This simple and quick recipe for vegan, gluten-free oat biscuits uses a mixture of oats and cashew nuts.
The nuts and half of the oats are ground to form a rough, sandy flour, which results in a light, crispy and slightly chewy biscuit.
This is one of those occasions where it is worth using a decent vanilla extract. Good quality vanilla combined with cashews, brown sugar and golden syrup will give these cookies a really rich toffee flavour.
The coconut oil can be ‘flavourless’ or the ordinary variety, as a mild coconut flavour doesn’t detract from the overall flavour and might enhance it if you’re a fan of coconut.
One thing that it’s important to keep in mind when baking these biscuits is that even a slight change in the quantity of oil or syrup can change them dramatically. You can reduce the total quantity of oats by up to 20g for a thinner biscuit, like those pictured below. Otherwise, it’s better to stick precisely to the stated quantities.
This recipe makes sixteen to eighteen biscuits that will store really well in an airtight tin.
Gluten-free Oat Biscuits
Ingredients
- 140 g porridge (rolled) oats
- 70 g cashew nuts
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 55 g light muscovado (or other brown) sugar
- 45 g coconut oil
- 45 g golden syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
method
- Set the oven to 190°C/375°F and line one to two baking sheets (enough for up to eighteen 7 cm biscuits).
- Measure the syrup into a small jug or bowl and heat in the microwave until it’s bubbling. Remove from the heat and stir in the coconut oil. Set aside to allow the coconut oil to finish melting.
- Grind half (70g) of the oats together with the cashews in a food processor or grinder to form a rough flour.
- Place the oats and cashew mixture in a large bowl and add the remaining oats, baking powder and sugar.
- Using a fork or pastry blender, press and mix the dry ingredients until you are sure there are no lumps of sugar or ground cashew nut.
- Add the vanilla extract to the oil and syrup mixture, and then pour this into the dry ingredients.
- Mix well with a fork and bring together into a firm, sticky dough.
- Using your hands (unless you can do this effectively with a spoon!) roll the mixture into sixteen to eighteen small balls and place these, well-spaced, on the baking trays. There is no need to flatten the tops.
- Bake for ten to twelve minutes, until they are golden brown.
- Allow the cookies to cool a little before removing to a rack to cool completely.
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