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Heather: Hey guys! This is Heather from healthyveganrecipes.net.
So check out my kitchen. I am at my brother's place and this is the most gorgeous kitchen
I have cooked in a long time. So I am pretty excited.
Alright. What we are going to do today is experiment because we are going to make a
recipe for quinoa cookies and I have never made it before and I don't have a recipe in
front of me. So I am just going to play with the measurements and see how it works.
This is always a lot of fun and this is exactly what I do in the cooking classes on my site
but today I felt like just winging it. So that's what we are going to do. And don't
worry, we are going to come out with something delicious and something healthy. Quinoa cookies
will be fantastic. So stay tuned for that and you can always hop over and get the recipe
at healthyveganrecipes.net.
So, what I have got started is some quinoa on the stove. It is some red quinoa, but you
can use white. I have got half-a-cup cooking in one cup of water and hopefully it will
be finished soon. But we are going to get started on the rest of it. What I am going
to pair this quinoa with is some tahini. So I have got that and the measuring cup which
is shortly going into by mixing bowl.
And I should mention that this is pretty much the most solid tahini I have ever seen. I
cannot really mix it up with the oil so it's pretty solid and then there is some oil along
with this. I am going to try and mix this up as much as I can.
I love this red mixing bowl. It totally reminds me of my moms red mixing bowl. This is my
sisters-in-law's. So her kids are in luck for a long childhood of cookies made in big
red mixing bowls. Okay, to the tahini, I am going to add, everyone's favorite sweetener
maple syrup. If you don't have access to some maple syrup, I know those of you in Europe
always have trouble finding it, and this is pure maple syrup by the way, not the pancake
syrup.
So if you cannot find maple syrup then feel free to use another type of sweetener like
unrefined cane sugar or something like that, brown rice syrup would be great as well. You
use a solid sugar, you will have to change the ratio of wet to dry. But last wet ingredient
I am going to put in there is some rice milk.
And I am going to try with half, well that's too much, I only need quarter cup. Yup -- I
am going to stir this together as best as I can and try to smooth out that tahini. Okay,
the tahini is about as smooth as this is going to get. So what I am going to put in next
is some ground flake seeds. I seem to have lost all my measuring cups. So I am going
to put in, see, we will start with the quarter cup. See how it goes.
Now, flakes, when you put it into liquid, it gels up and gets really super sticky. So
it's going to be great for holding these cookies together because quinoa, on it's own, isn't
all that sticky and the flour that I am going to use is brown rice flour and it doesn't
get very sticky but it's gluten free. So these cookies should be gluten free. Let me just
think if there is anything in here that has gluten. No. This should be good.
Alright. I am going to add some seasonings here as well. So what I am going to do is
some vanilla. Vanilla adds great flavor to cookies and makes things taste a little bit
sweeter so you don't have to use quite so much sugar. I am going to add some nutmeg,
just a sprinkle, and some cinnamon. Cinnamon, same thing, it helps things taste sweet without
adding more sugar.
So that's a teaspoon there as well and then just give that a stir and sprinkle of salt
helps bring those flavors together. So that give that a stir and then we are ready for
the quinoa. We just need to wait for it to finish cooking. It smells awesome with the
cinnamon and the vanilla, yummy.
You can also try adding some cooca powder in here if you want to make them chocolate.
I really consider that but I couldn't find the cocoa and my sister-in-law is busy with
the babies. I didn't want to bug her.
By the way, I will feed one of these cookies to my nephew later and see if they get approved
because lot of you ask me for kid friendly recipes and to be honest I don't have kids.
So I don't have anyone to taste one.
But – I just dropped my lid from my flakes in the batter. This is what happens when you
talk while you cook. Okay. We are going to focus now. Focus. Okay.
So there is my batter; nice and smooth. It looks, kind of, brown which is just from the
cinnamon and the maple syrup. There is no coca in there. I have got my quinoa cooked.
And like I said, this is a red quinoa, not white quinoa. I am just going to dump that
in there. The nice thing about using quinoa or any other cooked grain in a cookie is that
it adds moisture and texture so you don't have use as much oil or fat.
In this case, we are using tahini instead of oil, and it gives body to the cookie without
always having to use flour because flour is really dense and I find it hard to chew things
properly when they are in flour form. So I always using things like quinoa or rice or
oats in my baked goods because it – I just find I digest them easier.
Okay. So there is our nice wet batter. And this would actually make a really fantastic
muffin recipe except I feel like making cookies. So I am going to make them into cookies and
I am going to add some flour and I will measure it as I go but I don't know yet how much I
am adding because it depends on how much I need. Like I said, I haven't made this recipe
before. So it's all an experiment.
At this point you can get your oven pre-heating to be ready for your cookies. Alright. Brown
rice flour is great because it doesn't get stiff like other flours. So it's not as a
big deal if you have to add more after this. This is looking pretty good though. I might
need another half cup. Another half cup, and I think we will be good.
Now when you are doing experimental recipes, it never hurts to give the batter a taste
because there is nothing worse than pulling out fresh batch of cookies, tasting them and
not liking them. So these are not terribly sweet. I like them and I know Phil will like
them.
But, when I am making these for my nephew and he is three-and-half, so what I am going
to do is add some raisins. Raisins will add sweetness without too much additional sugar.
You can also use chocolate chips if you want. To get them on your tray line or grease the
tray so they don't stick. Low fat cookies stick like crazy. Here is a tip that I picked
up from my friend Darina Burton (ph). This half of the tray are just raisin cookies and
this half of the tray have chocolate chips in them; two guess which side of the tray
is going to go faster.
So those are in the oven at 350 and I will let you know how long they take. Alright guys.
So they are done. They took about 20 minutes. It was exactly what I was thinking and texture
wise they are a little bit muffiny which is what I was expecting based on the batter.
Quinoa is really soft when it cooks up. So yeah. They are little bit off the soft cookies
but they taste awesome.
Now they are definitely Heather taste approved but they are a little bit on the low side
of the sweetness scale. So I will let you know what my nephew thinks of them and I will
post that with the recipe on healthyveganrecipes.net. So check it out and try these cookies. I hope
you enjoy them.