In a quest to eat healthy and yummy food, I decided to make these cookies from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, Notes from my Kitchen Table. The ‘Lalo’ in the name is what her children call her mother, and these are great cookies to give young ones as they are very healthy. However, in order to make them according to the recipe you really do need to have the bank account of an Oscar-winning actress/wife of giant rock star! I reckon the recipe in the book will leave you with little change from £15, so I’ll include her recipe and my own adaptations. I think this still came close to £10, which is not something I can justify very often, but they are lovely.
450 g barley flour (I didn’t have barley flour in the cupboard, so used half plain flour and half spelt flour)
450 g unblanched whole almonds, crushed in a food processor (I don’t think I crushed mine enough, which is fine from a taste perspective but which means they didn’t hold together as well as they might. I also wonder if it would be cheaper to use ground almonds with a handful of crushed whole almonds to give them crunch. This is over £5 worth of almonds after all!)
1 tsp fine salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
250 ml rapeseed oil (I only had sunflower oil in the house but rapeseed oil is better for you overall. On my shopping list for next time.)
250 ml real Vermont maple syrup (This is the real killer, cost-wise, at least in the UK. A 250ml bottle of maple syrup set me back over £6! What I did was use half maple syrup and half Sweet Freedom. Still expensive but a savings, without resorting to sugar.)
Your favourite jam (I used cherry, but also experimented with Nutella and peanut butter. All very yummy!)
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Combine all the ingredients except for the jam together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. Form tablespoons into balls and space them evenly on baking sheets. Using your index finger, make an indent in each cookie. Fill each indent with a small spoonful of jam. Bake until cookies are evenly browned, about 20 minutes. Let cool before eating.
These aren’t low-calorie; however, it goes to show that while healthy may not always equal low-cal, it’s still very yummy, very filling and good for the soul, if not for the wallet.
There are some great looking recipes on her website, including these granola bars which I might make this week.
From Gwyneth Paltrow’s Notes From My Kitchen Table. Another GP recipe adapted to cut cost! I’ve also made this with dark chocolate chips, and I bet it’s good with dried fruit and nuts.
Radiant Forties 