Friday, April 6, 2012

Azuki and Quinoa Flapjacks!!

Roll up roll up for some of my amazing healthy flapjacks! Their only evil is a high level of fructose due to all the fruit!
Ingredients:
80g (½ cup) Azuki bean flakes (rolled) or rolled buckwheat (preferable but I have problems finding them!)
80g (½ cup) rolled Quinoa
80g (½ cup) (2 handfuls) Raisins or sultanas
1/4 cup Apple juice (optional)
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup olive oil or less
30g (large handful) sesame seeds
palmful Chia seeds (thought it might help mixture stick together)
1 small pear
20g (small handful) Goji berries
40g fresh berries (I used 4 strawberries)
40g dried apricots (for me this was 4 apricots)
50g Dates (6 dates or so)
1 tbspn Agave syrup

(vary these ingredients as much as you need - skip to end for suggestions and notes on this)

Method
Put everything - except juice and oil- into the bowl of a mixer if you have one. Pulse until everything very finely chopped.
If you do not have a mixer just chop everything small and grate the pear.
Add apple juice (or whatever liquid) then add oil through hole in mixer as you pulse the mixture again.








The mixture resembles this!







Spread thinly onto greaseproof paper, either as biscuits or in a sheet - you can score them into flapjacks when they come out the oven, then break apart when cool.
Cook in a preheated oven (make sure it's already hot) for about 10 minutes. I turn it down to probably about 190 - but I can't be sure, our oven's got personality - it's always very hot so most things burn around the edges! Just keep an eye on them and let  them cook as much as you like. I like to turn them over a couple of minutes from the end to avoid burning on underside and to colour the top side. A vous de choisir!
Just so you know: These flapjacks are chewy, they stay soft and will never be crispy crunchy flapjacks due to all the fruit and the absence of sugar! They ARE, however, delicious!
Enjoy! Mmmmm......

Variations:
Originally, I made these with rolled Buckwheat - unfortunately, I was ill (they carried the phrase "may contain traces of gluten" but I was so excited at a new product that I took the risk!) so I found some alternatives!
You can use oats if you are not allergic or rolled anything depending on what you can or can't eat! I can't eat any cereals or grains so had to go with Quinoa and Azuki beans... you'd be amazed what you can substitute things for - I mean, they're totally different food groups but totally interchangeable! Very surprising! Azuki beans are actually really good as they lend to sweet dishes anyway.

Similarly, for the fruit - use whatever you have or whatever you can eat. Any dried fruits, any fresh fruit, anything goes - just adjust the moisture accordingly (use less juice if more fresh fruit etc.)

I used sesame and chia seeds - I have also used pumpkin seeds before which are delicious. If I could, I would use cashews, hazelnuts or almonds! MMMMMmmmmmmmm! Use whatever you fancy...

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feel free to comment/ add your own suggestions or even recipes (with links if you like - let's network darlings! ;D )