If I’ve learnt anything about being a Hollingsworth it’s that when it comes to food, if you snooze, you most definitely always lose. As my lovely husband explained to me after the other half of a cookie I was eating was pinched from under my nose by someone who will remain nameless, ‘if it’s not on your plate it’s fair game’. 

Now this is normally fine because at Hollingsworth family get togethers there is enough of everything to easily feed a small city, so you don’t really need to worry about missing out on anything. Although there is one exception to this rule – the selection box. Be it biscuits or chocolates, if you don’t grab your favourites the second the lid pops off the tin, you’re in for a world of disappointment. I used to love the chocolate sandwiches in the biscuit assortments, but so did everyone else, so before I learnt the Hollingsworth definition of ‘sharing’ I got caught short on a number of occasions.

These days to the delight of everyone else, I no longer partake in the selection box scramble, but as I don’t like missing out either I thought it was long overdue that I come up with a gluten, dairy and refined sugar free version of my fave biccies. The results (if I do say so myself) were superb! So you can keep your family assortments and your biscuit tins because I’m making these, and I’m going to eat them all myself. You should make them too!

Makes 6 sandwiches (12 cookies)

For the cookies

• 1 cup ground almonds 
• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 5 tbsp cashew butter
• 5 tbsp maple syrup 
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 5 tbsp coconut oil, melted

For the filling 

• 1 ripe avocado
• 5 tbsp cacao powder
• 5 tbsp maple syrup
• 4 tbsp cashew butter
• 4 tbsp coconut oil

Bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, then in a mixing bowl stir together the coconut oil, maple syrup and cashew butter. Add in the cacao powder and stir this in, then finally add the ground almonds and buckwheat flour and knead with your hands until you have a dough. Roll the dough into twelve equal-sized balls, then place them on a baking tray covered with baking parchment and flatten them down with your palms into round discs (about 1cm thick). Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave for half an hour to cool. Don’t worry if they seem super soft – they’ll harden up lots as they cool down! 

For the filling, scoop out the insides of the avocado and place in your food processor with the other ingredients, then whizz for about 3-5 minutes until you have a beautifully smooth and chocolatey mixture. 

Once the cookies are completely cool, spoon the filling onto half of them and squish the other halves on top to make sandwiches. And there you have it!

Love, Mrs H xx