them, though, is that they are gluten and dairy free, and with growing numbers of people attempting such dietary restrictions, I thought I’d try them out.
5-10 minutes, scraping sides occasionally, until it makes a
“butter”:
cashews and/or peanuts (peanuts will have a stronger flavor) (substitute 1/2 cup
total nut butter from a jar if you want… keep extra on hand in case the dough
is too soupy)
beans/chickpeas (Watch for good deals on these, places like Big Lots or HMart or
Trader Joes, or get your friends to give you the about-to-expire ones off their
pantry shelves…)
you’re short of nut butter, as the whites will make the dough
runnier) (The egg is optional, but I think it greatly improves the texture.)
soda
powder
(on the lesser end if the canned beans were salted, or if you are using a nut butter from a
jar, which happens to have salt as the ingredient, or if your nuts were
salted)
sugar
vanilla
(optional) (I want to try molasses. Molasses is amazing. But it will also
overtake the other flavors.)
until smooth. If dough is so soupy that it won’t stay in a blob on a cookie
sheet, but rather will puddle before it even starts to cook, you need more nut
butter. Another option is to sprinkle some oats in there. (Apparently there is
some debate that I don’t understand about oats having gluten or not. Choose
according to your level of intolerance and hype-acceptance.)
(Guittard Real Semisweet or some other allergy-friendly brand if you care about dairy
free or soy free)
dough. Like, make these before a meal, chill during the meal, and pull it out
after you’ve rinsed the dishes and the table, to bake some up for
dessert.
spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Cookies will start at about 1.5 to 2 inches and
spread to about 2.5 inches as they bake. They bake for 15 minutes. (Other
recipes I read said 20-25, but it doesn’t improve the texture and it does give the bottoms a kind of weird burned bean taste…) Nut Butter Bites won’t remove from the
pan as easily as cookies, because they don’t have the same kind of greasy fats
as butter or Crisco. I didn’t have much trouble, just know that there will be a
little bit of cake-like residue on the pan, like the inside of a used muffin cup
liner.
better if 1) you’re not expecting a cookie, and 2) you don’t think about them
being basically hummus with chocolate chips.
you, though. There is protein from the beans and nuts. Nuts and beans have
minerals in them, and vitamins, that we US Americans need and don’t get enough of.
And the nuts (not so much peanuts, keep in mind) have those useful kinds of fats
that we don’t get enough of either.
fiber, B vitamins, Vitamin E, potassium, copper, iron, magnesium, selenium, and
zinc. They have anti-oxidants and monounsaturated-fatty acids (good for your
cholesterol).
of beneficial nutrients, with less selenium and more calcium.
benefits, but they’re still present, including protein, iron, B vitamins, and
zinc.
protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, zinc, potassium. They are mild phytoestrogens,
so they serve to naturally balance estrogen levels in our bodies (against
synthetic estrogens from meat and dairy and pharmaceuticals.)
compared to molasses, though, which offers calcium, iron, magnesium, and selenium.
for your digestion, liver and hormones, energy and strength, bone health,
skin health, heart health. But they still have sugar, so don’t go too crazy
with them!