This recipe started out as a modification of the sugar cookie recipe in Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls circa 1957.  You can make a version that tastes more like the kind you can get at some Chinese American restaurants by coating a glass with granulated sugar and squishing each cookie so it has a sugar coating on top and is flatter.  You can also be fancy and put an almond in the middle before baking.  These are good cookies for with tea–they aren’t overly sweet.  If you double the sugar in the recipe below, they will be more like regular cookies.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ground flax
4 tablespoons water
1/2 cup coconut oil (I use unrefined)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup ground almonds (or almond flour)
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare 2 large cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper.
In a cup or small bowl, mix flax and water and let sit.
Blend coconut oil, salt, almond extract, and maple syrup in medium bowl (use a stand mixer if you wish). Add flax mixture.  Add dry ingredients. You can combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl or mix them carefully on top of the wet before mixing them in. Mix well.
Bake in preheated oven in 3 minute increments for about 9 minutes or until cookies begin to turn golden around the edges. Every 3 minutes, rotate the cookie sheets or switch the sheets from top to bottom. The trick is to make sure they don’t overbrown. Remove to cooling rack once they’re out of the oven.