Rich, Cashew Carob Cookies

I've been having so much fun lately visiting the wonderful vegan and gluten-free bloggers. Their blogs have great recipes, and they are warm and friendly people. One one of my favorite vegan blogs, Have Cake, Will Travel! had a tasty recipe for carob peanut butter cookies that looked like it would be a good candidate for my kind of tinkering. It was a good guess because the resulting cookies were rich and fudgy.

Next time I make them, I'd probably substitute coconut flour for the barley flour, adding a bit more oil to compensate for the dryness of the coconut flour. Other than that, I can't think of another change.

Here are the alterations I made when I used the recipe:
1. Agave nectar for maple syrup (and I cut it by 1 tablespoon)
2. Cut the oil by 1 tablespoon
3. Used cashew butter for peanut butter
4. Used unsweetened carob chips
5. Baked at 325 degrees F at the same timing in the original.

If you make these, be careful to take the cookies out before you think they're done. That way, they stay fudgy and slightly chewy. My cookies did not spread. In fact, when I used a cookie scoop and didn't push down the top of the cookie, they stayed in the scooped shape.



The scooped cookies crumbled a bit, but the tamped-down version (shown in the top photo) didn't. I was really pleased with these cookies and definitely intend to make them again (with continued, minor alterations). I also thought the addition of chopped, dried apricots might be really interesting.

Here's a shot of the innards:



The cashew butter is so lovely, but I wonder how these would be with tahini? What do you think?