My Best Organic

My two year old son saw some other children eating biscuits recently - and started asking for them…so I put together this rather indulgent recipe this morning. The biscuits turned out really well - very sweet, but lovely. It also does not contain any transfats.

Ingredients

• 125g coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup sugar (You could use less if trying to cut down; even with half a cup the biscuits would be sweet enough)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of plain flour
• Half a mug of self-raising flour
• Half a mug of porridge oats
• Half a mug of chopped up soft dried apricots

I used an average sized coffee mug for measuring.

Method

• Preheat oven to 175 degrees
• Cream the coconut oil with the sugar, egg and vanilla until quite light
• Add the flours, cinnamon and porridge oats until mixture starts to stick together
• Stir in the apricots
• Shape mixture into balls - each one should be about a tablespoon’s worth of mixture
• Place on baking tray/baking paper. Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes
• Biscuits will still be quite soft when they first come out of the oven, but don’t worry, they will become crisp on the outside as they cool. They’ll stay soft and slightly moist on the inside.

This amount made about 25 biscuits - kind of lost count as my son and I ate quite a few as they came out of the oven!

This post was submitted by Susannah.

I tried out this new idea yesterday, and the results have all been eaten, so I guess it was a success. I wanted to create a breakfast type snack for those with multiple allergies and for vegans who are trying to cut down on wheat based cereals. This quantity makes about 20 small squares - so about four breakfasts/snacks worth for a toddler.

Ingredients (all quantities are approximate)
75g Nature’s Path Organic Millet Rice Flakes
10 soft dried apricots
2 handfuls of sultanas
2 teaspoons golden linseed
2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds

Method
Place seeds in blender and blend until quite fine
Add sultanas and apricots into blender along with seeds and blend
Add millet etc., flakes and whiz briefly to combine ingredients
Press the mixture firmly into a small shallow dish
Leave for about an hour to settle
Cut into squares

Exceedingly healthy! (But still delicious x)

This post was submitted by Susannah.

You know those moments when you think yourself a genius? Well, it doesn’t happen often for me, but today I had one of those moments. I experimented with a new carrot cake recipe and the results made all who ate it squirm with pleasure! Even my husband said it was the best cake he’d ever eaten (and he’s eaten a lot).

The great thing is, the recipe is dairy-free, does not contain any hydrogenated or trans fats and is substantially lower in fat than the average cake. However, two drawbacks are: because it’s made with coconut oil, it does contain saturated fat (I think about 4g per slice - recommended daily intake for adults is between 20-30g per day) and it does require a bit of faffing about in the kitchen. It took me about 20 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook (and about 10 minutes to wash-up as I don’t have a dishwasher). But it’s worth it.

Ingredients

• 250g organic self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 50g coconut oil
• 250g sugar (I use organic unrefined)
• 2 teaspoons apricot extra jam
• 4 eggs
• 10ml vanilla extract
• 2 large carrots

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees (might need slightly higher for non-fan oven)
2. Peel the carrots. Chop one of them and put in small saucepan with some water and bring to boil. Let simmer for about 15 minutes whilst you do rest of preparation
3. Grate other carrot and put aside
4. Blend the eggs and coconut oil together. Add sugar, cinnamon, jam and vanilla extract and blend some more.
5. When carrot has simmered for approx 15 minutes, add to blended mixture and blend some more until quite smooth
6. Put blended mixture in a large bowl and fold in flour
7. Add grated carrot to mixture
8. Pour mixture into a prepared cake tin (about 10″ diameter. I do usually find that using unbleached baking paper gives a better result and ensures that no chemicals have leached from tins
9. Bake for about 25 minutes until a knife comes out of cake clean if stabbed into it all the way to bottom of tin
10. Let cool in tin for about 10 minutes
11. Turn out onto wire rack - and try to resist cutting a slice immediately x

This post was submitted by Susannah.