Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Shortbread Cookies

Hello, Friday! Nice to see you (and just when I thought you'd never get here!). 

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had another wonderful gluten-free recipe coming your way. Well, here it is! The original recipe, from the friendly folks at King Arthur Flour, has been tweaked slightly to ramp up the coffee/chocolate quotient to our liking. If you're not so much of a coffee lover, just follow the original directions.

Besides being gluten-free (they are made with almond flour), instead of regular powdered sugar, I use Whey-Low powdered sugar. Same great taste, no sugar. 

And what gives these cookies that extra coffee-coffee-ness? I swapped out the vanilla extract for Dave's Original Coffee Syrup. Whoa! If you are coffee fanatics, as we are, check out Dave's. Not just for this terrific, concentrated syrup (that is, btw, divine drizzled over vanilla ice cream), but for his coffee beans. We get a delivery about every two weeks from their shop in Rhode Island. 

On to the cookies! Oh, did I mention these only have about 40 calories/cookie?! You're welcome! :-)

Gluten-free Chocolate Almond Flour Shortbread Cookies (adapted from original recipe)

1 C almond flour (minus 2 TB) - I used Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour
3 TB softened butter
3 TB powdered sugar
1/8 t salt
1/8 t espresso powder
2 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t Dave's Coffee Syrup 
Flaked sea salt (for sprinkling)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. LIne a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl until a cohesive dough forms.
3. Let dough chill in refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
4. Scoop 1" balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet; a teaspoon cookie scoop works well here. Arrange the balls of dough about 1-1/2" to 2" apart.
5. Use a fork to flatten each cookie to about 1/4" thick, making a crosshatch design.
6. Sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt on top of each cookie
7. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, until they start to turn light
8. Transfer to rack to cool.

Yield about 15 cookies. This recipe is easily doubled, and they keep very well in an airtight container. Sometimes I add about 1/2 C toasted, chopped hazelnuts to the recipe, which adds a very nice dimension to these babies.

Print here.

Have a fabulous weekend!