These hazelnut and quinoa spiced cookies – or biscuits – you choose, are born from my proclaiming last week on Sunday that “It was high time I came up with a new treat for the blog!” And it’s true. I was embarrassed to realise how little I created by way of recipes last year. And I know, I know, I was madly writing a book in record time and then preparing to launch it and then doing a 40 stop book tour, and so no, there wasn’t exactly a lot of free time, BUT this is something I truly love doing for our low tox community, so I really missed it, and I hope you’ll enjoy the broken-drought treat recipe that this is. Now if only some rain would come and break the drought for the farmers who so desperately need it, right?
I used to love two types of very gluten-containing biscuits the most – those thin German ginger spice biscuits and Scottish shortbread. So, I’d like to think of this recipe as a bit of a gluten free fusion of the two old favourites. It’s simple to whip up and any mix you’re not going to use (what even does that mean though, right?), roll it into a log inside parchment paper and bon-bon twist the ends and freeze it. You can then easily cut cookie discs and bake another time.
I hope you enjoy them as much as we have the past week after my triple testing efforts last weekend – I triple test things because I cannot stand wasting precious wholefood ingredients on dud recipes that don’t work. I’d never want you to experience that from my recipes so voila: These definitely work and are DELICIOUS (I think so anyway!)
Alexx x
p.s the “home made silicone stamp”? I got it in a homewares store years ago and I have FINALLY dusted it off and used. I love it. Tip so that your cookie doesn’t stick to any stamp you might want to use? Brush the stamp with olive oil every 4-5 cookies.
Hazelnut ginger spice cookies
Ingredients
- 140 g chilled butter (butter that you've frozen overnight works absolute best but not essential)
- 70 g quinoa flakes (or 1 cup)
- 180 g tapioca flour or arrowroot starch (or 1 1/2 cups)
- 100 g hazelnut meal (or 1 cup) - You could do almond meal if you preferred...
- 100 g panela / rapadura sugar (1 cup)
- 2 heaped teaspoons ground ginger do less if you prefer less spice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom these spices are optional but make these the cookies that they are. I say optional though in case you don't have them - you can still make the recipe and it will just be a plain biscuit instead - still perfect with tea.
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground vanilla bean or vanilla paste
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg whisked in a little bowl separately, for when you need to add it.
Instructions
- Pop your butter, hazelnut meal, tapioca/arrowroot, quinoa flakes, sugar, baking powder and spices all into your food processor and pulse for 3-4 seconds at a time, three or four times to combine well into a moist sand. If you're using a thermomix, I do 3-4 goes of speed 7 to achieve this.
- Then pop your mix on 'blend' / speed 5 in thermomix for 5 seconds, adding the whisked egg in over those few seconds. The egg will serve to bring it together into a dough. If for whatever reason it's not come together / a bit crumbly, add 1 tbsp olive oil at this point and that'll do it, but really, if using all the same ingredients and measures, you shouldn't need the extra oil.
- Pre heat the oven to 190C, fan forced and line your cookie sheets with either baking paper, or a coating of melted butter followed by a dusting of GF flour for the old school gluten free vibes.
- Pop a little olive oil on your hands and rub together - this makes it SO much easier to roll the dough into balls and flatten without dough sticking to your hands.
- Roll a walnut sized ball from the dough, flatten to 1/2cm /0.7cm thick on the baking tray and repeat until you have a tray full of delicious raw cookies ready to bake. You can make them smaller / thinner / thicker / bigger but you will have to just keep an eye on the cooking time. They change to a slightly golden colour when ready.
- Bake for 15-25 minutes - it varies from oven to oven and what size balls you roll and how much you flatten them. They'll still be soft / quite crumbly as all warm shortbread consistency cookies are until they cool, so as long as you get a definitive golden colour change in the cookie, it will be baked and ready to cool.
- Serve to treasured people in your life and enjoy with a hot chocolate, coffee, glass of your choice of milk or cup o' tea! Hope you love them as much as we have in this past week of triple testing to ensure you don't waste your precious wholefood ingredients on a dud recipe! Alexx x
Comments 3
Wow, these are delicious and so easy. Got your email this afternoon just as I was wondering what to do with the blanched hazelnuts that needed using soon. Perfect timing with perfect taste. Thanks for all your lovely recipes, hints and ideas.
Author
Yay so glad you love them. How perfect is that timing! You’re super welcome x
Looks great. Could I use coconut oil instead of butter and flaxseed egg?