Raw Red Velvet Cookies with Cashew Icing

When I was brainstorming for this month’s #chocolatelove bloghop, I knew that I’d have to incorporate some raw treats into my posts. Today is Raw Wednesday, and I have this intriguing and awesome cookie recipe for you! Red Velvet is the quintessential Valentine’s Day dessert, so why not change it up a bit? This delicious cookie is soft, moist, full of flavor and nutrients, and of course, eye-catching.

Who would have thought that with such simple ingredients you could get such a stunning and delicious recipe? Just make sure you have some level of patience, that way you don’t eat the cookies right out of the dehydrator before they’re ready! I find that I have a “problem” with doing that, but I just tell myself it’s for quality assurance. 😉

Servings: Makes Roughly 28 Cookies (depending on size)

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Raw Almonds, Soaked in water for 2+ hours
• 1/2 Cup Goji Berries, Soaked in water for 30+ minutes
• 1/2 Cup Raw Cacao Powder, I use Navitas Naturals Cacao Powder
• 1/3 Cup Raw Beet Juice, I juiced 1 avg.-sized Beet to get this amount of juice
• 1/3 Cup Maple Syrup
• Pinch of Sea Salt

————-

• 1 Cup Raw Cashews, Soaked in water for 2+ hours
• 1/3 Cup Water
• 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
• 1 Tbsp. Coconut Oil
• 2 Tbsp. Maple Syrup
• 1/4 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• Pinch of Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Place almonds, goji berries, cacao powder, beet juice, maple syrup and sea salt into a food processor and turn on for 1-2 minutes. Scrape the batter off of the sides of the processor so that the texture is even. Pulse processor until the dough forms a ball or starts to clump.
2. Get out two trays for your dehydrator and line with paraflexx sheets. Using cookie cutters (or just your fingers), shape out cookies to be roughly 3/8″ thick and 2-3″ in diameter.
3. Once all of the cookies are formed, dehydrate them at 110°F for 5 hours. Test to see if you can peel them off the paraflexx sheets without any batter sticking to them and flip the cookies over. Dehydrate for an additional 3 hours.
4. Before the cookies are done dehydrating, in a high-speed blender, pureé raw cashews, water, lemon juice, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and sea salt together to make a very smooth icing. You may need to add a little extra water to blend thoroughly. Place icing into a ziploc bag and refrigerate it until the cookies are done.
5. Cut a 2mm. wide hole into the corner of the icing bag and decorate the red velvet cookies however you’d like. I recommend doing this right before you serve them; in my experience, the cashew icing will become more translucent a couple of hours after you ice the cookies. But, they will still be delicious!

Enjoy these yummy, raw treats with a glass of Homemade Almond milk after a wonderful V-day dinner, or anytime, really! I have a designated omnivore that does taste-testing for me once recipes are done so that I know everyone will like it, and she loved these! I prefer them when they’re straight out of the dehydrator, but they are still very tasty once they’ve cooled down.