Healthy Jaffa Vegan Cookies

Well, my Jaffa ball recipe is a massive hit along with the notella balls and recently enough notella cookies so it was only right I followed the pattern and made some Jaffa cookies! I wanted to make sure the recipe was as easy as can be. Baking should be enjoyable and relaxing and there is nothing worse than lots of steps to follow in a method. These cookies can be whipped up in under 30 mins and that includes the prep, although the washing up is all yours 🙂 The cookies last 7 days, keep in an airtight container at room temp (with this hot weather you can also store in the fridge). For my dairy free vegan chocolate, I went for the Ombar brand but I know Moo Free does a chocolate range which would be epic with these too.

Serves 8

Cooks in 30 Minutes

Ingredients

  • 200g mixed raw nuts. Half hazelnuts and half Brazil nuts (or almonds work here too instead of Brazil nuts)
  • 3 tbsp. cacao powder
  • 3 tbsp. maple syrup
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • zest of 1 large orange
  • 1 tbsp. coconut oil last room temp
  • pinch sea salt
Topping
  • 50g dark/vegan chocolate melted
  • zest of 1/2 an orange (large cut)


Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180°c and line a baking tray.
  2. In a food processor, add the nuts and process until broken down into a thick flour consistency with tiny shards of nut still visible.
  3. Add in the rest of the ingredients for the cookies and pulse on medium to combine into a thick mixture. The coconut oil should spread out evenly even though its not melted.
  4. Using a tbsp, spoon out a portion of mixture and roll into a ball using your hands, place on a lined baking tray and press down into a cookie shape approx .75 cm in height. Your palms will get a tiny bit sticky here but nothing too bad!
  5. Continue this process until all the mixture is used, you should aim to make 8 cookies.
  6. Bake in the oven for 17 minutes, until the edges are firm and slightly crispy.
  7. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before lifting carefully off the tray and drizzling with the melted dark chocolate and finishing with a sprinkling of zest.