These Honey Roasted Almond Thumbprint Cookies are buttery soft and chewy with a crunchy outer coating and sweet jammy filling. They’re gluten free, paleo and refined sugar free. Everyone will love them.
Throughout the year I eat a few cookies, but come December I let myself free to create and eat lots of cookies. I love giving away boxes of cookies to my friends and family. Now that we’re staying home because of the pandemic I can put on my baking hat and make even more varieties of cookies.
These Honey Roasted Almond Cookies are more complex than my usual fare, but so delicious. If you want a simple thumbprint cookie try my Easy Paleo Thumbprint Cookies.
The combination of honey-roasted and salted almonds gives these cookies a sweet-salty complexity and a little orange zest adds brightness. Chewy jam adds another dimension of flavor and texture. They are the perfect crunchy addition to your holiday cookie box.
Special Ingredients
Maple Sugar – I use maple sugar for these cookies, it’s very pure and keeps the color light but they also come out great with coconut sugar, just a little darker.
Paleo Baking Flour – For the flour I buy a pre-made mix of paleo baking flour from Bob’s Red Mill. You can find it in most health food store. It’s the perfect combination of almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour and arrowroot flour.
Tapioca Flour – additional tapioca flour makes the cookies soft and chewy.
Honey Roasted Almonds – For the almonds I make my own Honey Roasted Almonds (recipe below). I couldn’t find ones that were made without refined sugar. They are a treat all by themselves, perfect for snacking. They can be made with maple sugar or coconut sugar.
Salted Roasted Almonds – These are available in most health food stores and supermarkets
How To Make These Thumbprint Cookies
Start by making your Honey Roasted Almonds. This can be done the day before or even a week before. The Honey Roasted Almonds are at treat all by themselves, perfect for snacking. I use maple sugar or coconut sugar instead of white sugar to make them healthier.
Mix the 1/4 cup of the paleo flour with the honey roasted almonds in a food processor. Then pulse in the remaining paleo flour, tapioca flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.
Add butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
Add the eggs and vanilla. Pulse in the egg, vanilla and orange zest until dough is well combined and starts to clump.
Scoop out the cookie dough. Using a cookie scoop, or a tablespoon measure, make circular mounds for each cookie and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Chop the remaining honey roasted almonds and the salted almonds for coating.
Place the crushed nuts in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix an egg white.
Dunk each ball in egg whites then roll in the chopped almonds.
Create the thumbprint. Using your thumb make a dent in the top of each cookie as you place it back onto the parchment 2 inches apart.
Fill with jam – Any flavor you like, I use fruit juice sweetened raspberry.
Bake. In a 350-degree-Fahrenheit oven, bake the thumbprint cookies for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are just golden.
Let cool.
How to Store Honey Roasted Thumbprint Cookies
I like to store these thumbprint cookies loosely covered with plastic wrap, not in an airtight container. I find that if kept in an airtight container they soften up too much. It’s not a bad thing if you prefer them super soft. You’ll have to try both ways to see what’s best for you. Either way they’re delicious.
They will keep for 7-10 days but you’ll probably eat them all before that. The moist jam keeps them soft,
I hope you have fun making these holiday cookies. Even though this cookie recipe is a little complex, part of the joy of making cookies is the journey. The other part is the eating and you’ll love the taste and texture of these Honey Roasted Almond Thumbprint Cookies.
They’re buttery soft and chewy with a crunchy outer coating and jammy filling, gluten free and refined sugar free. The perfect addition to any of your upcoming holiday festivities.
If you like this recipe try these other delicious cookies for your cookie box:
Cherry Garcia Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan, Paleo)
Paleo Coconut Macaroons Dipped In Chocolate
Easy Paleo Thumbprint Cookies
Soft and Chewy Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you give this recipe a try, please let us know what you think! Give it some stars or leave a comment. ♥
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Honey Roasted Almond Thumbprint Cookies
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 16 cookies 1x
Ingredients
Thumbprint Cookies
- 3/4 cup chopped honey roasted almonds, divided (recipe below)
- 1 cup paleo flour, divided
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/2 cup maple sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
- Pinch of cinnamon
- 1/2 cup organic butter, chilled and cut into 1” cubes (8 ounces, 1 stick)
- 1 large pastured egg
- 1 ½ teaspoons organic vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 egg white
- 1/4 cup roasted salted almonds (recipe below)
- 1/4 cup raspberry jam or other thick jam
Honey Roasted Almonds
- 2 cups whole raw almonds
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or other light flavored oil
- 1/4 cup maple sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
Instructions
Making the Dough
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheets with parchment
- In a food processor pulse together 1/4 cup honey roasted almonds and ¼ cup paleo flour until the nuts are coarsely ground
- Pulse in the remaining 3/4 cup paleo flour, tapioca flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.
- Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
- Pulse in the egg, vanilla and zest.
- Continue to pulse until the dough is well combined and starts to clump (but doesn’t form a ball).
- Working with 1 tablespoon of dough, using a cookie scoop or tablespoon measure, form the mixture into 1” balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet.
Creating the Cookies
- Put the egg white in a shallow bowl, the beat it lightly with a fork until frothy.
- Put the remaining 1/2 cup honey roasted almonds and the 1/4 cup salted almonds on a cutting board and coarsely chop.
- Put them into separate shallow bowl.
- Dunk each ball of dough first in the egg whites then in the nuts, rolling to coat the balls well.
- Using your thumbs, press an indentation in the center of each round of dough. Place the balls on the baking sheets 2 inches apart.
- Using a 1/2 teaspoon measure, fill the indentation with jam.
- Bake until the edges of the cookies are just golden, 15-20 minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Honey Roasted Almonds
- Spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in a cold oven.
- Turn oven on to 350 degrees F. Roast almonds, stirring occasionally, until light tan and fragrant, 12 to 15 minutes. The nuts will continue to cook after removing from oven.
- Stir honey, water, and avocado oil together in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Add almonds; cook and stir until almonds have absorbed all the liquid, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Meanwhile, mix sugar and salt together in a small bowl; sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the sugar/salt mixture into a large bowl.
- Transfer coated almonds to the large bowl. Sprinkle remaining sugar mixture over almonds; toss to coat evenly.
- Spread almonds onto parchment paper to cool completely. Store at room temperature in a tightly covered container.
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dessert, Snack
- Cuisine: Paleo, Gluten Free, Vegetarian, Refined Sugar Free
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