This week on the Bake Off the theme was tray bakes and biscuits. As I have already given you a delicious, real food brownie recipe this week, today I am focusing on biscuits.

There is nothing better than a biscuit with a cup of tea and a book.
Nothing quite so pleasing to the eye as a plate plied high with handmade biscuits.
And nothing as comforting as a piece of shortbread.

 The  biscuits that we normally eat though are out of a packet and  filled with tons of refined sugar and bleached flours. They tend to irritate allergies, spike blood sugars or fill our bodies with other chemical ingredients.

The answer? Make these easy versions that will fill you up for longer, won’t irritate any wheat or gluten allergies and prevent the dreaded ‘bloat’.

So this week I, obviously, choose to be inspired by the humble shortbread. I say obviously because I see Scotland as my homeland, the nation of my heart (despite the bizarre english accent which you can witness here) and the shortbread is a traditional Scottish fare.

Shortbread is traditionally very simple, flour, butter and sugar, but in order to make some high protein and grain free version I switched in almonds, coconut and linseeds, and instead of sugar used a wee bit of honey  but still kept in lots of butter (heres why).

These simply delicious. Buttery, slightly sweet and the perfect treat as colder wintery months are drawing in. If you want to go fancy you can dip them in ‘chocolate’  and then they become the perfect ‘dinner party coffee time’ accompaniment. Plus they are super easy to make so if you have kids – get them involved as they will love it!

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread

Kezia Hall

A grain free, delicious shortbread made with almonds and coconut that will disappear off your plate in no time

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Ingredients

  

• Shortbread
• 200 g Ground Almonds
• 2 tbsp Linseeds - Ground
• 4 tbsp Coconut Flour
• Pinch Sea Salt
• 3 tbsp Honey
• 5 drops of Vanilla Essence
• 125 g Butter - Organic
• Chocolate Sauce
• 3 tbsp Coconut Oil
• 5 tbsp Cocoa Powder
• 2 tbsp Honey
• 2 drops of Vanilla Essence

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 170c and line a tray with greaseproof paper.
• Mix the coconut flour, salt, ground almonds and linseeds in a bowl.
• Cut the butter into chunks and add to flours, also add the honey and vanilla essence.
• Rub the mixture together with your fingers or mix well until all the butter and honey is evenly distributed. Make sure there are no clumps of butter anywhere in the mixture.
• The grab small lumps of the very wet dough and roll into balls in your hands and place on greased tray. They can be any size you want but this recipe makes 12 large cookie shaped biscuits.
• Then using a clean fork push down on the dough balls. Do this twice, both vertically and horizontally.
• Place in the oven, set a timer and cook for 15-20 mins. Check regularly.
• Remove from the oven when they are all an even light brown colour.
• Leave to cool completely before removing from tray.
• Chocolate Sauce
• Melt all the ingredient together in a pan and mix thoroughly.
• Allow to cool. To speed things up place it in the fridge for 10 mins. Check and mix regularly.
• Once cool the sauce will be thicker. Then you can dip the shortbread into the chocolate mixture or use a spoon to drizzle it over.
• Place the shortbread in the fridge to set.

Notes

These are best kept in the fridge and are best eaten within a few days.
For a quick time saver you could freeze some of the uncooked dough mixture so you can always cook a batch whenever you want - take the shortbread dough balls out the freezer half an hour before you want to bake them.
Feel free to make smaller ones I always make massive things even when I try not to.
These are more fragile than the traditional shortbread the fridge makes them more sturdy.