After a week of easing my family onto the GFCF diet, I am starting to take things a little more seriously. I have decided that the importance of reducing sugar is in fact outweighed by gluten, casein and toxic nasties, so I have spent plenty of time down at the organic health food shop this week looking for alternative grains and healthier sweeteners.
My friend Edwina put me onto teff. It's a tiny Ethiopian gluten-free grain, and she suggested to mix it with rice flour. First go - Teff cookies, and they are great! This is a super easy recipe, using only one measuring cup. Mine was 100ml (about 4 oz), but you could use anything between about 75ml (3 oz) and 150ml (6oz), maybe adding another egg yolk if you get towards doubling the size.
Ingredients:
- 1 part virgin coconut oil (not the hydrogenated stuff!)
- 1 part raw sugar
- 1 part white rice flower
- 2 parts brown (red) teff flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions
- preheat oven to 170ºC (350F) put everything in a bowl and mix well with a spoon
- get your hands in and make sure mixture sticks together when squeezed, adding more egg yolk if it is still too crumbly. Squeeze into walnut sized balls and place on baking paper , press lightly with a fork
- bake for 10 minutes.
When you remove the cookies they will be slightly soft - don't worry - they harden up as they cool. These would be fantastic with some chocolate nibs, sesame or chia seeds, or an almond pressed into the top.
Lion's taste rating: 7/10
Healthy inclusions: 8/10
Unhealthy inclusions: 2/10
The baddy here is sugar, but seriously, you couldn't make them without it and expect the kids to enjoy them. You could reduce slightly - my eldest son actually told me they were too sweet! (hence the rating of 7 rather than 8). Rice flour is no healthier than wheat flour really, unless you want to stay gluten free. The great inclusions are below:
CinnamonTeff
Virgin Coconut Oil
Egg yolk
Hi Sarah, great effort on your part. Well done. I truly believe that sugar really is toxic, especially for children and it is definitely the culprit when it comes to weight gain. I have lost so much weight and still eat muffins and even a little cake, but they are all sugar free and gluten free and still the weight drops off me. I have also started substituting quinoa flour for part of the rice flour just to use less rice flour. Quinoa is also high in protein and I am trying everything at the moment to increase our protein intake, without resorting to meat everyday. As far as the sugar goes, use fruit instead, even dried fruit and bananas for the sweetness. Very soon you will think that everything else is sickly sweet. Stevia is also a good bet (you can find it unprocessed at the organic store but it will turn everything green). You only need the tiniest amount for sweetness. Patrick Holford is also a believer in xylitol. That may work especially in the beginning stages when you are trying to break the sugar habit. Good luck:)
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