Arrowroot animal cookies

Now, I have to state upfront that these cookies truly are a labour of love.  I have been trying for months to make the perfect homemade replacement for store-bought arrowroot cookies--you know the ones, full of white flour, vegetable shortening and modified palm oils (what the heck are those anyway??), glucose, soya lecithin, etc... We have all eaten them and fed them to our babies, under the premise that they are great first foods for baby.  But really, what makes them such great food??  I would argue nothing, other than effective marketing, thanks to a photo of a cute and apparently healthy baby on the box. 

So, after giving the store-bought cookies to my son on numerous occasions, mainly because of their convenience, I began to question my decision to do so, and decided to hunt for a more nutritious homemade version.  I was shocked to find that all the recipes I found online were not much different from the boxed version, minus some of the additives.  Thus began my multi-month experiment to come up with my own recipe.

What you will find below is nothing like the cookies from the box.  Rather, they are something completely different, except for the addition of arrowroot flour.  The arrowroot gives the cookies a melt-in-your-mouth texture while still being a slightly crispy cookie.  Also, did you know that arrowroot is easily digestible?  This is the reason, I discovered along the way, that arrowroot cookies are, in fact, marketed towards babies. 

In keeping with the theme of these being cookies for my toddler, I decided to purchase a few mini animal cookie cutters, thus, creating the hybrid arrowroot animal cookies.  Sure, the mini cookie cutters add to your prep time (it takes a lot longer to cut out dozens upon dozens of little polar bears and hippos than a bunch of 4cm circles!), but the cuteness factor they provide make it all worth it!

Give them a try and tell me how much your little one (and yourself, and your husband...) loves these little cookies:

Arrowroot animal cookies

¼ cup spelt flour

¼ cup whole wheat flour

¼ cup barley flour

¼ cup arrowroot flour

½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup ground walnuts or almonds or combination of both
¼ cup + 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup white sugar

2 Tbsp brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

All-purpose flour for kneading

Whisk the flours, ground nuts and baking powder. Set aside. In a separate medium bowl, beat the butter with the sugars and salt until it's smooth and looks a bit like a brown sugar frosting. Beat in the egg until everything is uniform in appearance.  Stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just until incorporated.  Turn the dough out onto a well-floured counter-top and knead in enough extra flour to help form the dough into a ball--the dough will be very soft and sticky when you first put it onto the counter. Cut the dough in half, flatten each piece, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350F degrees. On a floured work surface roll each circle of dough out thinly (maybe 5mm or so). Using small animal-shaped cookie cutters, cut out cookies.  Bake until the cookies are just beginning to color at the edges ~5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on racks.

Makes a lot of cookies, exact amount depends on the size of your cookie cutters.

Option: If you want to make these cookies a little more grown-up appropriate, do as I have done--stew a few dates and prunes until soft and broken down.  Let cool.  Prepare the recipe as above, but use a round cookie cutter instead (size to your liking), and put a small bit of the dried fruit filling in the centre of each and fold over, sealing the edges well.  Bake for a few minutes longer than the animal cookies.