Tiramisu Cookies (gluten-free vegan)

1. Preheat the oven to 335° F (168° C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Make the cookie dough.

1. In a small bowl, add all of the dry ingredients — that’s the almond flour, starch, baking soda, and salt — and mix really well. Press and mix to break all the almond flour lumps, because those lumps don't break down easily once you add the wet ingredients.
2. Then, add in the maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and coffee, and press and mix really well. The cookie dough will be pretty sticky, but you're going to chill it, so mix it really well, and put it in the fridge to chill for 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the fillings.

1. Take the cream cheese out of the fridge, if you haven't already, and measure it out. Add the sugar to it, mix well, and let that cream cheese filling sit on the counter to soften a little bit.
2. Make the coffee-caramel syrup: In a small skillet over medium heat, add the coffee and brown sugar, and mix well. Bring it to a good boil, and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Then, mix in the coconut cream, and continue to cook until the mixture starts to thicken. Depending on your skillet and the stove, this will take anywhere from 4 to 6 minutes. Once the mixture is starting to thicken up like maple syrup, switch off heat and let it cool. It will thicken more as it cools.

Assemble and bake.

1. Take the cookie dough out of the fridge. If the cookie dough is still very sticky, mix in an additional tablespoon of almond flour.
2. Use a spoon or cookie scoop to measure out about 2 tablespoons or more of the cookie dough and place on the baking sheet and wet your hands with water or oil. Using your wet or greased hand, press the cookies down to flatten them out into a 2 1/2” wide cookie, then scoop 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each cookie.
3. Drizzle the cooled coffee-caramel syrup over the cream cheese in the middle of each cookie. Repeat for all the cookies, then fold those cookies over. The cookie dough is going to be soft and somewhat sticky and very easily pliable, so just bring it all together over the cream cheese and caramel mixture. It's okay if it doesn't completely seal. You just want to bring the dough over enough so that the fillings don’t completely leak out of the cookie during baking. See pictures for reference, and repeat for all of the cookies.
4. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes. The baking time depends on your oven, the baking dish, etc. Check in at the 12-minute mark. If the cookies are browning on the edges, then they're done. Otherwise, let them continue to bake for another 2 minutes or so, then remove the cookies from the oven. Let them sit on the baking sheet for another 2 minutes, then carefully transfer the parchment off to a cooling rack and let them cool completely. The caramel is still setting at this point, and cookies will be soft in the middle when they first come out. They will firm up a bit once they cool, if you can wait for them to cool down, that is!