Looking for something easy and healthy to make for the holidays? Look no further than these super simple and super healthy cookies. They are full of pumpkin – and we all know that this is the pumpkin season – and are completely and naturally gluten-free. The combination of oats, coconut flour and almond flour does not really need backing and you could mix them all together, let the mix stand, and form the cookies as is. So, if you are into raw food, or minimally processed food this could be a path you take.

Baking the cookies does enhance the flavors, and that’s worth keeping this in mind. Baking also makes all the spices develop and merge. A combination of cinnamon, ginger and cardamom really blooms when heated up! At the end, baking the cookies will give you a more aromatic kitchen and platter.

What will also enhance the flavors is roasting your own pumpkin. (So, I guess not everything will be as a raw as possible since I am not sure you can use raw pumpkin – I have never tried and I am not even sure that it can be done!). Roasting the pumpkin is super easy – you don’t even need to peel it, just slice it in half, scoop out the seeds and place the pumpkin halves on a baking sheet, cut side down and roast at 425 F (220 C) for 45 minutes or so. It also helps to line the baking sheet with some foil or parchment paper – this helps the roasting and the clean up!

After the pumpkin is roasted, all you need to do is scoop the flash and purée, either in a food processor or using a masher. Food processor will make everything much smoother, but if you prefer your a more rustic pumpkin hands or a masher will do.

Enjoy!

Gluten-free Pumpkin Cookies, via Eat the Vegan Rainbow

Gluten-free Pumpkin Cookies – Yummy!

Gluten-free and Oil-free Pumpkin Cookies

What you’ll need:

• 1 15 oz (425 g) can pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) or 15 oz (425 g) roasted sugar pumpkin, puréed
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup sugar (or solid sweetener of your choice)
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• Optional: 1/4 cup maple syrup, for brushing

What you’ll do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).
2. Combine all the ingredients in a large food processor. If you don’t have a food processor that’s large enough, you can either process in batches or process pumpkin and oats well and then just mix in the rest of the ingredients (except the optional maple syrup) by hand.
3. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
4. Use an ice cream scoop to measure out the amount for each cookie, than form a round and flat shape and place on the parchment paper. This amount of batter should yield about 12-14 cookies.
5. Cross-hatch the surface of each cookie.
6. Bake for 18-23 minutes. Cookies will be lightly browned but stay soft.
7. Let the cookies cool for 15-20 minutes before brushing with maple syrup. You could skip this step, but why would you want to do that? Enjoy!

Copyright © Eat the Vegan Rainbow, 2019