Times Union cookie contest reaches the People’s Choice tasting round

Three are "nice" cookies, recipes that take a health-conscious approach to holiday baking: vegan, gluten-free, raw cookies or cookies that are free of refined sugars. Photographs of the six cookies in the finals (baked by the staff at Honest Weight) and a description of the recipes were posted in a photo album on the Times Union's Facebook page. People voted for their favorites in both the Naughty and the Nice divisions by "liking" their favorite photos. Mark your calendars for 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, when we hold the People's Choice tasting and voting portion of the competition at the Honest Weight Food Co-op, 100 Watervliet Ave., Albany. The winners receive a prize package from Honest Weight, and the co-op will bake and feature those cookies for sale at the store during the holiday season. Peanut butter, unsweetened coconut and vegan chocolate chunks are also in the mix. Vegan, gluten-free and free of refined sugar, these cookies are sweetened with maple syrup and include oats, almond flour and tapioca starch. The recipe employs almond milk and whole-wheat flour for the cookie and raspberry maple jam from Jamtastic, a Vermont company. Description: A cookie that leaves your mouth tingling, it brings some heat with Chinese five-spice powder, Szechuan peppercorns and fresh ginger. Bittersweet and dark chocolate combine with crystallized jalapeno peppers for a crackle cookie with a spicy twist. There's a lot of texture in these bars, which involve a crust that uses lemon peel, a filling that has walnuts in the raspberry jam and a crusty meringue top layer that includes coconut.