Contributing Writer for Wake Up World
Sometimes all you need is a simple biscuit, so I came up with a tasty little treat. The delicate hint of warming spices entwines softly with a playful infusion of lemon and orange zest; whilst the date that sweetens this biscuit balances and brings the best out in everything. Spelt works well in this recipe as a nutritionally superior and healthier alternative to its distant hybridised cousin wheat. I also negate the need for diary by using organic coconut butter, making for a well rounded, healthy, sweet treat.
I use mixed spice in this recipe, which is a blend of warming, sweet spices commonly used in Britain that typically includes cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. I’ve heard that it is similar to pumpkin pie spice used in Northern America. If you can’t find mixed spice, then just make something up of a similar ilk.
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Recipe – Spicy Spelt Biscuits
Serves: 18 thin biscuits
Preparation time: 15 minutes (plus soaking time)
Baking time: 12 minutes
Ingredients
– 100g (3 ½ oz) pitted dates
– 100ml (3 ½ fl oz)coconut butter/oil
– 150g (5 ½ oz) spelt flour
– 1 heaped teaspoon finely grated lemon & orange rind
– ½ teaspoon mixed spice
– ½ teaspoon cinnamon
– Extra spelt flour for rolling with
– Extra dash of coconut oil for the tray
You will also need:
Cookie cutter Baking tray (or two)
Blender (preferably a hand blender)
Rolling pin
How to make:
- Soak the dates in water, in a glass jug a few hours ahead of time. This is important to make them soft enough to blend easily. Make sure they are pitted. If you are using medjool or really soft dates, then you can go ahead and use them as they are without soaking.
- When you are ready (after at least a couple of hours), drain the dates and leave in the jug.
- Melt coconut butter. Note: Coconut butter/oil solidifies at 24 ºC, so unless your kitchen is really warm, you will need to melt it before mixing in. To melt, you can either leave it on a sunny windowsill, in a warm airing cupboard or near a fire/radiator. If your coconut oil comes in a glass bottle then you could also heat some water in a small pan – place the bottle in the water until a sufficient amount of oil has melted.
- Once melted or soft, measure 100ml of coconut oil and then place in the jug along with dates and blend together with a hand (immersion) blender. If you don’t have a hand blender, then a regular jug blender will work fine, although you may have to keep scraping down the ingredients until blended.
- Switch on oven to gas mark 5 (375 ºF/190 ºC) to preheat in advance.
- Grate about 1 heaped teaspoon’s worth of lemon and orange zest using a fine grater.
- Measure and place spelt, grated zest, cinnamon and mixed spice into a mixing bowl and mix with a spoon.
- Add in and mix in the date and coconut oil blend. Mix together thoroughly with a spoon until you get a doughy ball.
- Take about half of your ball. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until your pastry is about 0.3cm (0.2in) thick. The rolling pin might start to break it up as the pastry gets thinner so take care and use a sprinkle of flour on top to stop it tearing (I find that a thin spatula/cake slice works well to help if it needs lifting).
- Use the cookie cutter to create little biscuits and place on a lightly oiled baking tray.
- Toss any scraps of pastry back into the bowl for a minute and take the other solid half of your dough ball. Roll it out and cut your cookies as in the previous steps. Gather all remaining scraps of dough together and repeat until you have used all of your mixture. If there’s a bit of biscuit dough left over, then just roll out and pop on the tray as a random shape – it still tastes great.
- Place your tray into the pre-heated oven at gas mark 5 (375 ºF/190 ºC) for approximately 12- 15 minutes (lightly tanned). Transfer them to a cooling tray as soon as they come out of the oven. They should cool down and firm up pretty quickly and develop a nice gentle crunch.
More articles by Trinity Bourne:
- 10 Reasons Why We all Should be Eating Ginger – Recipes Included
- Recipe: Green Superfood Smoothie Jam Packed with Health Benefits
- Top Tips for Making Deliciously Healthy Salads
- No-Bake Carrot Cake Recipe (Gluten Free & Vegan)
- The Importance of Eating Seeds for a Healthy Diet – Tips, Benefits & Recipes
- Global Animal Industries – the Ghosts in Our Machine
- Foraging Guide – with 12 Nutritious Wild Plants That Anyone Can Find
- Keeping Slugs & Snails Off Your Veggies – Compassionately
- Chocolate Paradise Coconut Bar Recipe – Vegan, Raw, Absolutely Delicious!
- The Superfood Health Benefits of Celery (with Recipes!)
About the author:
Trinity is an experienced, empathic energy worker and the author of ‘Trinity’s Conscious Kitchen’, a recipe book designed to inspire the soul through conscious vegan, wheat-free cuisine.
Around 18 years ago, during a profound spiritual awakening, the world around her shattered. She became engulfed in a white, universal, timeless, formless light until nothing else existed – other than the nameless truth at the core of all sentient beings. During this life-changing experience Trinity experienced the soul of all other sentient beings, trees, creatures, people as one pulsating energy. Transcending her into a higher realm of unity and oneness, this experience imparted a divine energy that she has been sharing through spiritual work ever since.
Understanding that the energy of our food directly impacts sentient life on all levels, Trinity founded Trinity’s Conscious Kitchen, a website devoted to inspiring the soul through conscious vegan cuisine. She is the co-founder of the Openhand Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the evolution of humankind. She works as the divine complement to her soul mate Open to help facilitate the global ascension process and feels incredibly blessed to be of divine service.
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