Some of you have this recipe at home because you were lucky to get one of the 7,000 copies of the original Debra’s Natural Gourmet Cookbook, which is now out of print. Those of you who don’t have our second cookbook beg us for the recipe, which we also make in our kitchen, and the cookbook. So you don’t have to wait until my brother, David Stark, puts the finishing touches on our re-release. (It seems I did David no favor when I blithely told him to go to, to re-do the index, reset recipes and shoot a new cover. Indexing I now know is a fate worse than death.)

One fifth of an almond’s weight is protein, and its oil is among the most nutritious of all nut oils. We have the ground almonds in our nut case, or you can grind your own.

Makes about 16 cookies Bake at 350 degreess

2 cups coarsely ground almonds	1 cup canola oil
2 cups rolled oats	1 cup Grade B maple syrup
2 cups spelt or barley flour	2 tb vanilla
½ tsp cinnamon	1 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp sea salt	½ cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets with mixture of vegetable oil and liquid lecithin.

Using steel blade of a food processor, pulse dry ingredients so oats are coarsely ground. Don’t over- process or you’ll have a paste!

In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients, except jam. Spoon in the dry and mix well. Form dough into balls that fill a ¼ cup measure. Place cookies on sheets and flatten slightly, leaving some room to spread. Make an indentation in the center of each with your thumb. Fill each center with ½ teaspoon raspberry jam.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Remove baking sheets from oven and place on cooling rack. Allow cookies to cool and remove to serve.

Spelt flour is an ancient relative of wheat. Spelt has a higher protein content than wheat and seems fine for many people who can’t do wheat. It does, however, contain gluten.