Thursday, 5 November 2009

Wheat and dairy free peanut butter and chocolate biscuits

We’ve adopted a wheat and dairy free diet. I think this might be quite a challenge.

Nick used to be on a diet of no dairy, no yeast and no-lots-of-other things for health reasons. Then, medication was prescribed and for the last five years he has eaten more-or-less whatever he chooses to. However, over the last couple of years he has been battling with depression (it’s ok – he’s given me permission to mention this!). 

With the news earlier in the week that there appears to be a link between depression and diet, and with my slight intolerance of wheat and diary, we decided to go back to restricting what we eat. My addiction to all things bad, pastry (especially pies), cakes and cream (particularly homemade ice cream) is not to help…

On my last visit to our local Sainsbury's I was surprised by how much 'free-from' food was available. Certainly, there were far more products than 5 years ago. My best find so far has been goat's milk. Yesterday, I gingerly sipped at my first cup of tea with goat's milk, I have to say that I could not taste any difference. Amazing. St Helens’ Farm also produce cream, so maybe I'll be able to survive after all!

 
This afternoon I tried to make some cookies, this recipe is just a slight variation of one from the back of a packet of PB050038 Dove's Farm rice flour. They turn out very crisp (unless you eat them straight from the oven), a bit like the texture of a gingernut. So I think ‘biscuits’ is a better name for these little bundles of yumminess, rather than ‘cookies’.

Wheat and dairy free peanut butter and chocolate biscuits

  • 125gr goat’s butter
  • 90gr light brown sugar
  • 90gr dark brown sugar
  • 125gr crunchy peanut butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp wheat-free baking powder
  • 175gr rice flour
  • 50gr dairy and wheat free chocolatePB050036
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade and  grease two baking sheets with a little butter or olive oil.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar.
  3. Add the peanut butter and egg and mix thoroughly.
  4. Mix in the flour, chocolate and baking powder.
  5. Take a teaspoon of the mixture and make it in to a ball. Place on the baking tray and push down slightly to squash it flat. I put 8 on one tray, 9 on another and froze the rest of the dough.
  6. Place the trays in the oven for 15 mins.
  7. When they are cooked, place on a rack to cool.
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4 comments:

  1. Choclette6 November 2009 at 13:29

    Hi Springtime

    Might you be all right with sheep's milk I wonder? If you can get it, it's really nice.

    I expect you are a complete expert on alternative flours, but I have recently written a post on my blog about this, so it might be worth a look.
    http://choclogblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/baking-tips-1-flour.html
    I do love my dairy, so you won't find much that's dairy free, but I did make a really nice vegan chocolate cake whose recipe you'll also find on my blog.

    Good Luck - Choclette

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  2. Suzi6 November 2009 at 14:21

    Hi Choclette,

    Thanks for the tip about flours, I'll take a look! The chocolate sounds good too!

    I admit that I've never tried (or found) sheep's milk, but I've been really impressed with sheep's milk yoghurt and I've always looked sheep's cheese. I keep a look-out for sheep's milk...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6 November 2009 at 18:32

    My daughter and I are big fans of crispy texture, we would love these biscuits!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jules8 November 2009 at 17:00

    I firmly believe there is a strong link between health & food. In my final year I was really quite poorly and I put it down to the large amount of rubbish processed food I ate a student.

    I'll be reading with interest to see how you both get on.

    ReplyDelete

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