Gluten Free Lemon Poppy - Seed Cookies

I'm a huge lemon eater, and lately it seems like citrus as a whole have wrestled their way into the string of things I've been baking! I love lemon-poppyseed EVERYTHING, and always have. The other day, for example, my mom and I were talking about seeing her old office cronies and memories of their cafeteria came to our minds. Looking back, the food there was anything but fine, fresh (or even particularly flavourful) dining. One "hot" serving station, cling-wrapped sandwiches with suspect ingredients, stale bagels, and possibly some ice-cold, pre-made salads, made up the bulk of the space (I doubt it's changed much) and usually people were only dropping in for a coffee or a between-meeting snack. It wasn't one of the most inviting spaces in the building, but when you're a 10 year old kid with a day off school and you're hanging out at your parent's workplace before a doctor's appointment, the prospect of going down there mid morning for a drink and a snack was manna. On those trips with mom, my (food) order would remain constant - one of their to-die-for gigantic lemon poppyseed muffins. I'm sure they came from some warehouse supplier (like the bagels and maybe the sandwiches did), but they were moist, just dense enough to fill you up and most importantly, HUGE and sugar laden!

I've only posted a single lemon-poppyseed muffin recipe on this blog, and truth be told I wasn't a fan of it. It didn't feel right somehow, and I've yet to figure out the key to those long ago confections. Even my lemon poppyseed loaves over the years have been hit and miss - while I once tried (and failed spectacularly) to make one of Anna Olson's cakes (which was a tragedy, since it looked so delicious on screen), there have been successes. I think, if I was to try again, a combination of my Sticky Lemon-Poppy Loaf and my favourite Poppyseed - Layered Lemon Loaves recipes would be close, if not dead on.

But I haven't done that here. Instead, I made cookies. And not only are these little shortbread-like two biters very lemony and seedy, they're gluten free, egg free, dairy free and easily made vegan by swapping out the honey for brown rice syrup or agave nectar. I saw the original in a copy of Parenting Magazine, who in turn took it from Elana's Pantry, but of course I had to make some changes along the way too!

I'm submittng this to Ricki's  Wellness Weekend event! What's your favourite lemon poppyseed treat?

Gluten Free Lemon Poppy - Seed Cookies
Makes about 16
2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp unsweetened almond milk

2 tbsp honey or brown rice syrup

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

1 cup ground almonds

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup yellow corn flour

2 tbsp fine cornmeal

pinch sea salt

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. In a large bowl combine oil, almond milk, honey, vanilla and lemon zest.
3. Stir in ground almonds, flours, cornmeal and salt.
4. Stir dry ingredients into the oil mixture, followed by poppy seeds.
5. On a rice-flour dusted surface (or between sheets of wax paper), roll dough out to ¼” thickness and cut out shapes with your desired cookie cutter or small glass.
6. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Cool completely on the sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 85.9

Total Fat: 5.2 g

Cholesterol: 0.0 mg

Sodium: 2.8 mg

Total Carbs: 8.7 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.5 g

Protein: 2.1 g

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