In light of my new “clean eating” regime I thought I would endeavour to share some healthier baked goods. Notice I didn’t stipulate “healthy” – these lovely biscuits still contain butter and sugar. However, they are still packed full of fruity goodness and wholemeal and are definitely better for you than a say a kitkat, or a slice of cheesecake.
My husband liked them very much which is surprising as when I mentioned what was in them (i.e. stuff that is good for you) he pulled a face. These are especially delicious when served with a cup of green tea sweetened with honey.
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{Ingredients}
- 60ml sunflower oil
- 75g softened butter
- 110g soft light brown sugar
- 1 large free range egg
- 1/2tsp vanilla extract
- 100g jumbo oats
- 150g plain wholemeal flour
- 1/2tsp bicarbonate soda
- 1/2tsp baking powder
- 1/2tsp cinnamon
- 110g dried apple
- 25g blueberries
- 25g goji berries
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Method
- Preheat oven to 180 (Gas Mark 4) and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Mix the sunflower oil, butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then stir in the oats.
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon over the sugar and oil mixture and mix in.
Add the dried fruit and stir until just combined.- Drop desert spoonfuls of mixture on to your lined sheets and leave lots of space between as they spread.
- Bake for 10 minutes until pale golden brown.
- Leave on the sheets to cool and set a bit before cooling on wire racks.
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I’m always looking for healthiER baking recipes and I like the look of this one as I’m a biscuit monster and it strikes me you could use the basic mix as a base and chop and change with the fruit and add seeds and whatnot.
I would probably use rapeseed oil – partially because I’m lazy and that’s what I have in the cupboard (just Tesco bog-standard vegetable cooking oil IS actually rapeseed oil) but also because apparently it has the lowest saturated fat content of any oil….
Philippa- I just found that out too! I’ve been buying such a swish organic posh looking rapeseed oil as I’ve been recommended to use it instead of olive oil but when using some of my cheapy old veg oil to do some baking for school I read the label and couldn’t believe they are the exact same thing! The organic-ness of it better be worth it – its about 20 times the price! These look yum Charlotte- I need some variations from flapjack for lunchboxes – and I might play around with some ingredients too to mix it up a bit and see if I can eek a few different versions with different flours, sugars and fruits. Waitrose have had some good discounts on coconut oil this week- which is healthy and a bit more butter consistency than most oils so I’ve just had a tub delivered – you can use it instead of butter, frying oil (AND use it as a moisturiser!) Rice flour can be really good in biscuits if you’re keen for a change from wheat. I might try both. These seem like they would work with alternatives – I’m becoming very good at substituting ingredients in recipes with cleaner alternatives and making a big pile of crumbs. We now always have a tub of ‘granola’ on top of the microwave to sprinkle on things- which is all my cooking-gone-wrong. Did you use fresh blueberries or dried?
You can definitely experiment with lots of different flavours in these. I used fresh blueberries as they are nice and squidy but dried would work just as well. Try popping in pinneapple and mango, fresh or dried, for a nice tropical take or adding nuts like pecans or pistachios gives a good extra crunch. Fig and pear is also rather yummy with an added drizzle of honey. Rice flour or spelt flour should work fine with these or alternatively I’m a big fan of the Dove’s organic wheat and gluten free flours. Just try lots of different things as they are delicious whatever. Good luck! x
The biscuits look delicious, however I love the mug in the picture and need it in my kitchen now! Please tell me you know where it is from? ☺️ Thank you.