Monday 6 February 2012

Beetroot and Oat cookies with Sugar Icing

Yes your eyes are not deceiving you. Cookies and beetroot do indeed appear in the same sentence! And what's more – they make great friends, who would of known? Call it opposites attract perhaps?

And why I thought to make beetroot cookies? Not sure. Call it sleep deprivation post night shifts or something. The original recipe calls for carrots. I had lots of carrots courtesy of market man at the time but something made my brain go hmmm beetroot….! I frequently buy the ready cooked beetroot's (un-vinegared)in their little shrink wrap casings but after about 3 days worth of it in salads of some sort, the appeal can start to wane even for a devout beetroot fan... 


..There's been a plethora of beetroot and chocolate cake recipes over the net these past few years, and as I am huge fan of adding carrots, and indeed parsnips to my bakes; thought mostly why the hell not. Like how most of my recipes come about really!

The original recipe comes from the very delicious blog Yummy Choo Eats, and the lovely hostess Selina has given me kind permission to re-publish it here with my tweaks.

Many thanks also to the ladies of twitter confirming I could swap maple syrup for golden - my store cupboard is somewhat shrunken and have no room for new bottles to gather dust! Cooking in the new oven is a bit of a trial and error - I'd spent 5 years getting used to cooking with fan assisted and now back to a regular, ancient beast of an oven and was pleasantly surprised these survived so well!



Makes 12 cookies

60g grated cooked beetroot (roughly 1 ball)
60g wholemeal flour
60g porridge oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
A pinch of ground ginger
25g desiccated Coconut, extra for sprinkling
40 ml golden Syrup - roughly 1 very heaped tbsp
75 ml Olive Oil

Icing sugar /water for decoration



**CSI style gloves are very handy for this recipe**

Method:

Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 6 / 200 and line a baking tray or two with parchment/ baking paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and oats. Add the grated beetroot, ginger, coconut and cinnamon.

In a separate smaller bowl use a whisk to combine the golden syrup and oil. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Use your hands to shape into walnut sized balls and flatten slightly, place on to baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. 

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until cookies are golden brown on top and underneath. - Mine took 18 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly and transfer to a cooling rack.

Mix some icing sugar and water, then drizzle as desired over the top. Sprinkle over a little more coconut if liked,


And the verdict - I found that I grew to love these. They had hints of gingerbread, and softened over a couple of days into a most agreeable chewy, soft cookie. Definitely making again! I did think initially they were not sweet enough however by the time had finished them, had changed my mind. The girls at work also thought they were just right. So no meddling needed!


I had the original carrot version of these saved on my 'favourites' for ages, so I am also sending these over to the Bookmarked Recipes challenge for February:

4 comments:

  1. Yum! I've never heard of using beetroot in cookies, brilliant idea for usiing up fresh beetroot too! Love the CSI gloves comment!

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  2. You'd never know by looking at them that there was beetroot in them - would have expected them to be purple. What a great little recipe, its added to my favourites already!

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  3. Hannah - it is so worth investing in disposable gloves for the kitchen, covers many a task!

    Claire - I so want to add purple food dye next time around!! Hope you enjoy them :)

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  4. That was inspired Anne. I use it in chocolate cake, but I have never tried it in other sweet things. They look great, thought they might have been pinker though.

    Oh and thank you for adding them to Bookmarked Recipes. The roundup is up.

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Thanks for stopping by my kitchen! I love to hear your thoughts and comments on my recipes!

Anne

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