Paleo Peppermint Sugar Cookies & Frosting

I recently attended a paleo holiday cookie exchange, and was at a loss for a recipe to bring, so I opted to pull something from the aptly named Paleo Indulgences cookbook. The premise of the cookie exchange if you've never been to one (aside from the fact it's an excuse to get together, drink champagne, and listen to Christmas music), is that everyone makes a different cookie, then you swap so each girl gets to home with 6-12 of each type of cookie.

The exchange was a success, the only problem is coming home with a sh*tload of delicious cookies - just what I need in the house! I may have had a few for breakfast the next morning, but then I put them in cute little boxes to share with friends and neighbors.  This was also probably the most expensive holiday cookie exchange in history, no $1.99 bags of white flour around here, and some of the ingredients are hard to find, so I included some links to the items on Amazon in the event you don't have 3 high end health food stores in your neighborhood.

Paleo "Sugar" Cookies

1 cup almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour, sifted

2 tbs arrowroot powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

2 tbs coconut oil, melted

Preheat oven to 350.  Place all the dry ingredients (almond flour to salt) in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  Add the wet ingredients - minus coconut oil - and blend well with a hand mixer.  Or if you have a fancy, well stocked kitchen, go ahead and use that beautiful KitchenAid stand mixer, and if you're reading this Santa...ahem, husband.... I really like this one.  Slowly drizzle in the coconut oil and blend thoroughly.  

Put some arrowroot on your fingers and chalk up for this part.  Roll the dough into tiny balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Press down gently with your fingers until you get the thickness you desire.  You can sprinkle them with a some coconut crystals and put them in the oven for about 11-13 minutes. 

For the frosting: (which is also adapted from Paleo Indulgences )
1 stick pasture butter, softened
1/3 cup raw cashews (soaked overnight and then pulsed in a food processor with a squeeze of lemon)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs arrowroot
2 tbs sifted coconut flour
pinch sea salt
3 tbs coconut oil, melted
2 tbs coconut crystals

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and blend until smooth.  Give it a taste and add as you see fit.  You can also add a little peppermint extract to the cookies and/or frosting to change it up.  See the green ones? I added evil green food coloring to my peppermint batch because I like to live on the (paleo) edge