Apricot Almond "Cookies"

Today has been such a nice day! Thanks for the birthday wishes on here/Twitter :) I will do a proper recap of my 25th birthday tomorrow. For now, Liam has just popped to the shop to rent a DVD for us to watch tonight, so a quick post from me. A recipe I made up, well actually kind of dreamt up on Friday night, based on the need to use up some almond butter!!

Apricot Almond "Cookies"
makes approx 15 mini cookies

• 50g almond butter
• 50g almonds
• 70g dried apricots
• 20ml liquid sweetener (I used a mix of agave nectar & maple syrup)

You could probably blitz all the ingredients together at once, but I was a bit cautious and put the almond butter and almonds into the food processor first and blitzed until dough was beginning to form...

 then add apricots...

then process it all together, adding the syrup/nectar to taste until you have a dough...

If you have time, you're hands will get a little less sticky if you chill the dough for a bit at this stage. Although in reality they're gonna get sticky anyway!

Roll the dough out and cut your shapes - I used a mini heart and a mini star cookie cutter...

 I originally was going to have these cookies as no bake ones, so put them in the fridge to chill for a little while...

However I then decided to take these over to my Mum's to have for my birthday. Whilst they were lovely pre-baking (I had to eat one to test, obviously!!) they were quite oily/sticky, so I figured I had more chance of getting my family to like them after a little baking!

150C for 10 minutes, just long enough to dry them out slightly...

Pre-baking

Post-baking

 
These were so good! :)

Still moist on the inside but with a slight crunch on the outside...

Yum! I took the remaining cookies up to my Mum's...

These were quite well liked. Loved by me, my Mum and both the children. Ok response from my Dad, sister and Liam - but then sister and Liam (not sure about Dad) don't like apricots so it was a long shot - didn't tell them the ingredients until they'd tried one!!

The children definitely loved them - they fought over the last one!! Baby had eaten more than daughter, so I gave daughter the last one. But then baby went up to her and snatched the half eaten cookie out of her hands!! When I gave it back to daughter, baby started wailing and so daughter gave in and let him finish it!! Bless her, I do feel a bit bad that she's always letting him get away with things. She's so lovely to him - even to the point of getting upset with us if we say no to him!!!!

Right, Liam is back with The Social Network, has anyone seen it? Have a great evening everyone!