madeleine lumley: snacks

Grain free, refined sugar free and vegan carrot, orange and ginger cookies with crunchy buckwheat and cacao bits! These cookies. They're addictive. I'm warning you now. But they're also ridiculously good for you, so it's all fine. In fact, I wouldn't judge you if you ate them for breakfast… I might just join you. But aside from that, they're the perfect mid-afternoon snack to tide you over til dinner, the perfect I-need-a-treat-with-my-cup-of-tea snack, the perfect damn-it-it's-only-11:30am-and-I'm-ready-for-lunch snack, or the perfect middle-of-your-shift-at-work snack when you just need SOMETHING to nibble on (which is how these came about…). There are so many wonderful flavours in these cookies - a little bit nutty from the buckwheat, a little bite from the freshly grated ginger, fruity-sweetness from the orange zest and juice, little bites of deep, earthy chocolate from the raw cacao, plus they're a little bit carrot cake-y! They kind of taste like a muesli cookie except minus the muesli… Does that make sense? Just try them, you'll understand.

Ingredients (note: unfortunately I'm a very erratic experimental baker and don't measure my ingredients perfectly, so use your discretion to decide whether to add more or less of anything… eek)

1 and a 1/4 of a cup of buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
A teeny pinch of sea salt
1/3 cup of raw buckwheat groats
1/2 cup of cacao nibs
1 tablespoon of coconut sugar (this is totally optional, depending on how sweet you like your cookies!)
1 grated carrot (about a cup's worth)

1/4 cup of maple syrup/agave syrup/honey if you're not strict vegan
1 tablespoon of soft coconut oil
Juice of half an orange (just eat the other half, nom)
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 tsp cinnamon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and grease a tray (I use coconut oil to do this) and/or line with baking paper.

Mix the buckwheat flour, salt, baking powder, optional coconut sugar, buckwheat groats and cacao nibs all together in a bowl. Add the carrot and mix.

In a separate bowl, combine the coconut oil, maple syrup/honey/agave, and orange juice, then add the grated ginger and cinnamon. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until combined. Here, I actually added an extra tablespoon or so of buckwheat flour because I thought the mixture was little too wet, but judge it for yourself. The mixture should still be reasonably wet and sticky!

Dollop tablespoons of the mixture onto the tray, shape them a little if you wish, and then pop them into the oven for 15 minutes! Devour, and try not to burn your fingers when they're fresh out of the oven and you juST CAN'T HELp yourself.

Grain free, refined sugar free, wholesome banana peanut butter bars with cacao chips, walnuts and buckwheat. Phew. Was that a mouthful, or what? A delicious mouthful. These babies are the perfect energy-packed, goodness-filled, tasty snack for busy mornings, hectic afternoons, as a little something to tide you over until dinner, or for dessert! I basically threw whatever I had in the pantry that I thought would be delicious into these bars, so a few of the ingredients are optional add-ins. And if you have other ingredients on hand that you think would go nicely, feel free to play around!

The buckwheat groats, cacao nibs, and nuts make for a delicious balance of textures, and the banana flavour is subtle but, paired with the peanut butter, perfect. Every ingredient is nutritious, and the bars are protein-packed with healthy fats (coconut! Nuts! Buckwheat!) AND lovely carbs (bananas!), so they're basically a square meal, amiright…?

I'm sure any other flour would work just as well but remember that coconut flour absorbs a lot of moisture, so if using another flour, make sure you reduce the amount of water you add. You could also use a different sweetener instead of coconut sugar if you don't have any on hand!

Ingredients:

¾ cup raw buckwheat groats

¾ cup coconut flour

½ cup coconut sugar

½ cup cacao nibs (optional, but delicious)

½ cup of walnuts (optional, or any other nut!)

Pinch of salt

1 tsp of baking powder

2 eggs

½ cup of water (more or less, as required)

1 Tblsp of soft coconut oil

2-3 mashed bananas (I used three smallish ones)

½ cup all-natural peanut butter

1 Tblsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the coconut flour & sugar, salt, baking powder together, before adding the buckwheat groats, cacao nibs and walnuts and mixing it all up. Add eggs and stir through well. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas, add the peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and coconut oil (you're allowed to eat a spoonful of this fab mixture… Or two… I ~~won't~~ can't judge).

Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture, stir together well. Add the water so that you have a lovely dough that sticks together well.

Pop into a lined and greased tray, push down so it’s all nice and flat. Bake for 25 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius, leave to cool, cut into squares/rectangles/however you fancy, and nosh!

These actually taste even better the day after as the peanut and banana flavours mature, so if you have the patience/restraint, save a few for that reason… If not, I certainly won't hold it against you.

Vegan carrot, orange and ginger cookies

Banana peanut butter bars

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