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These easy vegan Baklava Cookies have all the flavor of the famous middle Eastern dessert! They are made with almond flour and therefore entirely gluten-free. A quick snack or dessert! Grainfree soyfree recipe. Can be oilfree
A good book, a cup of coffee, and a plate of freshly baked vegan baklava cookies – that’s what your perfect fall afternoon could look like.
Clearly, I love my almond flour cookies, see these snickers cookies, molasses cookies, and chocolate thumbprints! And I love the flavors from baklava! See my baklava cake, baklava lassi.
So it was just a matter of time before I came up with a bite-sized version of this famous Levantine dessert and could not be happier with how they turned out.
Seriously, you got to try these Baklava cookies!
I took my easy almond flour cookie base and added a bit of lemon zest and topped it all off with a mixture of dates and nuts. These are soft and delicious and utterly addictive.
Why am I making these with almond flour and gluten-free? I don’t have a problem with eating regular flour. But since I made the almond cookies, I just love the ease of the recipe, there’s no beating the butter and sugar, you just need 1 Bowl and a spoon for the dough. There’s limited sugar. Almond flour adds protein and fiber and makes for a wholesome and less carb cookie. The texture is amazing. It’s basically an awesome cookie which happens to be gluten-free and vegan!
Why you’ll love these cookies
- They aren’t very sweet or buttery. They need just a bit of maple syrup and oil.
- they can be made Oilfree with more maple syrup
- They are much easier than making baklava
- they are also much easier than making the regular cookies which need beating loads of butter and sugar
- they smell heavenly
- they are chewy, soft delicious and shelf stable. Great texture!
- they are gluten and grain free and vegan(eggless and Dairyfree)!
More vegan cookies you will love:
Gingerbread Cookies ; Gluten-free & Grain-free
Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies Gluten-free
Vegan Baklava Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 cup almond flour, , blanched superfine works best. Natural almond flour will work as well
- 3 tablespoon tapioca starch, or use potato or corn starch (or use 2 tbsp all purpose flour if ok with gluten)
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon powdered sugar, or cane sugar
Wet ingredients:
- 1 tbsp refined coconut oil, measure in semi-solid state, melt before using , , see note for oil free
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- zest of 1/4 of a lemon, (Heaping 1/8 teaspoon)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
For the baklava topping:
- 2 tablespoon raw almonds or cashews or walnuts
- 2 tablespoon walnuts or pecans
- 2 tablespoon shelled raw unsalted pistachios,, Pistachios add a lot to the baklava flavor. You can sub walnuts or pecans.
- 8 small dates, or 5-6 medjool dates
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup,, Or more as needed
- zest of 1/4 of a lemon
Instructions
- Make the cookie dough: Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Press and mix to break the almond flour lumps. Add the (melted) coconut oil, vanilla, maple syrup, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix well. The mixture will be somewhat sticky, chill for 15-30 minutes.
- In the meantime, make your topping; Add almonds, walnuts, and pistachios to a food processor and process until the nuts are evenly chopped and the mixture is close to a coarse meal. Then add dates, lemon zest, pinch of salt, and process for a few seconds, then add maple syrup. Process until the dates break down and the mixture is sticky. Add a bit more maple if your dates are dry.
- Once the mixture is getting somewhat sticky, remove it from the food processor. Take the chilled cookie dough from the fridge. Use a 1.5 -2 tbsp cookie scoop or spoon and Scoop the mixture onto a  parchment lined baking sheet.
- Roll the scoops into even balls and then press into flat discs. Then top the disc with baklava nut mixture (You can just put small portions of the mixture and press it on the cookie. Or you can make a flat disc out of a nut mixture and press it over the cookie like a thumbprint. See pictures). These cookies spread a lot, so add a good amount of topping
- Bake at 330 degrees Fahrenheit (165C) for 12-14 (16 mins for crunchier edges) minutes. Time depends on the size of the cookie and the cookie sheet you’re using. You might need to adjust it for 1 to 2 minutes more or less.
- You want them to just start getting golden on the edges, but not any more than else they get too crisp. The cookie will be soft when it comes out of the oven. Remove the baking sheet from the oven.
- Let them cool for 10-15 minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet. Cool completely and serve.Store in a closed container on the counter for upto 3 days. Refrigerate for longer storage.
Video
Notes
- You can use orange zest instead of lemon zest
- Add some cinnamon and cardamom to the baklava mixture for flavor variationÂ
- Oil free: omit the oil and use 1.5 tablespoons smooth nut butter. Almond or cashew preferred, peanut adds too much peanut flavor. Or omit oil and add 1-2 tsp more maple syrup for moisture. Â Â
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ingredients:
- For the dry mix, we combine almond flour with tapioca starch, salt and powdered sugar
- baking soda makes these crisp up in the oven
- as wet ingredients, we add coconut oil, vanilla extract, maple syrup, zest of 1/4 of a lemon and lemon juice
- For the baklava topping, I blend raw almonds or cashews or walnuts and pistachios with dates, maple syrup and some lemon zest
Tips:
- you can use orange zest instead of lemon zest
- I used 8 small dates for this recipe – if you’re using Medjool dates, you will only need 5
- if you want, you could add some cinnamon and cardamom to the baklava mixture
- You can store these cookies in a closed box on your counter for 3 days or refrigerate them for longer.
How to make Baklava Cookies:
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Press and mix to break the almond flour lumps.
Add the coconut oil, vanilla, maple syrup, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix well. The mixture will be somewhat sticky, chill for 15-30 minutes.
In the meantime, make your topping; Add almonds, walnuts, and pistachios to a food processor and process until the nuts are evenly chopped and the mixture is close to a coarse meal, then add dates, lemon zest, salt, and maple syrup.
Process until the dates break down until the mixture is sticky.
Once the mixture is getting somewhat sticky, remove it from the food processor. Take the cookie dough from the fridge.
Use a cookie scoop and Scoop the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Roll them into even balls and then press into flat discs.
Then top the disc with baklava nut mixture (you can just put small portions of the mixture and press it on the cookie however you want . Or you can make large flat disc out of the nut mixture and press it over the cookie)
Bake at 330 degrees Fahrenheit (165C) for 12-14 minutes. That depends on the size of the cookie and the cookie sheet you’re using. You might need to adjust it for 1 to 2 minutes more or less.
The cookie will be soft when it comes out of the oven.
You want them to just start getting golden on the edges, but not any more than that, else they get too crisp. Then remove them from the oven. Let them cool for 10-15 minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet. Cool completely and serve.
Storage
You can store these cookies in a closed box on your counter for 3-4 days or refrigerate them for longer.
So delicious!!!!
Awesome!! So happy to hear.
It’s such a simple but flavorful recipe. The best part is it is healthier than most cookies. Using dates, nuts topping helped reduce the added sugar in the cookie dough
Yay! I’m glad you enjoyed them.
These were fantastic! Simple to prepare, yummy in taste. Shared with my neighbor, didn’t disclose the cookie name, and she thought they resembled baklava! Planning to whip up another batch for the holidays.
Yay! Glad you liked them.
My dates come already chopped. Do you a weight or dry measurement?
Start with 1/4 cup. Add more as needed for the texture as in pictures
Is there anything I could use instead of dates?
Maple syrup