I had a bunch of cooked, unspiced quinoa sitting in my house, demanding I use it up creatively. Since we were running low on healthy snacks and I'd wanted to make cookies of some sort, I figured that I'd try and experiment to make quinoa based cookies. Not with quinoa flour like I've seen in so many recipes, but with cooked quinoa. Before I tried it out, I scoured the net to see if I could find a similar idea for a recipe, but didn't really strike gold- all quinoa cookies seemed to call for peanut butter and I wasn't interested in that type of thing. So I just played around with this recipe and prayed.And they turned out to be so amazing that I just HAD to share them with you.
The reason these cookies are so special, in addition to being soft and delicious, is that they are refined sugar free, have no eggs, no dairy, no specialty expensive flours, no nuts, etc... and therefore are perfect allergy friendly cookies- other than the potato starch in there that is a nightshade, and can be replaced with tapioca starch- this recipe is free of all the top 8 allergens- and therefore perfect for any multiple allergy household, without being full of all sorts of unhealthy ingredients, as often found in allergy friendly foods...
I want to apologize about the quality of the picture- my camera is acting wonky and therefore the picture was from my cell phone...
Quinoa Craisin Spice Cookies Recipe- Allergy Friendly, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Refined Sugar Free
Ingredients3 cups cooked quinoa (cooked with 2 cups water for every 1 cup of quinoa and minimal salt)
1 cup coconut sugar (or rapadura or brown sugar or white sugar)
1/2 cup oil (any is fine)
1 cup ground flax seeds
1 cup potato or tapioca starch (or corn starch)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup craisins (or dried cherries or raisins)
Instructions:
1. Mix the quinoa, sugar, and oil and put it in the food processor or blender. Blend as much as you can. Most likely it won't become a paste and that's fine- you just want to break up the quinoa a bit.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients other than the craisins. Mix well.
3. Add the craisins and mix well.
4. Drop by spoonfuls onto a lined/greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 for 10-20 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven when the bottom is starting to brown. The cookies won't be 100% solidified at this point, but they will solidify more once cooled down.
Enjoy!
Note: You may be able to make this recipe with cooked brown rice in place of the quinoa, but I'm not promising it'll work out. I am pretty sure it would, though. Don't pulse the rice too much in the food processor though or it'll get a bit too gluey.
Have you ever eaten a quinoa based cookie before? Does this look like something you'd try?
Do you know anyone with multiple food allergies that you think this recipe may be good for?
Linking up to Real Food Wednesday and Allergy Free Wednesday
Tags
allergies
corn free
dairy free
desserts
egg free
frugal recipe
frugal strategies
gluten free
recipes
refined sugar free
snacks
soy free
treats
These sound great!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteWe've made these cookies twice now, once with raisins and once with chocolate chips. They're really good!
ReplyDeleteThis recipe is really miraculous. I dou it with whatever is left in the fridge, tonight it was kidney beans!
ReplyDeleteI use regular cane sugar instead of the coconut one, and find that half a cup is far enough
Hi Penny,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading several recipes for baked cookies using quinoa flour or quinoa flakes, I decided to buy quinoa flour and try one of the recipes - chocolate chip cookies - for a birthday party. The cookies turned out well - but some friends thought that they were pricey because of the quinoa flour. I am glad that I've found your recipe. It is economical, nutritious, and I bet the cookies will be delicious! Thank you very much.