I couldn’t believe how flavorful these almond macaroon cookies were even though they don’t have any flour, butter or refined sugar in them. It’s surprising. Even my parents liked them. Bonus: this recipe only requires a couple ingredients that you probably already have at home, which is the reason I even tried this recipe. It was freezing, I was craving cookies, and I didn’t want to go to the store. Boom. Almond macaroons.

This recipe was slightly modified from a recipe in the book: Natural Sugar Desserts.

Good thing I had my cake-baking friend in the kitchen while I made these so that she could whip the egg whites. I’m not so good at that.

Ingredients:

2 cups ground roasted almonds
4 egg whites
4 Tbsp honey
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract(optional)
1/4 cup dark cocoa nibs (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl add ground almonds, honey, ginger and extracts.
3. In a separate large bowl beat egg whites with a whisk or with metal beaters until stiff peaks form.
4. Slowly fold a quarter of the egg whites into the almond mixture.
5. Add this back to the rest of the egg whites. Carefully combine.
6. Place on lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

You can roast the almonds yourself or buy unsalted roasted almonds, but to be honest I only had lightly salted almonds and this recipe turned out fine. I’d like to use unsalted next time and maybe add just a dash of salt…but maybe that’s the exact same thing.

You might be able to substitute actual almond flour for the ground almonds, but I kind of like the chunkier texture the ground almonds gave the cookies.

I drizzled them with melted dark chocolate cocoa nibs, but they tasted great without the added chocolate. You might have to add a bit of coconut oil to get a smooth chocolate-y consistency before drizzling.

Here are some other paleo/healthy cookie options.

Paleo Coconut Cookies
Coconut Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Also, in case you were wondering, because I had no idea there was even a difference…

*For the full recipes head over to Yakka Fit

(Photos via 1, 2, 3, 4)