I have a special treat for you just in time for the Holidays!
3 Special Cookie recipes that use the healthy pastured pork lard I’m always raving about!
I found these recipes in The Fat Kitchen Cookbook by Andrea Chesman, which I highly recommend as a cookbook.
It dives deep into all the traditional ways you can use animal fats in cooking, baking and frying and WHY they are so healthy for you.
If you haven’t started using lard in your kitchen yet, these recipes will give you something to try and this blog post will help you see why:
All of these recipes work fabulous with coconut sugar or sucanat sugar, they make them a little bit healthier.
You won’t taste any porky flavor at all in your cookies, and they will be way better for you than cooking with crisco!
You’ll feel a special connection to your great grandparents as you cook with lard.
It’s what they used every day.
CRINKLE TOP MOLASSES COOKIES
Molasses was a common sweetener at a time when lard was the standard fat in kitchens throughout New England and the American South.
Makes about 36 cookies
Ingredients:
3/4 cup Nourished With Nature Leaf Lard
1 cup firmly packed coconut sugar (or sucanat or brown sugar)
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
3 Tbsp granulated cane sugar
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325 deg F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicone baking mats.
Combine the leaf lard and coconut sugar in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the molasses and eggs and blend until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowel and then add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Press until the dough forms a ball.
Spoon the granulated sugar onto a small plate. Shape the dough into 1.5” balls, dip the top of the ball into the sugar and set them sugar side up on the cookie sheets about 2” apart.
Bake one cookie sheet at a time, 13-16 minutes, just until set and the cookie appears dry. Slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheet and allow to cool before handling them. Store in an airtight container, they will keep well for a week.
Jam Thumbprint Cookies
Call them thumbprints, thimble cookies or Polish tea cookies. In Sweden, they are called hallongrottor, which means “raspberry caves”. With so many names from so many cultures and so many variations, lard seems as likely as butter in the dough. In any case, these are delicious, but not terribly sweet.
Makes about 60 cookies
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar (I make my own by grinding Organic Cane sugar), plus more for dusting.
1 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 finely ground almonds
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup Nourished With Nature Lard, at room temperature
1/3-1/2 cup jam of your choice
Instructions:
Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, soda then stir in the ground almonds.
Combine the cream cheese and lard in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the vanilla and process until mixed. Add the dry ingredients and process until well blended.
Form the dough into a ball and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Using your thumb or a sewing thimble make a generous indentation in the center of each cookie, twisting the tool to spread the opening. Using the tip of a pointed teaspoon (not a measuring spoon), fill each hole with 1/4-1/2 teaspoon jam. You want a generous amount of jam, but don’t overfill.
Bake one cookie sheet at a time, 14-16 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Dust lightly with powdered sugar before serving. You can store them in an airtight container for at least one week.
oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies
These are jumbo cookies, great for gifting or bringing to holiday parties.
Makes 24-30 cookies
ingredients:
1 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup Nourished With Nature Leaf Lard
1 1/2 cup firmly packed coconut or sucanat sugar (or light brown sugar)
2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups organic rolled oats
2 cups chocolate chips
instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
Combine the lard and sugar in a food processor. Process until well blended. Add the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla and process until smooth.
Add the flour mixture to the food processor and process until blended. Return the dough to the bowl and mix in the oats and chocolate chips.
For each cookie, drop one ice cream scoop of dough (about 2 rounded tablespoons) onto the parchment paper, placing them about 3 inches apart to allow the cookies to spread.
Bake one cookie sheet at a time, for 11-13 minutes, until the cookies are light brown at the edges and dry to the touch, but still soft in the middle. Let the cookies cool on the pan for a few minutes, then slip the parchment paper with the cookies still on them to a counter to cool completely. If you store them in an airtight container, they will last a week, but they are so tasty it’s unlikely.
Now you have 3 new healthy cookie recipes to play around with for the Holidays!
Incorporating more lard into your baking is a great way to dose up consuming animal fats. I also love using lard over coconut oil because it’s local, more sustainable and less refined.
Give it a try! Let me know in the comments what you think!