Carob-Walnut Cookies

DRY INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups brown rice flour, (or spelt flour)
1 cup whole-grain teff flour, (or spelt flour)
1/2 cup whole-grain amaranth flour, (or spelt flour)
1/2 cup ground hemp seeds (or half ground flax seeds and half ground sesame seeds)
1/4 cup carob flour, (carob powder)
1/3 cup Sucanat sugar (or granulated sugar)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder, (double acting)
2 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil (or non-hydrogenated veg. shortening) (or walnut oil or canola oil)
1/2 cup walnuts, (pieces or halves)
WET INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons tahini
1/4 cup walnut oil, refined, (or canola oil)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
GARNISH
1/4 cup walnuts, (pieces or halves)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Put parchment paper down on a baking sheet (if you don't have parchment paper, you can oil your baking sheet).
Cookies can even stick a little to a non-stick baking sheet which messes up the cookies, so I greatly prefer parchment paper because it always makes for very easy removal.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut coconut oil (or shortening or oil) into flour mixture (using a fork and a knife). Mix in the walnuts.
Blend wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and mix together. It may seem a bit dry at first, but once you get all the ingredients integrated, it will form a slightly sticky, shapable dough. (If other flours besides those being called for are used, additional flour may be needed to create a stiff enough dough. The dough is too wet if you can not form cookies with your hands.)
Form balls of dough and place on the cookie sheet (or sheets). They may be a bit crumbly, but should bake together nicely. Garnish cookies by pressing the remaining walnuts into the tops of the cookies.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes. To prevent the bottoms of the cookies from burning, you may like to put an extra cookie sheet in the oven to protect the main cookie sheet from the oven heating element.
After removing cookies from oven, they will be quite soft. This is partially due to the fact that the brown rice syrup "melts" during baking. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 5 to 10 minutes to allow them to cool and firm up. They will then be much easier to remove from the sheet. If you wait too long before removing them from the sheet, it will be more difficult to get them off because the brown rice syrup will have hardened too much.
Cookies freeze very well.
VARIATIONS:
- "Chocolate-Walnut Cookies" - use cocoa in place of the carob flour.
- Use a combination of maple syrup, brown rice syrup, and barley malt syrup as the liquid sweetener. The current ratio of maple syrup to brown rice syrup makes this cookie quite crunchy/crisp, whereas if more maple syrup where used in place of the brown rice syrup, the cookie would be softer. See the "Sweetener Substitutions" section in "Dessert Notes" earlier in the book for more information.
- Could use any combination of the following flours: brown rice flour, whole-grain millet flour, whole-grain amaranth flour, whole-grain teff flour, whole hemp flour, ground sesame seeds, and/or ground flax seed OR if you don't mind using a flour with gluten: whole-grain pastry wheat flour, whole-grain spelt flour, whole-grain kamut flour, and/or whole-grain oat flour.
- To lower the fat content, replace some of the walnut oil with applesauce and/or prune puree - note this will create a more cake-like cookie rather than a crispy/chewy type cookie.
- See the "Dessert Notes" earlier in the book for more variation ideas.
- Alternative nuts can be used such as: almonds, hazelnuts (filberts), pecans, etc.
- Alternative flavorings can be added such as: amaretto or other liqueur, dark chocolate chunks, grain coffee, spices, etc.