Spiced Rye and Courgette Cookies with Coconut Cream Frosting

I recently mentioned how much I love cookies and that I get so many recipes for cookies each week it gives me a headache for my weekly review. Well I also get a lot of non-vegan recipes and pick my favourites to adapt to my vegan diet and the ones that turn out the best I will share with you. This is one of those recipes and it was so popular that I thought it should definitely make the blog.

When I make one of these recipes I actually take all of my cakes or cookies to my yoga class and see what sort of a response I get. This one went down really well which was a double plus for it. I have to be honest and say that these cookies are so big and chunky they are what I would really call cookie-cakes but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The best thing about using vegetables in your cookies and cakes is you can get a does of vegetables when you are being naughty so it sort of takes the edge off it. These are big and quite high in calories so you need to get some positives out of them!

Having said all that I made sure I did not use any refined sugar and used flours that are slow to digest and so do not rise the blood sugar too quickly. So when you do all the calculations I go an estimated glycemic index value of 39. Now if you were to eat a whole cookie the glycemic load with be approximately 11 which is high for a snack but if you only had half a cookie it would be a great snack of dessert for anyone on the Low GL Diet.

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Spiced Rye & Courgette Cookies with Coconut Cream Frosting

Makes 12

Prep Time: 25 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 35 mins (plus extra for cooking and frosting)

Ingredients

180g/1 1/4 Cups Light Spelt Flour
90g/1/2 Cup + 2 tbs Rye Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Mixed Spice
70g/1/2 Cup Coconut Oil, softened
125g/2/3 Cup Xylitol
40g/1/3 Cup Coconut Sugar
1 tbs Ground Flaxseeds, soaked in 3 tbs water to make 1 Flax Egg
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Medium Courgettes, grated

Frosting
125g Vanilla Coconut Milk Yoghurt
50g Coconut Butter, softened
170g Coconut Oil, softened
135g/1 1/3 Cups Powdered Agave

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in a bowl and set aside for later.

3. Whip together the coconut oil, xylitol and coconut sugar until well combined and slightly fluffy (you won’t get the same effect as using butter and sugar but it will taste amazing!). 

4. Mix in egg and vanilla then slowly mix in half of the flour mixture, then mix in the zucchini and finish by mixing in remaining flour mixture.

5. Divide mixture into 12 and roll into balls then place on the baking sheet and press out into cookies ensuring there is a gap between each on. 

6. Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes (careful not to over-bake, they should still be soft to the touch. They will continue to cook for about a minute when removed from the oven). 

7. Cool on baking sheet for the first few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

8. Once cool, frost cookies with coconut cream frosting and dust with cinnamon

Coconut Cream Frosting
1. Cream together the Coconut Yoghurt, butter and oil until smooth and fluffy. 

2. Stir in powdered sugar and continue to mix until smooth and fluffy.

Nutrition

As you can gather from what I have already said these are a treat but they are so much better for you than a shop bought cookie that is loaded up with additives and sugar. Plus you will get a little bit of goodness from the courgette in these so they should leave you feeling great. As already said the GI of these cookies is 39 and the GL is 11 per cookie.