If you experience low moods, alcoholism or other addictions, you may be experiencing blood sugar swings and low serotonin (happiness hormone).
Eating sugary foods and desserts does nothing to help your willpower or build serotonin. These pumpkin seed walnut cookies are a delicious way to balance blood sugar and because they are tryptophan-rich (an amino acid that is the building block to serotonin), they go a long way to helping boost moods. These cookies make a healthy snack or dessert.
Preparation time
Prepare about 2 days before you want to eat these cookies. 12 – 24 hours in advance (to soak the walnuts and pumpkin seeds). 15 minutes to prepare the recipe and 12 – 24 hours in the dehydrator or about 10 – 20 minutes in your oven. (If you are following a raw food diet, you will likely want to dehydrate them. You can dehydrate them overnight and have finished cookies in the morning!)
You may also find that you like the “dough” and do not want to make it into cookies. You could serve it as sweet dessert plate with berries.
To soak the nuts and seeds, put them in a glass or stainless steel bowl and cover with water, adding 1 TBL sea salt and mixing it in. Cover and leave on your counter top for 8 – 12 hours. Drain and rinse. You are now ready to use the nuts and seeds because the phytic acid has been removed. Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that essentially steals important minerals from your body.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups soaked walnuts
- 3.5 cups soaked pumpkin seeds
- 4 TBL coconut oil
- 1 cup medjool dates
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1.5 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp. cardamom
- ¼ tsp. fennel (ground)
- ¼ tsp. ground black pepper
- ½ tsp. ground cloves
Directions
- Put all ingredients in a food processor with S blade, a VitaMix or high speed blender and blend up.
- Once you have blended all of this up, taste it and see what you think. You can add more sweetener, vanilla or salt to get the taste you want. The finished cookie will taste almost exactly like the raw mixture, so making adjustments now for taste will give you a finished cookie you’ll really like.
- Once all ingredients are blended, use silicone baking sheets or if you don’t have silicone baking sheets, grease Bob’s Red Mill natural parchment paper with ghee.
- Take 1 TBL at a time of cookie mix and flatten into a cookie shapes on the baking sheet or waxed paper and put onto your dehydrator tray.
- Put your dehydrator on 115 degrees and let it go until the cookies are done. If you like softer cookies, you will know they are done when there is no “wet” looking spots left and they will be just a bit soft or bendable. If you like a crisper cookie, leave it in longer until it’s the desired crispness. You will know they are done because the cookies will stay in one piece as you lift them from the baking sheet. You may want to turn them over when the top is done, which can complete them faster. These cookies will likely take between 12 – 24 hours to be done, depending on how soft or hard you want them.
- If you don’t have a dehydrator, put them in your oven at the lowest temperature and check after 10 minutes, then again at 15 minutes. Remove when they look done (the color will change and look drier and you will be able to remove them from the cookie sheet pretty easily with a spatula). You can decide how soft or hard you want them.
- Store the finished cookies in your refrigerator or freezer. They will usually last up to several weeks in the refrigerator. You can also store the dough in your freezer and thaw it to put in the dehydrator or eat as is at a later date.
Alternative Serving Suggestions
Eat the “dough” instead of dehydrating into cookies. Serve alone chilled or room temperature. Add your favorite berries, like blueberries or raspberries.
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Thank you for sharing your pumpkin walnut cookie recipe. Delicious!