I love to bake. I’m not actually very good at it but that doesn’t stop me. I enjoy it… channeling my inner Martha Stewart…. but nothing like her…. infact she is a little irritatingly perfect! I have found that sometimes, baking from scratch actually points out just how much sugar is in a simple muffin or biscuit.

In an effort to feed my kiddies better snacks and have things on hand to fill their lunch boxes I often bake something on a Sunday along with a few meals to pop in the freezer for during the week. I find it’s a winter thing for me. Cold, wet days where it feels good to cook like this VS summer days outside sipping a glass of wine while the kids play and throw something on the bbq for dinner….. so I am no saint. I don’t maintain this all year round!

I thought I would share this recipe my kids love (as do I) which I have adapted a little each time. These biscuits are not crunchy and even if you bake them longer they will never be crunchy. They are best pulled out of the oven as they just begin to get a tiny bit of colour as once they start to brown they get really dry. They remind me a little of ‘bring on your breast milk’ biscuits.

I realise these aren’t the healthiest biscuits ever known to man, but they are a vast improvement on shop bought in a packet options as we can skip the preservatives, unknown numbers and can control how much sugar is in them.

 

Here is the original recipe courtesy of ‘The low GI family cookbook’

1/3 cup canned cannellini beans rinsed

1 egg

60g olive/canola marg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1tsp vanilla

150g dark choc chips

1 1/3 cup rolled oats

3/4 plain flour

1/2 tspn bicarb

 

Here is my adaptation for a double batch

1/2 can cannellini beans (freeze the other half for next time)

2 eggs

120g coconut/canola oil (coconut oil does carry a flavour and although subtle, if your kids don’t like coconut then opt for olive or canola)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup rice malt syrup (or less)

2 tspn vanilla

1/2 of a 230g bag of dark choc chips (half original recipe)

3 cups of rolled oats (more)

1 cup white flour + 1/3 cup wholemeal (they won’t pick the wholemeal at that ration and next time I plan to swap out more white flour for wholemeal but change the ratio to suit)

1 tspn bicarb

 

Method

• Preheat oven to 190 degrees and line baking trays
• Whiz beans and eggs until smooth using a stick blender and set aside
• Use electric beaters to beat marg/oil of choice with sugar/syrup of choice and vanilla then add egg mixture
• Mix in choc chips, oats, flour and bicarb
• Roll into small balls and press onto lined tray (they don’t spread a great deal)
• Bake for 10 mins or to taste and allow to cool a little before transferring to a cooling rack

 

Enjoy

Anita