Walnut cookies

What's a girl to do when she finds herself at home on a Saturday night, it's raining outside, she just got a huge amount of walnuts, she's addicted to carbs, is recovering from a 'birthday cake hangover' and doesn't start the Whole 30 until tomorrow??

That's right, she bakes a batch of cookies! (and eats them while watching a movie..)

I spent about 45 minutes cracking walnuts to get enough for this recipe, but it was worth it.

Some time ago someone saw my supply of walnuts and mentioned to me I could also buy ones that have already been cracked. There's nothing wrong with putting in some effort to get yourself some food; it actually a really primal thought.

I also totally understand why primal people never ate that many nuts. They didn't have nut crackers back in the days so it must have taken one hell of a long time to crack them. I wonder how they did that..

Perhaps they smacked them with a rock or something like that. Maybe we could give some nuts to a chimp or orangutan and see what they do with it, that might give us an idea.

For now, just enjoy the fact that cracking nuts is an easy job for us and try making some cookies with them.
If you want you can save a couple of walnut halves and press them into the cookies for decoration right before baking, like I did.

Walnut cookies

- 1 1/4 cup cracked walnuts

- 1/2 cup desiccated coconut

- 4 large medjool dates

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp ground ginger

- 1 egg

- 2 tbsp coconut oil

- 1/4 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

2. In a food processor, combine walnuts, desiccated coconut, dates, cinnamon and ginger and grind to a coarse mass.

3. Add egg and coconut oil and process until a dough starts to form.

4. Transfer the dough to a bowl and knead in the raisins.

5. Divide the dough into 6 equal balls and put them on the prepared baking tray.

6. Flatten the balls with your hands to make cookies and bake them for approx. 16-18 minutes until golden brown.

7. Let cool for about half an hour and enjoy!