My husband loves biscuits. I mean, he LOVES LOVES LOVES biscuits. There used to be times when not a day went by without him buying a colourful packet full of concentrated bombs made of wheat, sugar, processed and hydrogenated oils, emulsifiers, thickeners, and preservatives. And for him, those bombs served as a perfect substitute for breakfast, not to mention that no cup of tea was complete without them. Luckily for me, my gluten intolerance has prevented me from following suit for some time, but even I admit that I DO long for a nice, crunchy bickie along the way – and I don’t even have a sweet tooth!
As probably everyone is aware, the plethora of “gluten free” biscuits lining the supermarket shelves at exorbitant prices might be gluten free – and some of them might even be quite tasty – but they are a far cry from healthy. What I wanted was tasty biscuits that even though they cannot quite replace broccoli are healthy-ish, without creepy ingredients, don’t break the bank, are quick and easy to make, and that even my junk addicted husband would eat. And that happen to be gluten free.
What I came up with was not only gluten free, but also dairy free, soy free, egg free, vegan, and almost sugar free. With just the right amount of almond flour left to produce two dozen of yummy cuties, some ideas, and a healthy dose of curiosity, I set out to create one of my most successful experiments, the result of which hubbs happily gobbles down – and asks for more. Him snooping around the biscuit tin and devouring a handful of these biscuits at work is probably the most convincing argument that these biscuits are good. Very good.
My husband never bought biscuits from the shop again.
They actually don’t taste overly peanut-buttery, so if you really fancy peanut butter, you might want to replace all the vegan spread with the peanut butter and even add some peanuts to the dough. This is a great base for an all-time favourite biscuit recipe, as it is so versatile. You can use other nut butters, giving it a different flavour each time, or you can add cocoa powder and chocolate chips for chocolate biscuits, or dried fruit and oats for muesli biscuits. The choice is yours. They are whipped up in a jiffy and take only 12 minutes to bake. So whether you fancy a morning or afternoon snack right now or need something sweet to conclude a nice meal, head to the kitchen now! These babies are so healthy you can even have them for breakfast!
As the title reveals, my biscuits are not only gluten free, but completely grain free and starch free, thanks to lovely almond flour and my favourite ingredient flax, both of which come with a healthy dose of satisfying protein and fiber, as well as healthy fats, including omega 3! I would recommend using some sort of “real” sugar for a nice texture and colour, but you can probably use stevia throughout if you follow a strictly non-sugar diet. I used half brown sugar and half stevia for the biscuits displayed in the picture, and with 7 g of carbs per large biscuits, they are still fairly low-carb even if you use some regular sugar. I used vegan spread and flax as egg replacer to make a truly vegan biscuit, but feel free to use real butter or beat an egg in the dough – both of which improve the flavour even further. Note that I used reduced-fat spread, as the almond flour already contains a lot of fat. Feel free to use full-fat margarine if fat is not your worry, or butter as mentioned above.
Chilling the dough for 30 minutes before baking improves flavour and texture slightly, but is not a must. If you don’t chill the dough, the biscuits’ appearance is a bit “rougher”, but they are yummy nonetheless!
Makes 24 biscuits
Inspired by Erin
250 g almond meal (blanched for lighter biscuits or natural as in the pictures)
7 tbsp brown sugar or other sugar
7 tbsp stevia or other sweetener
20 g ground flax seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
80 g peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
40 g reduced fat vegan spread
2 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 180 ° C and prepare two baking sheet. Cream peanut butter, spread, sugar, vanilla and stevia until light and fluffy. Mix the almond flour with the soda and salt and carefully fold into the wet ingredients. The dough should be sticky and wet. If it appears to dry, add 2 tbsp of water. Once blended well, you can chill the dough for 30 minutes to achieve smoother looking biscuits (see picture below the cookies on the right hand side). If you are in a hurry or very hungry, just skip this step and put up with coarser looking biscuits.
Take 1 tbsp, form into a round shape and place onto baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough until you have 24 biscuits. You will probably need two sheets as there needs to be space between the biscuits (they will spread out during the baking process).
Bake for 12 minutes – they might still appear slightly raw, but you must switch off the oven now, otherwise you risk them getting too hard as they will continue too harden. Let them rest in the hot oven for a few minutes, then take out and let cool (if you have the patience).
Store in an airtight (preferably metal) container where they will keep for up to five days.
Enjoy!
Nat's Ladle 