By Nadia Marshall

Cookie Monster was my favourite character on Sesame Street for a good reason... I love cookies!! I don’t really care for icecream..... I could give or take cake.... I could even give up chocolate.... but cookies will be with me, always. Preferably every afternoon, with a cup of chai.

I’ve made a lot of Ginger Anzac Cookies over the years but have always been slightly troubled by the heated bi-carb/golden syrup chemical reaction. I’ve never read anything about it from an Ayurvedic perspective (probably because they didn’t have Golden Syrup 5000 years ago) by I can’t imagine it is ideal. I’ve also eaten a few shortbreads... but usually shop-bought and laden with highly processed white sugar and white flour that I know just isn’t good for me.

So, I’ve been on a mission to make the best home-made cookies in the world... that are super quick, super easy, good for my Agni and won’t strain my liver or pancreas! And today, I think I nailed it. Okay so maybe they’re not the best in the world... but for a healthy cookie, they’re pretty awesome.

The recipe is based on Stephen Galpin’s amazing Vata Cookies (from The Ayurvedic Kitchen) but is slightly different. These cookies are made out of spelt flour (an ancient, low-gluten, light wheat variety) and buckwheat flour (a gluten-free, low GI, high protein flour) and coconut sugar (a very subtle, low GI, mineral-rich, unrefined sweetener). All ingredients are readily available from your wholefood store. You can even get organic spelt and buckwheat from Woolies these days!

If you like, you can use butter instead of ghee and raw sugar instead of coconut sugar... but if you make them this way they are even lighter and easier on your agni and blood sugar. Guilt-free I say! And you can bang out 20 cookies in about 20 minutes. Yipeeeee!

Here is the recipe + there is the video below:

Ayurvedic Ginger Shortbreads

INGREDIENTS:

DRY...

2/3 cup wholemeal Organic Spelt Flour

1/3 cup Organic Buckwheat Flour

5 tbsp Organic Coconut Sugar (or Rapadura)

2 tsp Dired Ginger Powder

WET...

1/2 cup melted Ghee (preferably home-made)

1/4 tsp Bi-Carb Soda dissolved in a little boiled water

METHOD:

Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Add all of the dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Now add the wet ingredients and massage together with your hands into a soft cookie dough. Break off small amounts of dough, roll into a ball (about walnut size) and flatten into a disk shape. Place on baking paper on a baking tray 2cm apart. When the tray is full, place in the hot oven and cook for 10-15 minutes. When you can smell them (and they are a golden brown colour) they are ready! Pull out of the oven and let cool completely before eating (or they will crumble).

Enjoy!!!!!

**If you are a gluten free person and won’t cope even with spelt, you can use 1/4 cup maize flour, 1/2 cup buckwheat flour and 1/4 cup rice flour instead of the spelt/buckwheat mix**

Love


Nadia xx