Spiced chocolate & cranberry biscuits
Posted by kathryn in Baking
What the hell is a biscuit recipe doing on Limes & Lycopene? Aren’t I always nagging you to cut back on the treats and eat more vegetables?
Well yes, but . . . A while ago I asked what you wanted me to blog about and one of the suggestions discussed was how to make treat foods just that bit better for you.
Then I noticed Food Blogga’s Eat Christmas Cookies event and it seemed like a good time to post a better biscuit recipe.
These biscuits are to be honest delicious. Slightly chewy, flavoured with spices and a combined cranberry and chocolate kick. Very, very Christmasy.
I’ve drawn inspiration for these from a whole range of other recipes. But I wanted something which was lower in both saturated fat and sugar, and higher in fibre than most normal biscuits.
How I made these better
- I’ve used wholemeal flour instead of the standard white
- I’ve pulled right back on the sugar – these biscuits are not super-sweet, but the addition of spices means they still have a full and rich flavour
- I’ve used canola oil instead of butter, to reduce the saturated fat. I’ve also reduced the oil right down to the minimum amount possible.
- While they do contain chocolate which has a few kilojoules, I’ve used a 70% cocoa solids brand – which is a bit better than your bog standard milk. I also used a Fair Trade chocolate.
- The addition of spices and cranberries adds a a little bit of antioxidant oomph.
- The pumpkin seeds add a few minerals (zinc, magnesium and calcium), as well as some Omega 6 poly-unsaturated fats.
Spiced chocolate & cranberry biscuits
Makes 18
Dry ingredients:
- 125g wholemeal flour
- 2 teaspoons arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 110g brown sugar
- 40g dried cranberries or blueberries
- 55g pumpkin seeds
- 50g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), cut into small chunks
Wet ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 80ml canola oil
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Cover a baking sheet with baking paper.
Mix the dry ingredients: Sieve together the flour, arrowroot, mixed spice and baking powder, into a large bowl. Add in the sugar, berries, seeds and chocolate. Stir to combine.
Add the wet ingredients: Whisk together the eggs and canola oil. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix together. Using a dessertspoon, put spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking tray, about 3cm apart. Don’t worry about making them neat, as they expand and spread out.
Cook the biscuits: Place the biscuits in the oven and cook for 12 – 15 minutes, until they are a golden colour. When they are cooked leave them to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Biscuit-mix present
I’m going to be making up batches of the dried mix, to give away for presents this Christmas. Then the recipient only has to add some egg and oil, and they have their own home-made biscuits.
Are they healthy?
While they’re lower in saturated fat and sugar, higher in fibre, and have extra antioxidants, these biscuits are still a treat food. They are better than many others you’ll make or buy. However don’t get caught out by the health halo and consume the whole pile.
This is my entry for Food Blogga’s event Eat Christmas Cookies. The full roundup is here.
18 December, 2008
Comments
It’s a christmas miracle! they look sooo tasty… will have to track down some arrowroot starch :)
I’m making chocolate and cranberry cookies right now too!! They are in absolutely no way healthy though. Might make a batch of yours too to make up for it. ;)
What a beautiful cookie recipe, Kathryn. I’m loving the sound of those cranberries (or blueberries!) together with chocolate. Well done!
I’m so glad the event help inspire you to make a healthier biscuit. I too am a healthy eater, but sometimes I just need a biscuit. :)
Shauna: arrowroot is available from supermarkets here. It’s on the shelves in very bland packaging, in amongst the baking powder and bicarb of soda. Hope that helps you.
Wendy: chocolate and cranberry is such a lovely combination. Here in Australia dried cranberries are obnoxiously expensive, so I tend to reserve them for special occasions only.
Cassie: no worries at all. I’m thinking a vegan version could also be made, although I haven’t tried this out yet. I’m sure you’d have a better idea of how to do this than me, but a bit of tahini and maybe some soy milk instead of the egg?
Susan: agreed. I do love biscuits, but am so fussy about them. If you’re going to have the kilojoules, they have to be good.
These look gorgeous, Kathryn! I’d like to bake up a batch to share with family this Christmas, but we’ll have to wait and see if I can bear to use an oven while in Queensland. :-)
Oh, and a question – are your dried cranberries 100% fruit and if so, what brand are they? I have noticed that the labelled ones around here (standard supermarket and organic health shop types) tend to be up to 30% sugar!
Cindy: hi there. Yes my cranberries are 100% cranberry, but they’re only available from health food shops, hideously expensive and really blow the food miles as they’re imported from the US. My local health food shop package their own, so not sure of the brand.
I was thinking this morning that you could also use goji berries, which most health food shops stock. They have the same kind of slightly tart sweetness that cranberries have.
The “craisins” which are available at the supermarket have large quantities of sugar added, so they’re best to avoid.
OK, thanks! I will continue my search, and perhaps give goji berries a whirl instead – I know where to find them.
These do look delicious – I have the same dilemma as Cindy with sweetened cranberries but I think I have seen unsweetened cherries which are local to Victoria so they might be a good substitute – and are part of the Australian Christmas fruit bounty!
Johanna – unsweetened cherries are a great idea, they’d be delicious.
I almost fell over when I saw a cookie here. But trust you to serve cookies with a conscience. It looks amazing too.
great recipe, Kathryn!
i made chocolate and cranberry (ok, craisin) cookies last week for some Christmas gifts. i really liked them cause they were not too sweet, and they had oats in the recipe so they were nice and chewy.
These look great! One question: what’s included in the “mixed spice?”
Hi there Fearless Kitchen: here in Australia there’s a blend of sweet spices which are just sold together as “mixed spice”.
Most that you buy are a combination of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg like this one. I often make my own, because it has a lot more depth of flavour.
It’s a really useful mixture. I add to porridge, stewed fruit, cakes and biscuits.
Hi Kathryn, I’ve just made these cookies and they turned out gorgeous and very tasty. We loved the combination of chocolate, pumpkin seed and cranberry. I used your spice mix too, the one you linked to in your comment to Fearless Kitchen. Love the blend and the coriander makes it especially nice.
To answer your question about making the cookies vegan, I followed your recipe but left out the egg and added 3 tablespoons of soy milk to make up for the liquid, figuring the arrowroot would be enough to bind the cookies. They baked up beautifully.
It’s a really nice recipe, Kathryn. Thanks for sharing it!
Hi there Cassie – glad to hear you enjoyed the cookies. The coriander really does add something to the mixture of spices doesn’t it. Interesting that the arrowroot was enough to bind, without the egg. Thanks for reporting back!
Hi, this is my first comment on your blog, I only found it a couple of days ago and it is so motivational. I love food for the most basic of reasons: because it’s delicious. Your blog has so many great ideas for eating for health and pleasure. So – probably not a great start to have my first comment in the “baking” section, but you inspired me to hunt on the weekend for a cake not full of fat and sugar. I found one slightly less full of fat and sugar on a friend’s website at http://www.thelovebite.com/recipes/sweet_stuff/crangerina_the_flourless_tangerine_torte/. It’s basically tangerines, eggs, sugar, ground almonds and cranberries. I added cinnamon to mine and used raw ground almonds (also left out the campari syrup – :() It’s still definitely in “treat” territory but with some natural yoghurt and tangerine slices it made a sophisticated dinner party dessert. Anyway, that’s my two cents worth on celebration baking, next time you hear from me, I swear it will be in the salad section.
Reeya, how lovely to hear from you, baking section or otherwise. And thank you so much for linking to that torte – it looks pretty incredible. Love that there’s no added oil and I reckon you could drop the sugar down, especially if you had sweet fruit. I shall have to give that a go.
There are a handful of baked goods and desserts on Limes & Lycopene, not many. Doesn’t mean I’m against them, I’m just more interested in encouraging people to eat their vegies!
Look forward to “talking” to you more.
Hi Kathryn, I’m just eating one of these cookies and it’s a winner.
Lessons for me for next time (every kitchen adventure has a lesson) are to chop the chocolate smaller, and perhaps the cranberries and pepitas as well. And when it says use a spoon to shape the cookies, that’s because the dough is impossibly sticky and you’ll have a hell of a time trying to do it with your hands!
I never thought I’d say this but I think I’d actually make them without the chocolate next time. They are yummy but a bit rich for what I was looking for at the time. Do you think flax seeds would mix ok in there, to boost the goodies to baddies ratio?
I’ll take them in to work tomorrow for some brownie points :-) Thanks!
Hi there kylieonwheels, so glad to hear you made and enjoyed the cookies. Absolutely no reason why you couldn’t chop the pepitas up, I like the texture they give when they’re whole, but that’s a personal preference thing. And I agree with you, these could certainly be made without the chocolate and they’d still be delicious. You could add in some extra fruit, in its place.
I’ve also made these with chopped up apricots and dried figs, when I haven’t had the cranberries on hand.
Try them with some flaxseeds, although I’d start with a small amount first – maybe a tablespoon – otherwise you might find they’re just too flax-y. Let me know if you do make them with flax, I’d love to know how they taste.
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