Sometimes I love to munch on a soft and chewy cookie, and sometimes I need something crispy and crunchy that I can dip into my cup of tea! These cinnamon thin cookies are exactly that! Deliciously flavored with a hint of cinnamon, you won’t believe how utterly delicious these cookies are. Light and crisp, without being crumbly, they are the perfect companion for a nice cup of tea in the middle of the afternoon!
If you are already familiar with the autoimmune protocol, you know that a good number of AIP baked goods are made with coconut flour. Recently I started to notice some abdominal discomfort when eating treats made out of coconut flour. So I decided to look around for another safe alternative flour that I could bake with. And I found tigernut flour
Tigernuts are not actually nuts but small root vegetables. Tigernuts are an important source of resistant starch, an essential prebiotic fiber that resists human digestion and becomes fuel for our probiotics. Paleo and autoimmune protocol compliant, tigernut flour is incredibly good for our gut and a great all-purpose AIP flour to bake with.
I got great results baking with tigernut flour
I have been using the Organic Gemini tigernut flour
Cinnamon Thin Cookies
Light and crispy
coconut-free
egg-free, nut-free, gluten-free, grain-free
- 1 cup tigernut flour
- 3/4 cup arrowroot flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup palm shortening
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon gelatin powder
(Great lakes - red can)
- Warm up the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, mix together the tigernut flour, arrowroot flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a small dish, melt the palm shortening (45 seconds in the microwave) and add the maple syrup. Mix well.
- Sprinkle the gelatin powder over the liquid and whisk for a few seconds, making sure there is no clump.
- Pour the liquids over the dry ingredients and mix well with a spatula until your form a homogeneous dough.
- Use a tablespoon to scoop out small portions of cookie dough. First roll the dough between your hands to form a ball, then gently flatten into a cookie.
- Arrange the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet. The cookies will spread just a little while baking.
- Bake in the oven for 12 minutes.
- Bon appétit!
The recipe for these cinnamon thin cookies has been shared on the following link parties: Fat Tuesday – Allergy Free Wednesday – Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable – Natural Family Friday – Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable –
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These look amazing! I’ve had a cookie craving lately and I just might have to give these a try. I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about tiger nuts lately and am looking forward at trying my hand with it.
Hello Rheagan! These are so good, they might become your favorite AIP cookies 🙂 Have you tried tigernut flour before?
I haven’t, but I’ve seen a few recipes now, including this one, that will have me ordering it with my next Amazon order!
Could agar be used as a replacement for the gelatin powder?
Lori,
I have never tried with agar, but I would say go for it!
1/4 of what measure of maple syrup?
Oops! Thanks! Changed it 🙂 It is 1/4 cup maple syrup.
So interesting! I have not heard of tigernut flour. I keep learning new things every day!
I don’t think it’s considered vegan if it contains gelatin!! However, this recipe looks awesome and I’m excited to try out tigernut flour! Thanks for sharing.
I am totally intrigued…just ordered my first tigernuts…so excited to try them! Featuring your recipe this week! Thanks for shairing it on Allergy Free Wednesday!
These look great! I’ve never heard of tigernut flour before, I will have to get some! I would love it if you would share these at Gluten Free Wednesdays, it’s up right now 🙂
XO,
Cassidy
these cookies are excellent and so easy to make, love it!
Thank you Judy for your feedback 🙂
Thank you for the recipe! I was wondering about the texture of your cookies. I’ve made cookies in the past with tigernut flour and my cookies had a gritty texture to them, but the grit was also sort of chewy. Do you notice any grittiness with your cookies?
Hello Tasha 🙂
No, I didn’t taste any grittiness, just crunchy in a nice way!
These are really good! I actually messed up when adding the ingredients too, added 1 TBS instead of 1 tsp of baking soda. Ugh… Tried to scoop out some of the boo boo, but the dough still tasted a bit too much like soda. Baked them anyway, hoping for the best, then added a little glaze to the top to offset the mistake. Mine ended up tasting like graham crackers. I so glad to have found a treat recipe that doesn’t call for coconut flake, flour, or manna. Those recipes tend to be hit or miss, and since I’m the only one in the house that even likes the taste of coconut, eating an entire loaf of banana bread before it’s time to chuck it just isn’t an option for my digestive system. I’ll definitely be making these again, for me and my family! I plan to play with the flavorings and attempt to make a lemon or ginger cookie using your recipe as a base, minus the cinnamon. Great recipe, thank you!
Hello Debra!
I am glad that you liked the cookies, even with the little mistake! I have been working on other flavors as well, using the same dough for the base. I really like having a coconut-free option!
These are brilliant!! I can’t tolerate coconut either, and I had really been wanting a light, crunchy cookie. Thank you very much. Even my 18 year old son liked them. 🙂
Thank you for your feedback Gina! When our teenage kids like a recipe, it is really a keeper 🙂
Can you use coconut oil instead of palm shortening? Thanks!!
Hello Laura!
You know, I have no idea how the cookies would turn out with coconut oil instead of palm shortening. But it is definitely worth a try! It won’t be bad, just a different texture maybe. Let me know how they taste!
i just made these for the first time with coconut oil instead of shortening (because it’s hard to get in Canada) and they are absolutely delicious! I don’t know how they differ from the original version but these taste light and crispy and yum!! thank you 🙂 xx
Hello leo,
Thank you so much for your feedback! I often get asked if one can replace palm oil with coconut oil. I am glad to learn that these cookies are equally good that way 🙂
Has anyone tried making this recipe with leaf lard instead of palm shortening? Also, has anyone baked them on a stone ware cookie sheet? Is the parchment mandatory to prevent sticking? Thanks!
Yay thanks for commenting about how the coconut oil turned out because I really wanted to make these cookies but wanted to sub coconut oil in for palm oil! Sooo excited to try these!!
Here’s what I did….wanted to play with alternate flours, had no palm oil and cut carbs:
3/4 c. tigernut flour
1/2 c. almond flour
1/2 arrowroot
1/4 cup coconut manna/butter
1/4 cup butter
1/8.c yogurt
1/8c. maple syrup
1/8 c. whole milk yougurt
They came out crispy and flavorful!
I don’t have tigernut flour at this time, but I would really like to make these cookies. would you suggest a replacement for the flour?
Hello Maryjane,
The trick is that you can’t just replace tigernut flour with coconut flour for example. Coconut flour will absorb all the moisture and your dough will be way too dry. So if you try with coconut flour flour, you might have to raise the liquids. I would add coconut milk for the liquid.
These are AWESOME! I ordered tiger nut flour just so I could try them. They’re like little snicker doodles! I can’t do coconut, bananas, plantains, etc. so tiger nuts may be my new best friend. Thanks for introducing me to them and giving my first yummy cookie since I started AIP 6 months ago! 🙂
Ooh goodie! I am always glad when someone loves a recipe as much as I do 🙂
Sophie — these look wonderful! Question: Arrowroot flour gives me horrible abdominal discomfort; do you have a suggestion for an alternative for this recipe? Thanks.
Hello Marsha!
Yes! I would suggest to replace the arrowroot flour with cassava flour. A popular one is this new brand: Otto’s natural cassava flour. I haven’t tried it yet myself, but I just ordered a bag to give it a try!
Thanks, Sophie. And if I can’t eat Tapioca, should I also not eat Cassava? Tapioca does no bother me, but it is on Cyrex Lab’s “Array 4”, which Dr. Kharrazian says to avoid if one has Hashimoto’s, which I do. How about Plantain?
haha you will find this ironic but I can’t do plantain flour, because I am intolerant (same with bananas). If you have some in your cupboards, definitely try it. Or just go with coconut if you stomach coconut flour. Cassava flour is supposed to be different from traditional tapioca flour though. Tapioca is a bleached, extracted starch of the cassava root. Cassava flour is the whole root, pealed, dried, and grounded. According to the Paleo Mom, tapioca flour is ok (as long as you don’t feel digestive distress). So I would say give it a try, see how you feel, and listen to your body.
These cookies are amazing Sophie! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I am not usually satisfied with AIP baking but these were a hit with the whole family. They are my grand children’s favourite cookie at the moment. I added a tsp of ground ginger because I love ginger but they would be so good in any flavour. I will be adding this recipe to my Christmas baking list.
Hello Lori 🙂
Thank you for your positive feedback! And great idea to add a touch of ginger <3
Hi there, Is Arrowroot Flour easy to find? I just started AIP and a tad overwhelmed..:D
I am going to call around to a few healthier stores in my area, thank you for the recipe, I cannot wait to try it. You have rave reviews here!
Hello Marcy!
Yes, I think that arrowroot flour is not too hard to find at your local health food store. I find mine at our local Vitamin Cottage. Wholefoods also have it. If not, you can always try Amazon. Good luck 🙂
Hi again, I found it! Now I am not sure about the gelatin powder – is that beef gelatin powder or collagen gelatin powder? I see it on Thrive, but there are a few of them in red cans…thank you! I ordered the tiger nut flour online via your link! I am anxious to make these, Thank you! Marcy
Hello Marcy 🙂
The gelatin I use is the Great Lakes – red can – beef gelatin. Good luck!
So I was in desperate need of a little something, and stumbled accross your recipe. Let me say FANTASTIC!!! Just hits the spot with that cup of tea…. Perfect for dunking! I had bought a HUGE amount of tigernut flour for making paleo bread a while ago, but then had to go AIP and cannot have eggs so I could no longer make my bread. I didn’t know what to do with all the tigernut flour. This is fabulous. I made it with coconut oil, and it worked great. I will use less then half the baking soda next time, as it tasted a bit salty/baking soda-y for me. But the texture and overall flavor made me feel like I was cheating! A definately keeper. And easy to add different flavors, like lemon zest and lavender, or chocolate shavings and vanilla. A good, easy base to work with. Yum!!
I used all my tiger nuts as snacks, so I don’t have any on hand to make flour. Do you think I could sub Cassava flour 1:1 for the tiger nut flour? So excited to try a treat! Thanks!
It is an excellent idea and definitely worth a try!Good luck!
Question… if I were to sub the maple syrup for raw palm sugar (lower GI) would it be a 1:1 ratio? Thanks!
Hello Jonathan 🙂
OK so I have never tried this recipe with palm sugar. But I am pretty sure that if you use granulated palm sugar, you will have to add some liquid to the recipe otherwise it will be too dry. So maybe do 1/4 cup palm sugar and add a couple of TBSP palm oil. Let me know if that works!
Thanks so much for the quick reply! I will let you know. 🙂
I just want to say, THANK YOU!!! and I Love you for this!!!!! I am a Paleo baker by trade and it has been murder making treats for everyone else and not being able to have anything I make. This is huge, these are amazing!!! Now to keep myself and my husband from eating them all in one day!
Hello Janette!
🙂 Thank you so much for your positive feedback! And yes, everyone has a hard time pacing themselves 😉 I am so glad you enjoy these!
I just made these, and the dough is extremely oily (dripping off my hands). Is this normal? I melted coconut oil instead of the palm shortening, but that’s still the same amount of liquid oil so I wouldn’t think that would matter.
Hello Hillary,
No, it is not normal that the dough is oily and drippy. In fact, the dough is supposed to get pretty dry. Most probably, you used the wrong amount of oil in the recipe 🙁
Thanks for getting back to me! I did use the correct amount of oil, but just realized I used 1/4 cup arrowroot flour instead of 3/4. I really need to have my recipes pulled up on a larger screen than my phone so I can read them better! They were still really tasty; just really thin and chewy. I think I’m addicted now, and will try again with the correct amount of arrowroot flour. This was a great first recipe to try with the tiger nut flour-thank you!
Hello Hillary!
I am so glad you figured out what went wrong 🙂 Now, the hardest part will be to pace yourself and not eat all of them in one sitting 😉 Good luck!
I wonder if Kerry gold butter would work in place of palm shortening.
Hello Gwen!
That is a very good question! However, butter is not an approved food on the strict elimination phase of the paleo autoimmune protocol. If you have reintroduced it into your diet, let me know how this recipe turns out with butter 🙂
Oh Sorry, forgot Butter is not on the AIP list. I’m not AIP, just paleo. I have so many food sensitivities that it’s easier for me to follow most AIP, I suffer from lyme disease, so I’m healing my gut and getting inflammation down. Found you a while ago from a anxiety podcast. Enjoy your recipes as well as Grazed and Enthused. recipes.
I did make these twice. I did not use butter. I found a shortening with palm oil and a small mix of coconut oil in it, thought that was interesting so I tried it. They worked out perfectly.
The second time, I rolled them out super thin, and used a circle cookie cutter, and baked them for the same amount of time. Worked out perfect again. Really love these. Sure wish tiger nut flour was cheaper. I think one bag has four cups.
Thanks for the recipe.
Hello Gwen!
Thank you for your positive feedback 🙂 These cookies are for sure a winner!
My first time to use tiger nut for. Just took them from the oven and they smell good. Mine are a tan color …. yours look more cream colored with cinnamon on top. Did you sprinkle cinnamon on top of your? Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Hello JoAn,
Yes, I did sprinkled them with cinnamon for the photoshoot. Good catch 🙂
Hello! I have every ingredient but gelatin on hand. Any suggestions of what else I could use? Thanks!
Hello Tisha 🙂
Unfortunately, I don’t know of a suitable, AIP approved replacement for gelatin.
I was getting a real craving for cookies and thought I would give this recipe a try. Typically, I don’t care for cinnamon in my recipes, but since I had all of the other ingredients, I decided to go ahead. Of course, I HAD to take a bite of the cookie dough (always a no-no before AIP with raw cookie dough). once Guess what? I ended up eating half of the dough! No worries, though, I had just enough tigernut flour to make another batch. Yum!
haha! Thank you for your feedback Susan 🙂
I’ve made this recipe several times now. I find that by adding in an extra 1/8 cup of maple syrup I get more of a moist cookie.. I know that increases the sugar content of these cookies, but hopefully not too much more.
Hello Susan,
Always feel free to experiment with recipes! Increasing the sugar content of cookies does indeed make them more moist and soft. For this recipe, I wanted something crunchy though that I could dip in a cup of tea! Something like graham crackers or cinnamon thins 🙂
Hi Sophie,
I agree! I love to dip these cookies into a cup of organic Roasted Dandelion Root tea. It hits the spot!
Hi Sophie,
I’m wild about these cookies. They’re sort of too good to be true.
Have made them several times and just tried it as a pie crust. Holy smokes! it works great, and what a fun blank slate to play around with. Anyhow, wanted to share the results of this experiment.
Thanks again for the totally epic cookie recipe.
Hello Janell,
Thank you so much for your positive feedback 🙂 What a wonderful idea to use the dough as a base for a pie crust! Thanks!
Hi Janell,
I am wondering how you used the cookie dough for pie crust? What kind of pie? Did you roll or press in the dough?At what temperature did you bake it? I love these cookies too and I really want to try using the dough for pie. Thanks
Hi, I made this recipe three Times! The first time, just as it was (using coconut oil and tapioca starch instead of palm shortening and arrowroot). Very good. The second time, I omitted cinnamon and added 2 top homemade vanilla extract and 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Perfect! The third time, I used honey instead of maple syrup (i wanted a more neutral flavour) and it went wrong: the cookies didn’t keep their shape and they spread too much. They taste too sweet as well, sort of overpowering the chocolate.
Just to let you know so somebody might learn from my mistake.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
If anyone has made these using an egg replacer other than great lakes (horrible GI issues with it), I’d love to know how it turned out. I was hoping to replace with honey as I cant do Maple Syrup… but looks like that didn’t work… really hard to find a recipe that I don’t have to substitute but don’t want to waste the tiger nut flour.
I made these today and the dough tasted great but after they baked, they had a horrible bitter taste. I baked them on a silicon mat, but i know wasn’t that because they are bitter all of the way through. They aren’t burnt either. Any idea what happened?
More often than not, it is due to a mistake in the ingredients used or the quantities.
I am not in AIP and didn’t have any tigernut flour, so I used 3/4 c millet flour and 1 1/4 arrowroot flour. Came out wonderful. My friend can’t eat eggs, dairy or gluten, and she wants the recipe. Thanks so much for posting this. It is fun to try different things.
Thanks Trish for your feedback! I am glad these turned out great for you!
Crispy cinnamon cookies and tiger nut milk
I tried coconut milk but it wasn’t the same the tiger nut milk soaked in to the cookie nicely
With so many fails under my belt it’s so nice to have a successful recipe!
Any thought on whether this would work subbing CASSAVA flour for the tigernut flour?
Hello Victoria,
I am sure it would work. You wouldn’t have the same crunchy texture I think. But still good and worth a try!
Absolutely loved these cookies this Christmas! Thank you.
Thank you for your positive feedback Susan 🙂
I bookmarked this recipe. Can’t wait to try these cookies.
Never heard of tigernut flour here in Ireland. Any other flour that i could use?
These are so good!!!!!
Thanks!
Hi…I’m new to AIP and just starting to explore some baking ideas. Our family’s absolute favorite cookies that I make every Christmas are Ginger Sugar cookies, and I can’t imagine a Christmas without them! Thin and crispy, they sound like they could be related to these….do you have any ideas that I can try? Thanks for all the great ideas I’ve been following for when I ‘m past the strict elimination phase…..
Hello Beth,
You could try to add some fresh ginger to this recipe! Or little pieces of candied ginger. Good luck!
I will do that and let you know…thanks! (It may be a while yet, but something to look forward to!)
Is there a sub for palm oil?
You can try coconut oil. Good luck!
Eating one as I type this. They are delish. Easy to make. Thank you for sharing. I did add the gelatin to the dry ingredients, because my experience with dissolving gelatin always results in lumps and they turned out.
Hello Lori!
Thank you so much for your positive feedback 🙂 Good to know that one can add the gelatin to the dry ingredients. It can be tricky to dissolve gelatin correctly indeed. If you have a blender, you can use that to dissolve the gelatin without clumps. Also make sure the liquid is hot (not boiling though).
These cookies are wonderful just as written; like a lightly-spiced shortbread. The best AIP cookie recipe I’ve tried. I’ve also made them using coconut oil (couldn’t find palm shortening on vacation), and they were also delicious, just a little bit softer. Has anyone successfully frozen the dough to bake later? I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work, do you?
Hello Jess 🙂
Thank you so much for your positive feedback! I also happen to think that they are the best AIP cookies ever LOL I think that freezing the dough would work; great idea!
yum! Yum! Yum!!
I made these tonight, they are sooo good!
Your’re awesome Sophie!
Thank you Ann for your positive feedback! We know, these are addictive 🙂
For real! If I’m not careful, I could eat the entire batch. Hands down the best AIP cookie (and maybe any cookie) I’ve ever had. I did coconut oil as well. And ran out of arrowroot, so used part tapioca. Worked just fine.
These cookies are delightful – fresh out of the oven! I followed the recipe exactly, works perfectly and tastes great – thanks Sophie!
Thank you for your positive feedback Judy 🙂 – Sophie
Really good! Thank you!
I know this recipe has been here a while, but I just found it and can’t wait to try it!
Just made these………they are amazing!!
Yay something that is coconut free!!!! Thank you
These are wonderful but there was no way I got 20 cookies. I only got 7 I could have maybe got 10 if they were a bit thinner.
Can the Tigernut flour be substituted for another (eg coconut) AIP friendly ingredient)
Hey Sophie, I’ve been following you for the while 4 years of AIP. I have both of your cookbooks and love them. You address always one of the people who I can trust to have fantastic recipes. After my trip to Europe, I needed a serious reset. It didn’t help that I head become lazy about following what I knew I needed to for my body. Anyway, I was wondering if these are considered an AIP treat and should be saved for those special occasions. 1/4 cup maple syrup spread across the recipe doesn’t seem like much.
Hello Lisa,
Sounds like you had a great time in Europe! Woohoo! I don’t know how strict you want to be at this time, but in maintenance phase, would you consider limiting this to one cookie per day max? Your special little treat that you take while sipping your favorite cup of tea? A reward of sorts for eating well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
Love these cookies! Thank you!
Hallelujah- finally an AIP baked good without coconut and it is legit good. I keep trying recipes that I swear will be the death of me by choking! Ever try these with lemon zest and juice to make it like a lemon shortbread? Also could I sub avocado or olive oil?
This recipe looks amazing. But I have agar agar instead of gelatin powder and I don’t know what to do beyond step 3. Every instructional video about agar agar talks about boiling it before adding it to the mixture.
Wow, these cookies are SO good! They are the best AIP cookies I’ve ever tried – even my husband and kids loved them!
My hubs and I enjoyed these. I’ll double up next time. Thank you so much for sharing this one!