Yes, I know you saw it coming, I mean after the Berry Ice populated with Lions and Giraffes (Ostrich looking, if you ask my boyfriend, but then again, he’s no biologist 😉 there was no question that the rest of the animal kingdom would soon show up on my blog as well. What can I say, they are just too darn cute!
I had searched for the perfect cutters for this recipe for a while, square was just not an option, but plain old animal crackers from the store didn’t cut it either. Do you get that craving for crunchy as well? And I can;t shut it up with a crunchy apple, no it’s a different crunch I am after. So I set out to revamp and recreate animal crackers, surely there would be a better version one could come up with than the store sold ones. Starting with a lot less sugar than any commercial product would contain, I added ground almond and flax meal to boost the nutrient and flavor and whole wheat to give them some substance.
Animal crackers on Very Merry Black Berry Ice are the best!
Ingredients
- 2 cups stone ground whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup almond meal/ground almonds
- 1/2 cup palm sugar (dry) or rapadura
- 1/4 cup millet or oat flower
- 1/4 cup half & half (or cream or milk)
- 1/4 cup flax meal
- 2 lg eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
Directions
- Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
- Gently soften or melt coconut oil, if it is hard. Mix in the vanilla, eggs and 1/4 cup half and half. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until a cohesive dough forms. If it is too crumbly, add a little more half & half.
- Form dough into ball, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until dough isn’t soft anymore.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Roll out to 1/4″ thickness, press the cookie cutters into the dough (mine have a plunger to stamp the design onto the cookies after they are cut) and place the cookies onto a lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until slightly browned on the bottom
- Let cool on rack before devouring them all 🙂
© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade
