Healthy Chocolate Biscuits
These chocolate biscuits are from a new world of biscuit making. They don’t use the traditional way of making biscuits with sugar, butter and flour. They do have some added sweetness but overall they rely on ground up nuts and not much else.
In this recipe you have in effect two biscuits - the basic one and the luxury one with melted chocolate spooned on top and left to set.
Some info on the chocolate topping route, I haven’t suggested tempering the chocolate, which is the only sure way to guarantee a shiny finish, as it is another layer of complexity. If you are familiar with tempering and have a sugar thermometer go for it or wait for my take on tempering.
These chocolate babies are much better for you in terms of nutrition. They are packed with nut filled goodness and the equivalent of one teaspoon of sugar per biscuit, rather less than most biscuits have. Bearing in mind that the maximum recommended added sugar for women is 7 teaspoons daily, and for men 9, it is worth really watching your sugar intake.
The other thing about having so little sugar is that the biscuits tend not to go soft after the first day. It still sounds bonkers to me but sugar in biscuits attracts moisture hence soggy homemade biscuits.
Ingredients
Makes approx 9, 6cm biscuits
For the chocolate topping/optional
150g 75% dark vegan chocolate (we use Jamaican chocolate pastilles)
For the biscuits
80g unsalted cashews
80g whole blanched almonds
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbs maple or fruit syrup
Method
Heat the oven to 180C/160Cfan/350F.
Put the cashew and almonds into a grinder or small food processor and blitz until you have a flour like texture.
Tip into a big bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir with a spoon until the mix comes together into a ball. Divide the big ball into 9 small ones.
On a tray lined with bakewell paper flatten each ball to about 1.5cm thick and 6cm in diameter. Use a 6cm round biscuit cutter as a guide to get really even shaped biscuits.
Put the tray of biscuits in the oven from 12-15 minutes. You want the biscuits as crisp as possible but not burnt.
Remove and let the biscuits cool on the tray for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
(For plain biscuits stop here but for something more luxurious continue with the addition of melted chocolate).
For the chocolate layer, melt the vegan chocolate in a glass bowl perched on top of the saucepan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl doesn’t have it’s bottom in the water.
Once it has melted spoon carefully onto the biscuits, flooding the top.
Sit back and wait for the chocolate to set before eating.
