Yoga biscuit recipes
After each of my pregnancy and postnatal classes, we have a chat and a homemade snack. After having been asked on numerous occasions for the recipe for some of these, I thought I'd put them on the website. Note that I generally tend to mess about with recipes a little, depending on what I have in, so I might replace white flour for brown, dried cherries for dates, and so on. So here they are (in a...
These biscuits become hard biscotti if you bake them three times - then they need to be eaten dunked in a hot drink - or are softer if you only bake them twice, and then they are technically called cantuccini. This is from a Cranks recipe (The Cranks Bible)
500g /1lb2oz plain flour
500g / 1lb2oz castor sugar (gran sugar seems to work fine)
1tbsp baking powder
5 eggs, lightly beaten
600g of a mix of the following - raisins, seeds, dates, crystalized ginger, flaked almonds, nuts, apricots etc
zest of 2 lemons (I've made it without when I haven't had lemons in)
- Oven 180C
- Mix flour, sugar, baking powder. Add gradually, mixing well after each addition. Dough should stick together without being too wet, you may not need all the egg. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
- Using wet hands, roll dough into six sausage shapes about 1 inch diameter (mind are always different to this!) and place on baking parchment on trays, flatten a little.
- Cook 20-30mins or til golden brown. Remove from oven and leave 10 mins to cool and firm up.
- Lower oven to 140C
- Cut 'sausages' into pieces (large or small - your choice) and return to oven for 12 mins.
- FOR BISCOTTI - turn them over and return again to oven for further 10-15 mins.
- Remove from oven when ready and cool on wire racks. If stored in airtight containers, biscotti will last up to 3 months (less for cantuccini)
Granny's Mary Gray's biscuits
A recipe that my granny used to make when I was little, and I loved. When I make them I do mess around with the ingredients, replacing some of the coconut and/or oats for raisins and seeds.
1 cup / 4oz plain flour (or spelt, wholemeal)
1 cup / 6oz sugar
1 cup / 3oz dessicated coconut
1 cup / 2.5oz porridge oats
4oz butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp bi-carbonate of soda
2 tbsp boiling water
- Oven 180C
- Line biscuit trays
- Melt butter, syrup and sugar in pan.
- Add everything else except soda and water.
- Dissolve the bicarb in the water and stir into mixture. If micture is a bit runny, add some more flour.
- Place blobs on tray. If it is quite runny, they will spread wuite a bit. If your mixture is quite firm, they won't and you will have to flatten them a bit before putting them in the oven.
- Cook till nice golden colour, around 10 mins.
- Rremove from oven and don't remove from tray till cooler.
Energy balls!
A recipe from my good friend Dharmaja. Basically you mix the dry ingredients together and then stick them together with one or more 'wet' ingredients. No cooking required! Adjust quantities depending on how many you'd like to make.
A selection of the following (or ideas of your own...)
dessicated coconut
porridge oats
quinoa flakes
raisins
chopped dried druit (dates, apricots, pineapple etc)
seeds (such as sesame, sunflower, pumpkin)
chopped nuts
chopped chocolate (if you're feeling naughty!)
Held together with some or all of the following...
melted butter or vegetable spread
golden syrup
malt extract
date syrup
honey
- Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl
- Add the wet ingredients and mix with a spoon and then your hands til it comes together.
- Use wet hands to roll mixture into small balls. Dipping your hands into a little water between each ball helps stop the mixture sticking to your hands.
- Sometimes they are good kept in fridge in hot weather, otherwise generally they are fine kept in a tuppaware.
Orange, almond and cinnamon biscuits
From 'Health and Vitality Cookbook' by Lynn Weller. I usually double the recipe. The original recipe called for 1 tsp orange essence as well, but I never have any in the cupboard and find these perfectly orangey without its addition.
50g/2oz self-raising flour
50g/20oz ground almonds
25g/1oz porridge oats
25g/1oz demerara sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
grated zest and juice of an orange (organic ideally)
50g/2oz butter or marg
- Oven 180C
- Line biscuit trays
- Mix flour, ground almonds and oats in large bowl. Add sugar, orange zest and cinnamon and mix well.
- Melt butter in saucepan with the orange juice.
- Stir the butter and orange juice into the dry ingredients and mix to form a smooth, firm dough.
- Roll on floured surface and cut shapes out, about 5mm thick. Sometimes I put them in the fridge at this point for 5-10 mins to firm up and ensure they don't spread when cooked.
- Bake 20-30 mins.
- Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.
Shortbread
Makes loads if you make it thin-ish using a larger tin, or a bit less if you prefer your shortbread in thicker pieces and use a smaller tin.
250g butter
110g caster sugar (plus 2-3 tbsp for sprinkling) - I have used granulated, seems to make little difference
250g plain flour (I use white, wholemeal, spelt - whatever I have in)
110g semolina
- Oven 150C
- Line base of a swiss roll style tin.
- Put butter in bowl of food processor and beat or whixx til smooth.
- Add sugar and mix again til creamy.
- Mix in the flour and semolina until well incorporated
- Turn mixture into tin and press down with (wet) hands or half a lemon to make an even-ish surface. Poke holes in top with fork.
- Bake for 1 hour
- Remove from over and while still warm, mark into chunky fingers
- Sprinkle with sugar and leave to cool until breaking into fingers.