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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.Â
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 Â
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
InstructionsÂ
- 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 . Â 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.
Wonder if 1 Tblsp of tahini would work in place of oil?
It will but it will alter flavor. See my
Oilfre options in notes
I would like to try to make these cookies, but I only have almond meal at home. Do I have to use almond flour or is almond meal fine?
Run the meal through the blender so that it’s not as coarse and use
I’m now cooking for a GF Middle East food fan who will want that distinctive light crunch as you bite through the sugar-coated filo of baclava. And while a bit of cornflake crisp topping might give us that, it’d also skew the flavour profile.
Could poha or something else perhaps be used to carry off a little crunchy magic?
Bake them longer and the edges get nicely crunchy.
Or try this.. Press crushed rice krispies (puffed rice) on top of the cookie and brush with maple syrup and then bake. let me know.
Can I use extra virgin olive oil or vegan butter in place of coconut oil?
Melted vegan butter
Just made these after seeing them in my mailbox. Gosh they are soo good!
Making another batch this evening coz I ate half already
Awesome!
I made these and they just spread out all over the cookie sheet. My dough didn’t look anything like the dough in the photographs. What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe to the letter.
What did the dough look like? Did you change any ingredients? Maybe it needed more almond flour with measuring errors adding some extra moisture
These look like they would be an amazing addition to a Christmas cookie tray!
Could cashew flour work in place of almond flour?
It should. Let me know how it works out
Did you try the cashew flour?
these look so awesome and i want to make them but don’t have a food processor. Do you think i could get away with a knife?
thanks.
jacquie
Yea just chop up the nuts and then chop the dates and mix in. Add maple and then mash and mix so the mixture holds
thanks. I look forward to trying them.
I’d love to make these for a gathering where we will be exchanging cookies but I need to have 12 cookies. How should I change the measurements for the ingredients? Also, is there any substitute for the sugar? I can’t have sugar for health purposes.
You can’t have all sugar or just the cane sugar? Maple syrup is also sugar.
Just double the recipe.
These look amazing!!! Any way to sub regular flour in for the almond flour?
Yes, feel free to use standard flour and omit the tapioca starch.