Pascale’s Kitchen: Sugar-free cookies

Recently, I’ve been receiving lots of requests to share sugar-free recipes. And so, this week I decided to bring you four recipes for cookies, sans the sugar.

As an added bonus, these recipes are really fun to prepare with the kids, home now for summer vacation. We all know that when kids get bored, they start poking around in the drawers and cupboards, looking for something fun to play with. So why not have them engage in something useful that’s also fun? And, of course, they get to eat the cookies at the end.

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This week, I am featuring recipes created by Adi Gvirtzman. She completed a degree in fashion design at Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, and then went on to acquire a degree in industrial design at Bezalel, followed by a master’s degree in business administration in design management at Pratt University in the US. After living in New York for 13 years, during which she designed stores and display windows, COVID hit and she began to re-evaluate her path.

After years of suffering from food sensitivities and abdominal pain, Gvirtzman decided to make some lifestyle and diet changes and was happily surprised by the results. And so, she began tweaking her favorite recipes and – through trial and error – developed loads of tasty recipes that didn’t upset her stomach. She figured this was a fantastic solution not only for herself but also for anyone else who is sensitive to certain foods.

Gvirtzman shares low-carb recipes, with the nutritional details included, on her blog hatafrit.co.il. She has also published five cookbooks. The following are four of her recipes for popular types of cookies that use healthier alternatives than white sugar and white flour.

Note: For all the recipes below, 1 cup equals 240 ml.

BISCOTTI

Makes 15 cookies.

• 2 cups almond flour
• 1/3 cup minus 1 Tbsp. sugar-free sweetener
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. xanthan gum (or 2 tsp. coconut flour)
• 1 Tbsp. lemon or orange zest
• ¼ cup butter, melted
• 1 large egg, beaten
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ cup pecans, chopped
• ¼ cup sugar-free cranberries

Chocolate icing:

• 80 gr. bittersweet chocolate (or sugar-free chocolate)
• 15 gr. cocoa butter (or 1 Tbsp. coconut oil)

In a large bowl, mix the almond flour, sweetener, baking powder, and xanthan gum together. Then add the lemon or orange zest, melted butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir well.

Add the chopped pecans and the cranberries, and knead the dough until it has formed a ball.

Place the dough in a baking pan, wet your hands, and flatten the dough into the pan.

Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 160° for 25 minutes, until it turns golden brown on the sides and has begun to solidify. Remove from the oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Lower the temperature of the oven to 120°. With a sharp knife, slice the loaf into 15 equal-sized slices. Arrange the slices on a baking pan and bake for another 15 minutes. Then, flip the slices over and bake for another 15 minutes.

Shut the oven off and leave the cookies in the oven to slowly cool down.

To make the icing: Boil water in a small pot. Place a bowl over the pot of boiling water, then add the chocolate and cocoa butter to the bowl. Stir until the icing is smooth.

Dip the top half of each cookie in the chocolate icing, then place them on a plate with the side that has the icing facing upwards. Place in the fridge to let the chocolate harden.

Level of difficulty: MediumTime: 1 hour, not including time in fridgeStatus: Dairy

NUTELLA COOKIES (WITHOUT THE NUTELLA)

Makes 12 cookies.

• 1 cup hazelnut butter
• 1/3 cup sugar-free sweetener
• 1 Tbsp. sugar-free instant vanilla pudding powder 
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 large egg
• 50 gr. bittersweet or sugar-free chocolate chips
• 20 gr. hazelnuts, unsalted, peeled, roasted, and chopped 

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl, except for the chocolate chips and hazelnuts, and mix well until smooth. Then, add the chocolate chips and hazelnuts and mix.

Get your hands slightly wet, and form 12 dough balls of equal size. Place the dough balls on a tray and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Transfer the balls to a tray that is covered with baking paper, leaving space between each ball.

Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 180° for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies turn golden brown.

If you plan to skip the step of placing the dough balls in the freezer, then place the balls directly on a baking sheet and gently press down each ball with the heel of your hand.

After baking the dough balls, remove them from the oven and let them cool completely. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container in a shady place for up to a week.

Level of difficulty: EasyTime: 20 minutes, not including time in fridge and freezerStatus: Parve

BLACK-AND-WHITE CHECKERBOARD COOKIES

Use a 20cm. x 20cm. pan.

Vanilla dough:

• 4 Tbsp. (60 gr.) butter, melted
• 3 Tbsp. sugar-free sweetener
• 2 Tbsp. sugar-free instant vanilla pudding powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 cup almond flour

Chocolate dough:

• 4 Tbsp. (60 gr.) butter, melted
• 3 Tbsp. sugar-free sweetener
• 2 Tbsp. sugar-free instant vanilla pudding powder
• 1 cup almond flour

Toppings:

• 1-2 Tbsp. sugar-free powdered sweetener
• 1-2 Tbsp. sugar-free cocoa powder 

Blend the melted butter with the sweetener and the sugar-free instant vanilla pudding powder with an electric mixer or by hand.

Gradually add the almond flour while mixing. Continue mixing until the dough has become crumbly.

Transfer the dough to a greased pan or a pan covered with baking paper. Flatten with your hands. Bake in an oven that has been heated to 180° for 20 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven and let the loaf cool for 10 minutes. While it is still warm, slice into 16 squares that are 4cm. x 4cm. or whatever size you wish. Return the tray to the oven to bake for another 10 minutes.

Prepare the chocolate squares in the same fashion.

The cookie squares are very soft when they come out of the oven, so wait 30 or 40 minutes to let them cool completely in the fridge before separating them and serving, or storing them in an airtight container.

You can sprinkle sugar-free powdered sweetener and sugar-free cocoa powder on top of the cookies before arranging them like a checkerboard.

Level of difficulty: MediumTime: 1 hour, not including time in fridgeStatus: Dairy

BLACK-AND-WHITE SPIRAL COOKIES

Use any size pan.

Vanilla dough:

• 2 ¼ cups almond flour
• 3 Tbsp. coconut flour
• ½ tsp. xanthan gum
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ cup butter, melted
• ¼ cup sugar-free sweetener
• 2 Tbsp. sugar-free instant vanilla pudding powder, sweetener, or powdered sugar
• 1 large egg

Chocolate dough:

• Use all the same ingredients as for the vanilla dough, adding 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

Mix all the dry ingredients, except for the sweetener and cocoa powder, together in a medium-size bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the butter together with the sweetener. Add the egg and mix again.

Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and mix well.

Separate the dough into 2 equal parts. Add the cocoa powder to the first part and mix well.

Roll out the vanilla and chocolate doughs separately between two sheets of baking paper so that they are the same size and shape. Then, pulling back the baking paper carefully, place the chocolate dough layer on top of the vanilla layer. Roll up the two layers carefully into a log shape, starting with the side closer to you. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for an hour.

Take the dough log out of the freezer and slice it into 8mm.-thick slices.

Arrange the slices on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 160° for 15-20 minutes, until the cookies have turned golden brown. Let them cool, then store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Level of difficulty: MediumTime: 30 minutes, not including time in freezerStatus: Dairy

Translated by Hannah Hochner.