Guilt-Free Sunday: Snickerdoodles

Here I go again, shirking my duties.  I'll be honest, I've been feeling pretty crappy over the weekend.  Head cold gone totally out of control... sinus pressure that made my head feel like someone poured cement into my skull, drainage that made it hard for me to keep anything down... I'll spare you the rest of the details.  I'll admit, I've been slacking a bit on the natural prevention.  I know it's the season to get sick.  I know everyone around us has been getting sick - Harlee's around other kids at the babysitter's, I'm working directly on people all day at my job - we're bound to contract something.  It was pretty stupid of me not to take precautionary measures like the Thieves oil on our feet every night or taking olive leaf extract supplements or upping the vitamin C or ecchinacea. And now this happens.  Harlee got it too but his didn't last as long.   I didn't get so lucky.  Finally yesterday we went to the chiropractor and got us both adjusted and she did acupuncture in my face for my sinuses.  That was a first!  I've had acupuncture tons of time before but never in my face.  Well it worked!  I'm going to have to blog about acupuncture one of these days.  I can't get over how amazingly effective it is for EVERYthing.  I felt my sinus pressure shifting and moving, lots of popping and cracking in my head, and I felt like I had a whole new skull after that.  Except instead of draining out my nose, it continued to drain into my stomach.  Made for an unpleasant day.  Finally this morning I'm starting to feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  Figured I'd at last get this blog post up.  Which I did not write in advance - had I done that you would have seen it sooner.

Oh well, here it is now.  Snickerdoodles!  I stole this recipe from Elana's Pantry and altered it a bit.  I made it exactly the first time and while it was absolutely delicious it was hard to work with.  Very crumbly.  So I added an egg and everything worked out great after that.  I think her intent was to make it a vegan recipe, but that doesn't apply to me.  Eggs are so crazy good for you, why would you ever omit them?

For those of you who attended my last healthy eating class in Red Bud, these are not the snickerdoodles we served there.  Those were okay, but had molasses in them, which isn't an ingredient I'd usually associate with snickerdoodles.  To me, a snickerdoodle is a basic sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon and sugar and smooshed flat.  That's what I grew up on anyway.  Well these hit the nail on the head!  I tried making snickerdoodles last year and they weren't very good either.  I'm so happy I finally found the recipe that works!  I'll be sticking with this one.

Here's how it goes:

2 cups almond flour
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/4 cup coconut oil or pastured butter
2 tbsp honey
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar for dipping
1 tbsp cinnamon for dipping



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a mixing bowl beat together the egg, oil or butter, and honey.  Stir in the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon until you get a dough.  Scoop a small spoonful of dough and roll into a ball - I made mine about the size of a ping pong ball or just a touch smaller.  Briefly dip the ball in a bowl of water then place in the bowl of palm sugar and cinnamon and coat.  I found it best to designate one hand for dipping in water and one hand for dipping in the sugar mixture - reduces the mess that way.  Place the ball on a parchment paper line baking sheet.  Continue to place the balls on the sheet until full, spacing about two inches apart.  Flatten all of them with the palm of your hand.  Place in the preheated oven for about 7-9 minutes.  Let cool and enjoy!