I've spoilt you with two recipes in one week this week. This recipe kind of come out of no where actually. I didn't intend to post another Valentine's recipe but I was playing in the kitchen yesterday and it kind of just happened. I intended to make a healthy cookie and it kind of snowballed from there and ended up being drizzled in chocolate and topped with cranberries.

Happy Valentine's Day by the way! Did you get anything special? As I said in yesterday's post we tend to keep things simple around here and opted for a special card written to each other with fluffy, sweet words. It was nice. I intended to make a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs for hubby and enjoy it together before the little boy woke up this morning. That didn't happen. He seem to know of my plans and woke up early, hollered the house down to get up, which he did in a bad mood and hollered again over breakfast. No romance in our house this morning!!!

The base of this cookie is healthy if you skip the added extras at the end if you don't feel like being naughty. A base of wholemeal flour and almond meal makes for a filling and low GI cookie. I sweetened it with rice malt syrup and used coconut oil which gives it such a delicious and rich flavour. I couldn't help myself picking at the dough as I was rolling the cookies out to bake. It was so moreish. I would recommend chilling the dough for 15 minutes or so before rolling out as it makes it easier transferring the dough to the baking tray. I tried stamping the cookie dough with lettered stamps to see how they looked once baked. Unfortunately the letters weren't deep enough and once the cookie was cooked you couldn't really see the words stamped in the top. Thankfully I didn't stamp all the cookies.

So if you didn't manage to make a special fuss this morning why not whip these little cookies up for afternoon tea and present them to you one true love. If you don't have a heart shaped cookie cutter a round one will suffice!

Chocolate & Cranberry Almond Cookies

by The Whimsical Wife

Prep Time: 20min

Cook Time: 10-12min
Makes: 15 large cookies

Ingredients

1 cup almond meal
1 1/4 cup plain wholemeal flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup rice malt syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup dark chocolate melts
1/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 175 degrees (fan bake) and line a large cookie tray with baking paper.

In a large bowl add the almond meal and sift in the flour and baking powder.

Pour in the rice malt syrup, vanilla essence and melted coconut oil and stir to combine and form a stiff dough.

Place the bowl of dough into the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.

Roll out the dough onto a piece of baking paper to about 1/2cm thick. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter cut out cookies. Using a spatula lift out the cookies and place them onto the baking tray. Repeat the process until all the dough has been used.

Place the tray into the oven and bake for 10 -12 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove the tray from the oven and move the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Place the chocolate into a small microwaveable safe bowl. Heather chocolate in 30 second bursts until the chocolate is melted and runny.

Using a fork dip it into the melted chocolate and drizzle it back and forth over the cooled cookies.

While the chocolate is still warm sprinkle the chopped cranberries over the top.

Enjoy straight away or let the chocolate set before devouring.

If you need to make your loved one a special breakfast tommorrow morning because you had to work today pop on over to Mum's Business website and check out my Chocolate Stuffed French Toast recipe.