Rockin’ Raw “Not Peanut Butter Cookies”

I’d like to preface this entry with the following disclaimer: I don’t know much at all about Raw Cuisine. I don’t mean raw as in, hey let’s have a plate of crudités with our lunch or have an apple, it’s raw…I mean Raw Cuisine where you use romaine lettuce leaves as “bread slices” for sandwiches or marinara sauce that is never warmed in a sauce pan. I would love to get more serious with raw foods, but I can’t afford a juicer (though I would love one, so if you have an extra one lying around…), don’t have a food dyhydrater, and the tiny appliance I lovingly refer to as my, ahm, food processor, is really great, but it’s not got a great deal of power, and I can’t ask too much from it. So, that out of the way, I do seem to manage to make raw desserts pretty well with my limited equipment.

There is something so wonderfully decadant about raw desserts. I admit it’s not always as sinfully satisfying as a big slice of lemon cake with vegan buttercream icing or a gooey, delicious vegan brownie, but at least you know that you’re not mindlessly consuming empty calories, and there is no “guilt hang-over”, that icky feeling of “gee, did I really eat 3 cupcakes all by myself?

Last year a friend sent me Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet. It’s admittedly the only raw cookbook I have, so it’s my primary reference (though there are obviously tons of resources on the net!). One of my “go to” recipes is the “Not Peanut Butter Cookies” because it’s really quick, I almost always have the ingredients in the pantry, and it’s so delicious. Because I’m not a raw foodist, I do sometimes use peanut butter (like today).

adapted from Not Peanut Butter Cookies
from Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet

• 1/2 cup nut butter (almond, cashew, peanut, hazlenut-my favorite)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup, agave nectar, or rice syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I use a tablespoon)
• dash salt
• 1/2 cup wheat germ (my addition)
• 1 tablespoon coco powder (my addititon)
• 1/2 cup ground almonds (or wheat germ) to roll them in
• almond slices to decorate

Put it all in your food processor and whirl it together (sauf the 1/2 cup of almonds or wheat germ for rolling) then freeze it for about 1/2 an hour (so you can handle it more easily). When you take it out break off about 1-inch hunks and roll them in the almond/wheat germ, and flatten them out a little. Freeze four about two hours before serving.