Joyful Almond Cookie for One

This substantial cookie is reminiscent of an Almond Joy candy bar. You can shape it like a cookie, or, you can shape it like a candy bar and melt a few chocolate chips on the top. In one batch, instead of stuffing a third cookie, I sprinkled the left-over filling on top and studded with chocolate chips. Yummy!

Filling:

4 TBLSP dried unsweetened coconut

1 teaspoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon maple syrup

Dash of vanilla extract

Pinch salt 

Cookie:

1 ½ TBLSP ground flax seed

2 TBLSP water

1 ½ TBLSP coconut oil

1 TBLSP almond butter

¼ teaspoon almond extract

2 TBLSP maple syrup (or 1 ½ TBLSP agave nectar instead—agave is sweeter)

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 TBLSP unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

10 whole almonds, toasted and chopped roughly

1 TBLSP chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. Put the flax seed and the water in a small bowl to think about becoming egg-like.
2. Put all of the filling ingredients (coconut, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt) into a blender and whirl until it’s a smoothish mass. With so few ingredients, it’s isn’t going to blend all the way smooth, and plan to spend a lot of time scraping down the sides.
3. Now, make the cookie. In a small bowl, combine the coconut oil, nut butter, vanilla, and maple syrup. By the time you’re finished mixing it up, your flax seeds should be pretty viscous. Mix them in too.
4. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, and stir until just combined.
5. Transfer the cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet and flatten into two gigantic pancakes or three mere-mortal-sized ones. Sprinkle the toasted almonds in a neat pile in the center.
6. Divide the filling evenly among the cookies, squeezing and shaping it into an oval or rectangle. Try to get it as tightly squeezed as possible, to make wrapping it easier. Then plop the filling into the center of cookie, on top of the almonds. fold the surrounding pancake up around it. Once the filling is mostly encapsulated, you can pick the pancakes up and roll them into balls between your hands or compress them into a boxy kind of shape on the parchment paper. Make sure the thing is sealed well. Press the chocolate chips into the top if you’re going that route.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet or they will crumble!