Bringing home the biscuits

The experimentation began in earnest today - baking biscuits sans wheat flour. Armed with an array of the flours - basically every bean or seed that could be milled - I began googling and came up with Buckwheat Chocolate Chip cookies (yes, seems the US has a lock on biscuits).


The recipe comes from Karina Allrich, the self-proclaimed Gluten-free Goddess (ouch!). First off these are big, not McDonald-size but about 5cm across and not slim, so you'll need plenty of baking trays to spread them on if you want them thinner.


Dry Ingredients
1 cup organic buckwheat flour (84 carbs)
1 cup rice or sorghum flour (110 carbs)
1/2 cup tapioca starch (used cornflour instead) (90 carbs)
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum (probably don't need this if using plain flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt

"Wet" mix ingredients:
1 cup butter/margarine
1 cup light brown sugar (I reduced this from 1.5 cups, seems fine) (200 carbs)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey (17 carbs)
2 free-range eggs, beaten

Add-ins:
2-5 tablespoons milk
1/2-1 cup dark chocolate chopped (milk chocolate would add *lots* to carb count)
1/2 cup chopped nuts, coconut, or chopped dried fruit, if desired


Directions

1. Bring the dry ingredients together and mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl beat the butter/margarine, sugar, honey and vanilla extract. Add in the beaten eggs and beat to combine.
2. Add the dry ingredients bit by bit using the milk to form a dough.
3. Add in the chocolate chips and/or nuts.
4. Chill the dough mixture for an hour.
5. Spoon out 20 little dough-balls and place on baking tray (use baking parchment if you don't want them to stick!). Flatten them down to make them into (vague) biscuit shapes (ah, round).
6. Bake for 12-15min. at 180C in a fan oven
7. Remove to cooling rack where they'll crisp up as they cool.

If you plan on freezing them, cool completely and wrap individually in tinfoil.

Ingredient check:
In case you're wondering Xanthum Gum is there to replace the affect of gluten. Can be had in M&S (Enniskillen) and www.ecodirect.ie or www.iherb.com. The flours can be found in Holland & Barrett, Kate's Kitchen or Tir Na nOg as well as from Doves Farm web-site. I'll likely get around to post on flour retailers so given how much of it I'm getting through!


And now for the carb count:
Not the best of news here. The different flours have different carbs but overall I think this number would be pretty close for plain flour. (Drum roll please) - 20 biscuits at 25 carbs apiece. Now that said, I got 27 easily and would have preferred more (smaller) biscuits but ran out of baking trays! Our precious would be thrilled with 12 carbs-worth of these, though must make smaller since 25 carbs is a no-no.

Update:

Baked a dream and waiting to see how they taste! We'll have to post an armed guard for tonight! They are light and crispy and very home-made looking so fingers crossed.
Update:
These didn't work! They looked great but they crumble into too fine a crumb (powder?) when ate. Maybe I'll try a smaller batch and bake for longer. Would welcome any ideas...