Chinese New Year (CNY) is less than 2 weeks away, have you started planning what to cook during the festive period? Here’s a new recipe to add to your CNY cookies repertoire: Seaweed Cookies that are totally Paleo Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) compliant!
These are tiny shortbread-like ‘slice and bake’ cookies that will be well received by nori/ seaweed lovers. Do you love nori? I love how versatile those toasted sheets are, even without the addition of rice to make classic Japanese foods like maki or temaki! There’s always a big pack of toasted nori in my kitchen as my children love snacking on them too.
The first time I made the seaweed cookies, I rolled them 1 inch thick in width, and felt that it was too large for a CNY cookie. So I rolled them smaller and they baked up perfectly and look adorable! Just like little coins!
I’m very pleased with the overall result as they are crisp and crumbly without being overly delicate. They are also not very sweet to cater to the typical Chinese palate (and perfect for the AIP too). A little bit sweet and salty, they have a lovely balance!
If you are living in Asia and are unable to purchase cassava flour from US-based sites, I recently found a company producing cassava flour from Indonesia. I think it’s a possible alternative though I have not personally tried it. A lot of cassava flours are traditionally fermented, yielding a pretty sour taste which does not lend well to baked goods.
The flour that I used is Otto’s cassava flour from the US-based company Otto’s Naturals, which does not have that fermented taste. Bear in mind that cassava flour is made from the whole tubers, unlike the white powdery tapioca starch/ flour which is starch-based. They cannot be used interchangeably.
Where to purchase certain ingredients online (affiliate links):
- seaweed/ nori
- salt
- Coconut flour
- cassava flour
- ground Ceylon cinnamon
- ground ginger
- ground clove
- ground mace
- bacon fat
- Coconut oil
- raw liquid honey
- Coconut sugar
- 2 sheets unflavoured toasted Japanese seaweed/ nori (get the unseasoned large sheets used for making maki, don't get the Korean type which is seasoned in oil and roasted)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons/ 13 g coconut flour
- ⅔ cup/ 98 g cassava flour
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used Ceylon/true cinnamon but you can use the cassia variety in a pinch)
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground clove
- 1 pinch ground mace
- ¼ cup/ 50 g bacon fat (rendered and solidified)
- 2 tablespoons/ 26 g coconut oil (soft-solid state)
- 2 tablespoons/ 44 g raw honey (fluid, not the thick creamed type)
- 1 tablespoon/ 10 g granulated coconut sugar
- Tear up the sheets of Japanese seaweed/ nori into smaller manageable pieces and place them in your food processor with the fine sea salt and process, removing the bowl and shaking occasionally, to ensure that the seaweed is shredded into tiny flakes and set aside. I let the food processor run for about 10 minutes with several 'shaking' intervals. You may have to shred some larger stubborn flakes by hand!
- In a small bowl, combine the coconut flour, cassava flour, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground clove, ground mace, seaweed flakes and salt mixture and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat together the bacon fat, coconut oil, raw honey and granulated coconut sugar until creamy. It should have the consistency of mayonnaise.
- Add the flour, spice, and seaweed + salt mixture to the fat and sweetener mixture.
- Mix with a spatula until a dough forms. You don't have to worry about over-mixing as there's no gluten to worry about!
- Divide the dough into two equal portions and place on a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap.
- Spread the dough out into an even log about 8 inches wide and ½ inch in diameter and wrap.
- Place in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm and cold.
- Preheat the oven to 325 and remove the logs from the freezer and leave at room temperature to soften slightly while the oven is preheating. Line a large baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- Slice the logs into even 0.2 inch or 0.5 cm pieces and place them on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 1 inch or 2.5 cm apart. As they won't spread, you can also place them a little closer if your baking sheet is not large enough (just don't let the cookies touch).
- Bake in the middle rack for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the bases of the cookies start to turn golden and the tops are dry to touch.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the refrigerator if you wish to keep them longer).
these sound delicious. What can I substitute for the coconut flour? My daughter doesn’t tolerate coconut. (I’ll use palm oil for coconut oil).
You can try using all cassava flour instead! I’ve not personally tried though, so you may have to adjust the quantity accordingly.
Thank you! I’ll try it and let you know how it goes.