Alternatives to Wheat and Turmeric Chocolate Biscuits Recipe
We'll be telling you about some of our favourite grains and pseudo grains, as well as other alternatives such as nuts.
We'll also be sharing the recipe for TURMERIC CHOCOLATE COOKIES!
WHAT DO WE USE INSTEAD OF WHEAT?
There are so many alternatives available here are some that we use the most:
1. GLUTEN FREE OATS
We love oats! They are so versatile, readily available and cheap in comparison with other grains.
We mainly use oats ground down into an 'oat flour' which can be done quite easily with a food processor.
We also love them whole in porridge, over night oats,flapjack and granola. As well as in savoury things like mushroom burgers. So many options!
A NOTE ON OATS AND GLUTEN we are always careful to use gluten free oats in our products - as although oats don't actually contain gluten the way/where they are processed means they are frequently contaminated from barley or wheat. However the protein in oats can't be tolerated by some people with celiac disease.
2. BUCKWHEAT
Despite it's misleading name buckwheat is actually no relation to wheat, and is a pseudo grain/cereal. It is native to Asia and related to sorrel and rhubarb. We use buckwheat in two forms; raw buckwheat 'groats' and as a flour. (We also love pure buckwheat soba noodles in savoury dishes) The groats are used in our rocky road and granola. They add a lovely nutty flavour when lightly toasted. Whole buckwheat flour is probably our most used flour and goes into a variety of our cakes.
3. BROWN RICE FLOUR
We tend to just use brown rice flour as opposed to white rice as it hasn't had the germ and bran removed which is where you'll find much of nutrients. Again it's native to Asia but readily available here and generally not too expensive. At the moment we're using brown rice flour in our peanut butter blondies.
4. NUTS
We use a lot of nuts! Ground almonds feature in a lot of our bakes, due to their oil contain they help keep things from drying out. Their downside is that they are pretty expensive and they don't always bind as well as a flour might do. Other nuts we use in place of flours are walnuts and hazelnuts.
Other ingredients you'll sometimes see making an appearance include; quinoa, teff, polenta, chesnuts, coconut and arrowroot.
Take a look at the recipe below for our Turmeric and Chocolate biscuits, these are made using a combination of gluten free oats and almonds as well as our raw chocolate, we enjoy these as much as we do! Let us know what you think!
TURMERIC AND CHOCOLATE BISCUITS
This was one of our very first recipe creations... it started of life as a ginger biscuit and we've slightly adapted it to include the turmeric and chocolate - two of our favourite things in one place!
Ingredients
Makes approx 12 biscuits
200g oats (gluten free if necessary)
120g whole almonds/nuts of your choice
200g dates
6 tbsp of melted coconut oil
4 tbsp maple syrup
Approx 4cm of fresh turmeric grated
3 tsp of ground turmeric
1 + ½ bars of Ripe’s 80% raw chocolate
You will need a food processor for this recipe, but it's super easy to follow and is vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free and dairy free.
1. Firstly, preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease or line a tray for twelve biscuits ( they won't spread like a conventional biscuit might do). Now weigh your oats and nuts, pop them into your food processor and blitz until they form a fine flour like powder.
2. Meanwhile weigh your dates and set aside in a heat proof bowl. Boil the kettle and pour the boiling water onto the dates, they just need to be covered, leave to soak.
3. As your dates are soaking you can prepare the fresh turmeric (don't worry if you can't get hold on the fresh stuff ground turmeric will be fine) if it's not organic you'll need to peel the skin off and then grate into the oat and nut mixture, add the ground turmeric now too.
4. Next add the coconut oil and maple syrup, give this all a good mix in the machine.
5. The dates now need straining before adding to the mixture before giving it all one final blast to make sure it's all mixed properly it should form into a ball.
6. Your mixture is now ready - it is quite a wet dough so you won't be able to roll it out - instead shape into balls with your hands and then flatten onto your tray - again they won't spread or rise so the size and shape they go in is how they will come out!
7. Your biscuits will need around 10 minutes in the oven, once cooked leave them to cool.
8. While your biscuits are cooling prepare your bain-marie for melting the chocolate, melt the chocolate over a low heat.
9. Once the biscuits are completely cooled dip them into the chocolate until you've got a nice coverage over half the biscuit, place them onto a piece of greaseproof paper once you're finished if you don't you'll struggle to get them off your plate/tray once the chocolate has cooled (we find this out the hard way!)
10. Enjoy your biscuits and if you do have a go make sure you tag us on social media @ripeeat so we can see your beautiful biscuits!