Impromptu Half Marathon and Gluten-Free Thumbprint Cookies

Ever wondered what Connecticut Avenue looks like at 5 am on Sunday?

Well, you’ve come to the right place.

I snapped that picture for you on Sunday on my way to meet Liz and Rachel to drive on down to Fredericksburg for the Blue and Gray Half Marathon.

Why? I mean…Liz was entered, so obviously I had to, too. Plus, I’m trying to milk as much as possible out of my marathon training before I lose that edge.

Also, it gave me an opportunity to show off my mad skills in the area of combining chocolate and sea salt.

Specifically, I made some salted chocolate thumbprint cookies (sans flour, of course).

Gluten Free Salted Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

For the cookies:

8 tablespoons butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup almond flour (e.g. finely ground blanched almonds)

¼ cup corn starch

1 cup chickpea flour (e.g. finely ground dry chickpeas)

½ teaspoon salt

2 ounces finely chopped bittersweet chocolate

For the filling:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1 ½ tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Mix together flours, salt and corn starch, set aside. Cream butter and sugars, then add egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture, then chocolate. Shape dough into 1” diameter balls, chill for 30 minutes. Using the end of a wooden spoon, make an indent in each ball.

Bake at 350° F for 8 minutes, reinforce shape of indent with end of wooden spoon, then bake 4 additional minutes.

Prepare the filling by melting together chocolate and butter, allow to cool slightly, then add sea salt. Pour into indentations of cookies.

Feed to hungry runners in the car after a half marathon, even if one of them ran past you in the last 500 yards of the race and ran a 2:05, leaving you to finish in 2:06:01 (Not. Awesome. Even if it WAS a 6 minute PR).

Have you ever been beat at the very end of a race? Did you share cookies with the person who beat you anyway?