If you're a cookie-lover like us, these vegan pecan sandies are a must-try.
Although tasty, the classic sandies aren't suitable for people on diets or with food allergies, as they're prepared with wheat flour, sugar, butter, and eggs, and they are dusted with icing sugar.
For a diet-friendly twist on the traditional cookie, we have packed these biscuits with wholesome plant-based foods replacing every ingredient with healthy and allergen-free alternatives.
All you need are some pecans, almond meal, zero-calorie erythritol, creamy coconut yogurt, and chia seeds. Nice and simple!
Ground almonds make a gluten-free and low-carb alternative to wheat flour and also add a nutty flavour to these bakes.
Erythritol is a natural sweetener without any sugars or calories, thus perfect to bake sweets for people with diabetes or those following a ketogenic/low-carb diet.
What you get from this recipe are soft cookies with no bad cholesterol, plenty of healthy unsaturated fats, zero sugars, and lots of fibres.
We topped the sandies with pecans before baking them for a crunchy and flavourful finish. Among their many benefits, pecans are an excellent source of manganese. Just a handful of these nuts provides over 60% of your recommended daily intake (RDI) for this mineral, an essential nutrient that supports bone health, controls blood glucose levels and helps your system fighting off harmful free-radicals.
Start your morning with one or two of these delicious pecan sandies, for a slow and steady release of energy that will support you throughout the day.
NOTE: The default ingredients yield 16 sandies, and one serving consists of two cookies.
Ingredients
| Chia Seeds | 2 tbsp |
| Water | 80 mL |
| Pecans | 80 g |
| Almond Flour | 200 g |
| Erythritol | 110 g |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp |
| Baking Powder | 1 tsp |
| Coconut Yogurt | 100 g |
Step 1
For these vegan sandies, let's start by preparing the "chia-egg".
Soak the chia seeds with water for 10 minutes in the fridge until the seeds form a thick gel-like mixture.
In a food processor, blitz half of the pecans pulsing in short bursts. This way, you'll have finely chopped nuts rather than flour-like grounded pecans.
Next, combine almond meal, erythritol, salt, and baking powder in a mixing bowl (2).
Stir well the ingredients to evenly distribute the baking powder.
Step 2
Now, add the prepared "chia-egg", coconut yogurt and the chopped pecans to the almond flour mix.
Work the ingredients until they come together into a soft and compact dough similar to cookie dough.
Refrigerate the mixture for 15 minutes as, by doing so, the dough will become firm, and it will be easier to shape the sandies.
Step 3
To shape the sandies, dust your hands with little almond flour and pinch off a small handful of chilled dough. Then, roll it between your palms into a ball and lightly flatten it down onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper or on a silicone mat.
Repeat this step until you have used all the cookie dough.
Then, top the sandies with pecans, gently pressing one nut down in the centre of each biscuit.
Step 4
Bake the sandies for 12 minutes at 200°C (390°F) for static ovens or at 180°C (355°F) for fan ovens.
When the cookie edges start to look lightly browned, the biscuits are ready.
Leave them to cool on a wire rack to crisp up evenly on the outside.
Before serving, dust the pecan sandies with sifted almond meal.
Tips
You can swap half of the almond meal with other low-carb flours like coconut flour.
Instead of chia seeds, you can use ground flax seeds in the same amount to make a vegan egg replacement.
In this recipe, we have used coconut yogurt as it has a creamier texture than soy yogurt, but feel free to use other plant-based alternatives or even greek yogurt, if you aren't vegan.