Zingy Orange Agave Choc Chip Cookies

Its amazing how the zest of one orange can give you so much flavour and zing in these doughy, chewy cookies.

The Ingredients
150ml agave syrup
150ml sunflower oil
2 tablespoons soya milk or lactofree milk to be soya free
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Zest of 1 orange
200g rice flour
140g buckwheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
100g of xylitol chocolate (broken up in the blender to make Choc Chips)

Makes 20 cookies

The Method

Pre-heat oven to 165oC. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Whisk together the agave syrup, oil, soya milk, flax seeds, vanilla and orange zest until well mixed and smooth.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into a lump free dough and add in the choc chips.

Drop heaped tablespoons of dough onto the baking trays, use the bake of a clean tablespoon to flatten and space into cookie like structures :)

Bake for 12-14 minutes. Once removed from the oven let them cool a little on the baking trays before putting them on a wire rack to cool completely.

The good thing about using the greaseproof paper is its easy to peel the cookies off while they are still warm.

They will last for about a week in an airtight container.


Adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

More quick sweet treats

With the weather improving (sort of) and everyone wanting to spend more time outside, of course, that means less time inside baking - I've got to get the balance right and make time for both! 

Quick Treat No. 1

This is the first thing I made after I was told that I needed a sugar free diet, as well as a gluten and diary free diet - which was instantly depressing, but once I knew it was easy to make something that was naturally sweet without refined sugar, I was much happier. 

Simply mix together Plain Soya Yoghurt, Chopped or Flaked Almonds, Dessicated Coconut to make a quick, easy and lovely treat. To make it a little (or a lot) sweeter depending on the size of your sweet-tooth, just add a natural sweetener like Maple Syrup, Agave Syrup or Honey.

Of course, summer also means fresh fruit! And that equals fruit salad. Chopping and mixing a whole bunch of fruit together is easy. It just depends on what fruit you like. From what I understand; berries, cherries and tropical fruit is generally easier to digest. 

Eating fresh fruit is also better than eating dried fruit or fruit juice, as they have a higher sugar content. Fruit is also best eaten on an empty stomach. Cooked fresh fruit is also easier to digest than uncooked fruit.

Quick Treat No. 2

As a warm, creamy alternative to a fruit salad, warm some raspberries (organic if possible) in a saucepan, as they warm the juice will start to come out. After a couple of minutes and some soya cream (which is an alternative to single cream) and continue to warm and mix them together for another minute or two, making a lovely dark pink colour. Once you have transferred this to a bowl add a little more soya cream, which is a nice constant in both temperature and colour. With fresh, in-season, organic raspberries, no other sweeteners are required! Its gorgeous just as it is :-)

Of course the muffins and cookies will be back soon and some new experimentation in tarts! Looking forward to it...

Coconut and Blueberry Cookies

Ingredients
2 cups of gluten free flour
3/4 cup of Xylitol
3/4 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1/2 cup of agave syrup
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 medium egg whites
1/4 cup of flaked coconut
Couple of tablespoons of desiccated coconut
1/2 a punnet of blueberries

Equipment
Fork
Tablespoon
Teaspoon
Large bowl
Small bowl
Greaseproof paper
Baking tray
Cookie cutter (optional)
Cooling rack

Directions
Preheat oven to 175^oC. Put greaseproof paper on to the baking tray.

In the large bowl combine the (sifted) flour, Xylitol, bicarb & salt, and whisk together.

Combine the agave syrup, veg oil, vanilla & egg whites into the small bowl & whisk thoroughly.

Pour the contents of the small bowl into the large bowl and stir until well mixed.

Add the flaked and desiccated coconut, and blueberries and mix until ingredients is evenly spread.

Use a tablespoon to drop the mix on to the greaseproof paper. The mixture is quite runny, so if you have a cookie cutter I would make an even spread of mixture across the baking tray to bake and cut nicely round cookies once they are out of the oven. If you don't have a cookie cutter you just have slightly misshapen cookies, equally as tasty, just with a little more character :)

Bake for 15 minutes, once removed from the oven, either peel off the greaseproof paper or first cut the cookies out and then peel off the paper, and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.

These are soft, chewy and delicious cookies!

Natural Sweeteners

Before the first recipe I want to talk about natural sweetners. This is the key to making sugar-free (or shall we say refined sugar-free) desserts taste good.

There are a variety of options to try. I am no expert, I just have read a little (very little) and used a few in baking.

Xylitol:
Sometime ago I was given a recommendation from a wise and trusted person to stop eating sugar and try Xylitol instead. This is a *natural sweetener*, which is much healthier than refined-sugar and definitely healthier than synthetic sweeteners. The good news is Xylitol tastes like sugar :)  There are a couple of brands that sell Xylitol: Xylitol UK and  XyloBrit, for example. These can be bought at health food shops such as Wholefoods Market and Planet Organic. Or you can buy it online at Xylitol Shop or The Finchley Clinic.

Good news for chocoholics - the Xylitol Shop also sell chocolate made with Xylitol. This is dairy, gluten and sugar free chocolate. If you like dark chocolate you will love this. It is a bit more expensive than normal chocolate, but worth it if you can't do without chocolate but have mutliple dietary restrictions as I do.

Honey
The most common available of the natural sweeteners and if money is an issue, honey tends to be the cheapest of the sugar alternatives. Made by the bees and flowers, nature is kind to us. There is lots of different grades of honey and it can get very complicated, but again all I would say is try and buy organic if possible. The most healthy type of honey is Manuka Honey, but it is quite expensive. If you can afford it, this is the type of honey to go for. There is a lot of info online if you want to ready up on why its so good.


Agave Syrup
This is a very taste sugar substitute. I personally like Agave Nectar Mild. Similar to honey, but made from the plant which tequila is made from. Agave is high in Fructose and there seems to be some debate out there as to how health it actually is. My view is quite simple, everything in moderation. I like to use different sweeteners for different recipes. And if you are eating it as part of a balanced diet and all that, it should be ok. This can be bought in most supermakerts and health (food) shops.

Maple Syrup
This is my favourite, because of its sweet, smoky flavour. God bless the Canadians! This, of course, is also a plant (tree) based sweetener. Produced simply by evaporating the sap of the sugar maple tree. I try to buy organic whenever possible and it is probably the healthiest of the sweeteners. Healthy does taste good! This can be bought in most supermarkets (usually the larger ones, in size of store that is) and health (food) shops, it can be expensive though.

Fructose / Fruit Sugar
This is another option for granular sugar. Its not one that I have used as I tend to stick to Xylitol.  

I have learnt recently that it is best to experiment and find what works best for you and you get to eat lots of yummy desserts along the way,