Thanksgiving has come and gone (so bittersweet), which means one thing…. The Christmas season is HERE! In case you can’t tell, I’m a tad excited (insert praise hands emoji here). The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is, hands down, my favorite time of year. Here’s why:
family
food
the season of Advent
Christmas trees and decorations
Christmas music
cooler weather
Need I go on? And since starting Treasured Tablespoons, I have a whole new reason to love the Christmas season: the opportunity to share healthy, yet yummy holiday treats with you!
I don’t know about you, but I am still recovering from the Thanksgiving week food coma (yes, a full week of indulgences in California- oops), so I am making my best effort to eat as many whole foods as possible, limiting sugar and alcohol, and using all the excess calories to have killer workouts. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to enjoy my favorite time of the year and miss out on all the in-the-kitchen fun. As usual, this just means moderation and modifying. Moderation in the amount of baked goodies I consume and modifying recipes so that they are filled with more good-for-you ingredients and less sugar.
I cannot go a Christmas season without making a batch of Christmas cookies. I just have the best memories as a little girl, frosting and decorating the Christmas cookies. It was such a joyful and delicious time. I hope to pass on the tradition to my kids one day!
This year will be a little different, though. It is the first year I won’t buy packaged sugar cookie dough. Nope. This year, I’m making fresh, “healthified” cookies from scratch. No refined flours or refined sugar. Just nutritious ingredients and a whole lot of flavor.
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2/3 cup tapioca flour
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tbs coconut oil, slightly melted
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbs coconut butter, slightly melted
- 2 tsp honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Food coloring, optional
- Christmas sprinkles
- In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Using a mixer, combine egg, coconut oil, and vanilla.
- Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Mix well, but be careful to not over mix.
- Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 30 mins*. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300F and coat a cookie sheet with nonstick spray.
- Once the cookie dough is chilled, remove from fridge.
- Spoon about 1 tbs of dough on the cookie sheet and place about 2" apart. Bake for 10 minutes. Once slightly golden brown, remove from oven and let cool on a cooling rack.
- While cooling, combine the coconut butter, honey, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Add food coloring, if you wish.
- When the cookies are cooled completely, frost with the icing and decorate with sprinkles.
- *Do NOT skip this step. This is important to keep the dough from spreading in the oven.
