Saturday, February 01, 2014

Lazy Arrowroot Cookies

My allergic son attends preschool where a variety of snacks are served. I, of course, provide his food and find myself crafting allergy-safe replicas of what the other kids are having.  Every week I check the calendar for what I need to prepare; sometimes remembering to check at 10pm the night before and realizing I need to make safe noochie crackers to complement the Goldfish crackers that the others will be eating.

I was ahead of the game this week. Arrowroot cookies are on the menu! These are ridiculously easy - hence the name I gave this recipe!The only way to make these even lazier would be to buy them off a shelf...but taking a look at the ingredients of Mr. Christie's version, who would want to?

Ingredients: Enriched wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil shortening (soybean or canola, modified palm, modified palm kernel), arrowroot flour, glucose-fructose, salt, cornstarch, baking soda, glycerol, soy lecithin, diammonium phosphate, sulphites, natural flavour. Contains wheat, soy and sulphite.

Now, these are targeted to kids - mainly babies! I'm perplexed as to why anyone would want their 10-month-old sucking on these, after reading the list of crappy ingredients. But I digress...

I looked on the web everywhere for a vegan version that also didn't contain soy, one of my son's allergens. I found one that included coconut oil and agave that was dense and revolting; almost like a sugar cookie gone bad. It was missing that starchy taste too. Plus, it required that you roll out the dough, cut out shapes, transfer them to a sheet, roll dough out again...blah, blah, blah...I loathe cookies that require that effort.

Again, enter Lazy Arrowroot Cookies! Now I should disclose that I didn't even use arrowroot. I just can't seem to find one that hasn't been processed with soy or tree nuts. I did spend some time searching online then gave up. So I used a safe tapioca flour. You could even use cornstarch if desperate! Just try to be good to yourself and find one that is non-GMO, but good luck with that.


Lazy Arrowroot Cookies


2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup arrowroot starch (or like me, tapioca flour)
2/3 cup coconut sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup hemp milk
1/2 cup oil (I used light olive)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut 3 equal lengths of parchment paper, large enough to line a cookie sheet with. 


This is easy. Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Combine wet ingredients in a glass measuring cup and whisk to combine. Add wet to dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until dough forms. Divide dough in half to make two balls. Place one ball on a piece of parchment paper and top with a second piece of parchment. Roll out to an even 1/8"-thickness (don't worry about the shape if you can). Remove top parchment and make vertical then horizontal slices in the rolled dough using a pizza cutter. Prick dough with a fork, or a tool like I have that I think is for pricking pastry (it's awesome!). Pick up the parchment and transfer to a cookie sheet. Repeat process for other ball of dough. Discard the parchment topper sheet...it just saves you from having to scrub the rolling pin, and not having to dust flour around!


Once dough is rolled and cut, transfer sheets to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. I like to turn the oven off at this point and leave the cookies in there to hang out for a 5-10 minutes to ensure they are crispy. I then remove them and let them cool completely on the cookie sheet. Since they have been pre-scored with the pizza cutter, they are a cinch to break apart and devour. 




Of course I have pics of all of my steps but getting them on my PC is too much work for someone who is too lazy to make real arrowroot cookies. And of course, mobile blogger is acting up.