Category: Food Balance Your Body Type

No-bake cookie recipes are not common, but I’ve got a delicious one you’ll love. And it’s gluten-free and dairy-free.

This dreamy one has rainbow healthy sweet flavors and a rainbow look… like an Italian flag colors. 🇮🇹

It’s a rainbow cookie.

To match, this one has the eat-from-the-rainbow 🌈 polyphenol healthy filled ingredients like matcha green tea to match-ah if healthy is your jam today!

And you can learn more 👇 about what else you can mix in that will make this one low-sugar, but sweet dessert… that’s also healthy gluten-free.

It’s made with delicious gluten-free almond flour.

You don’t need any other flours, but of course you have your choices available to fold in.

Adding regular or all-purpose (gluten) flour is not needed because there’s no baking in this recipe, so there will not be an oven rise…

But this cookie has the look of a cake that doesn’t fall flat!

The cookie-cake illusion is elevated by the interesting flavor layers like in spumoni ice cream… and they share in common no eggs.

You can make a pinkish or bright fire engine red color from   beet juice and graduated green colors from combined green Pandan gel, pistachios, and matcha green tea.

Pandan if you’ve never tried has a strong vanilla, leafy, and earthy tasting quality that matches the bright spring green color. 🍃

And if you’re not a match green tea fan but like the idea of adding matcha, it can definitely drown out the matcha flavor.

Plus adding a healthy light olive oil drizzle is heart healthy good. And each individual layer has healthy raw honey… so there’s plenty of healthy sweetness rolled in.

…You could even call this a Mediterranean diet dessert.

To glue all the layers together, raspberry jam is a great option and is used in this recipe, but you can use another jam like apricot that is traditional, or omit altogether.

And you can make a happy plate of these rainbow cookies that you can share and impress your friends with.

It’s fun to have them wonder if it’s a cookie or a cake… 🍥

AND they definitely won’t guess that you didn’t bake these, but you did make ’em!

The best part is that you can make this shareable dessert without extra prep waiting time.

Because there’s no need to refrigerate in between steps or layers.

And if you have a tendency to forget, you also don’t need to take out ingredients in advance to get to room temps. How sweet is that!?

I mean… it doesn’t get easier than that for impressive tasting and crowd pleasing desserts.

Ready to make this no-bake rainbow cookie?

Print

No-Bake Rainbow Cookie (Gluten-Free)

This is enough to make one cookie or a shared cookie bite.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Italian

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 0 minutes minutes

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

• plastic wrap
• 3 bowls

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup almond flour
• Pandan gel, several drops
• pistachios, finely chopped and extra for topping (optional)
• pinch of matcha green tea
• 1/4 tsp beet juice
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tbsp light olive oil
• water

Instructions

• Mix almond flour, honey, olive oil, and almond extract. Add enough water so the dough sticks together. There will be crumbles that fall off but can be put back together.
• Then separate the dough evenly into 3 bowls.
• Add small amount of beet juice to one bowl to desired color. Add green tea, Pandan gel, and pistachios to another bowl to desired color.
• When you're happy with your colors in your dough layers, start with the red one at the bottom. Add into a large enough piece of plastic wrap to shape the dough into a 3-d rectange. Set aside. Then unwrap and replace the no added color dough to the same piece of plastic wrap and shape to the same size as the first dough rectangle. Do this step with the green dough and set aside.
• Add a layer of jam to the top of the bottom layer and the middle layer. Wrap tightly in the plastic wrap.
• Assemble/stack dough layers starting from the bottom to the top. Zhugh with pistachio bits on top. Then wrap tightly with the same piece of plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

Vanilla cookie with no butter or margarine is not heard of if you want something delicious.

Like these vanilla whirls 🍥 …

That are healthy cookies (but you would never know it by taste).

Below is this healthy and delicious vanilla cookie recipe using affordable healthy ingredients (PLUS some budget-friendly grocery tips your wallet will love 🛒).

But first things first… what makes this cookie so special is it has NO BUTTER!

…And it tastes so buttery cookie decadent like a cookie should.

These little ones are made like the Stella D’Oro assortment cookies I grew up with. One of the assorted cookies had a fruit filling that look like these (like raspberry hearts  💌 in the middle).

They discontinued making this cookie, but you can make a similar copycat cookie with the recipe below 💕.

That btw is made from plant based (aka Vegan) ingredients. And I already hinted it has a buttery taste. 🌱

So you could use a Vegan butter….

But I found them pricey and they’re not the same butter tastes. Some common vegan butter brands out there are:

Trader Joe’s, Smart Balance, Country Crock, Earth Balance, and Miyoko’s.

So now that I gave you that option, now I can tell you what I used instead of any butter look-alike… 😊

Because who says for a vanilla cookie you need butt-ah (or margarine that I grew up with?) 🧈

Butter types is not what makes the cookie desirable.

For me, it’s more of a childhood fond memory I grew up with (and maybe you did too).

…And maybe you have a buttery tub that reminds you of childhood or home?

But…

BUT-ter memories can stay part of our butterfly journeys that we can change. 🦋

They don’t have to stay as our daily habits for a healthy future if we choose.

And switching to more daily healthy eating ways (to substitute our old ways) is so much easier to do these days.

Sourcing longevity ingredients in a Mediterranean diet is easy.

…Like finding daily olive oil that no one I knew cooked with when I was growing up.

TODAY it’s a norm and an easy switch into healthy tastes.

When you’re grocery shopping, olive oil prices can be even better than butter.

Mostly because you end up using less of the golden liquid.

For $7 you can get 4 sticks of butter or a healthy EVOO bottle.

And if used wisely, you get more out of the liquid gold.

And yes! it can be used for light (more fluffy) cookie dough with the cookie textures we all love!

Which btw, I consider myself a cookie connoisseur (a ‘lil Cookie Monster if you will 🥠).

These days, I only bake my own cookies. I would’ve never have dreamed that would be my grown up destiny.

…But a nice crunch is a nice crunch.

Crunchy cookies like that in commercial cookies are so easy to home bake.

…That and pairing with the perfect low sugar sweet taste (that’s not too sweet and doesn’t make your skin crawl).

So in my mind, it’s the best of both worlds in cookie enjoyment.

Oh and plus, the healthiest cookie on the grocery shelves is not easy to find.

…I used to look at a graham cracker and think it was healthy because it was made with whole wheat. 🌾

…And back then in those days, if I knew how easy cookies were and are to make and bake with 2-3 basic ingredients, I may have made the switch much sooner.

Today, you get to make that decision for yourself. And you can start with an easy vanilla cookie.

In this batch I made, I include basic ingredients like honey (or maple syrup) for the sweetness, non-gluten plant-based flours (like coconut or almond flour), and olive oil (yes, oil instead of butter!).

These ingredient choices cost no more money or time to make and bake than the less healthy ingredients.

So why not?

…And when those around you are complaining about how much grocery costs have gone up.

I look at my grocery receipt total amounts and they’ve gone down. So I’m scratching my head happy because I get everything I want.

So the change is ME and my sourcing shopping mindset and habits.

And that’s something you can easily adopt!…

First, all I do is look for healthier ingredients. Then I get a ‘lil creative resourceful on how to make a delicious taste, texture, and healthy bake!

I have a rough idea in my mind about the final good. But I’m not stuck on the idea. That came from my catering work where I learned to be flexible.

It’s like dreaming up desserts but detaching from the outcome.

And for that to come true, it starts with choosing one ingredient at a time. And then pairing foods that taste good together.

In this vanilla cookie, I chose an extra virgin olive oil and you can use a lighter version or one that is infused with vanilla enhancing sweet flavors for baking cookies.

And even better… come up with infusing your own sweet blend ingredients.

You can squeeze in a ‘lil lemon juice and a capful of flavor extract that you can easily home make.

…With citrus fruity flavors, everything is enhanced brighter. Or you can infuse in zest or tea flavors. 🍋

Lemon goes with vanilla and creates a zesty moment.

You don’t have to visit gourmet specialty food stores or pay a price that you have to think twice about.

That’s the way of the past.

Healthy, delicious and whole ingredients today are comparable in price AND often less pricey.

When I go to the healthy food chains that people nickname Whole Paycheck, I come out saving money.

Healthy foods are NOT for the wealthy.

Like if you use bananas as your mirror… they are often pennies.

So when I’m shopping, I buy what works for the grocery bill wallet while using a planned list loosely.

That works every time and has for years..

…So I’m 100% sure you don’t have to have deep wallets to eat more healthy.

I’m like you and most of us who want good value and ingredients.

You don’t have to feel the effects of grocery bill inflation.

The main mindset I use is that if I don’t like the price I see, I keep looking at other store shelve items… or source online and for substitutes that work (and sometimes turn out even better).

Plus, I do a little research in advance that pays off, but I never go chasing coupons.

And actually, I can only remember using a coupon less than a handful of times in my adult life.

Coupons to me is too much work when you can coupon shop at actual products and prices available… looking for the discount on the shelves.

And having a home pantry full of ingredients to fall back on helps do that too because then you don’t feel like you HAVE to bring back something.

You can use an alternative already in your home.

And you can wait for the nice-to-have food ingredients to go on sale.

And that includes shopping for fruits that often cost less in-season because they have a short perishable shelf-life and their yield is abundant.

The stores can’t sell them soon enough!

And while I may not be balancing your budget, these tips have worked well for me.

And if you’re a green thumb gardener, you have an even greater advantage, as you can grow your own produce grocery store!

Prepared foods are more expensive and they are the ones with less-healthy ingredients.

For healthy, making your own healthy vanilla cookie is one good example. A healthy ingredient like vanilla pods are relatively expensive where I shop, and vanilla extract can also be.

Instead of using either, maple syrup or an infused vanilla tea can be a good sweet flavor substitute.

Honey is another good alternative that’s good in so many ways.

With those substitutes, you can make one mean swirl shape vanilla cookie, like the kind you found in the Danish butter cookie tins (but without the butter and all the sugar).

The best part is you can make delicious cookies with gluten-free flours.

Even if you’re not gluten sensitive, your body is sensitive to the tainted processed gluten flours these days.

For gluten-free flours, you can choose from rice, tapioca, almond, or coconut flour… just to name a few.

Print

Vanilla Cookie (Viennese Whirls)

These sandwich cookies are so pretty and tasty.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup gluten-free flour (e.g. coconut, almond flour)
• 1 tbsp olive oil (plus more)
• 1 tsp maple syrup or honey
• 3 tbsp water plus additional water
• pinch or salt
• lemon (optional)
• raspberry jam (optional)

Instructions

• Combine ingredients. Use enough water to make a paste that can be piped through a piping bag. Let rest for at least 10 minutes in refrigerator. For gluten-free flours, you will need more water than you would for gluten flours. So if it feels like you're adding a lot of water, don't worry. Use enough for it to hold together without excess dripping water. This will be a soft dough.
• Add the dough to a piping bag with a star shape decorative tip for Viennese whirls. Make a round loop (like a wreath or rosette).
• Bake on 325°F/165°C for 12 minutes or until bottom edges are golden brown. For a more even bake or more crunchy cookie: flip cookies over and then bake tops for another 2 minutes.
• Let cool, and take 2 cookies to make a top and bottom sandwich and then fill middle with jam or add a dollop gem of jam on the top.