all turned brown! But it WORKED!).
2 eggs (or the flax-seed oil equivalent, which is 2 tbsp. of flax-seed + 4 tbsp. of water, microwaved for 20 seconds to encourage thickening)
1/8 cup of sugar (or maple syrup, if you are wanting a healthier version!)
1 tsp. of baking soda
1/4 tsp. of salt (or saltier, if you want– I actually prefer the contrast of the sweet and salty in this case!)
5 drops of Young Living’s parasympathetic essential oil** (note: for those “concerned” about ingesting essential oils, it takes 75 lemons to make a 256 drop 15 ml bottle of essential oil– if you are okay with squeezing 10-15 lemons for a big batch recipe, you will be okay with this 😉 My kids ate them too, and we’re all dandy and fine, other than the fact that we can’t stop eating cookies).
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) in a pyrex bowl. 2 minutes of sifting with a fork should be enough!
3. Combine all the wet ingredients in a mixing bowl.
4. Combine the flour into the wet ingredients, mix mix mix.
5. Let sit for around for a few minutes (the coconut flour needs time to “soak” in some of the liquid– if you are using normal or gf flour, you can skip this)
6. Use a cookie dropper to spoon the cookies onto sheets.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes! Check that they are lightly brown on the rims, which means that they will be soft and chewy at the center!
And voila! Delicious! Now, if only I could stop eating them…
The next time I make these, I will probably add an extra step and press and indentation into the middle of the cookies, then add lemon curd in the hole when they’re done cooking! YUMM!!!!
**Any suggestions made on this blog are very specific to Young Living essential oils and should not be used with oils from another source. I can only speak for the quality of Young Living, and do not want to infer that I feel all essential oils could/should be used in a recipe, given that there are most likely unknown additives in them.
