GF Adventures with Teff… part 1, Cookies

GF Teff Cookies

Just as I promised, a new series highlighting Teff.  This little nutritious seed has been the focus of attention in our house as of late.  At the end of last year, we felt it was time to venture off of strict SCD and onto adding back some complex carbohydrates for our youngest child.  My first pick for this dietary change was to try Teff.  Given that this tiny seed is packed with nutrients (Calcium, Phosphorous, Iron, Copper, Barium, Potassium, Thiamine, Amino acids, and especially high levels of lysine), I felt it was a good first step.  We have been enjoying mornings with Teff porridge and pancakes courtesy of The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.

Today, I thought it was time to branch out and see what this great (little) seed has to offer for baking.  I came up with a recipe based on a gluten free chocolate chip cookie that we really love.  The challenge here was to recreate this cookie to be dairy free, nut free, egg free, refined sugar free, and use teff as the only flour.  The result was absolutely amazing!  You can see it just from the picture how great these turned out.  I would say that they are sweeter than I had intended… so, my next try will be to decrease the agave and see what happens.  The other thing is that for this cookie to be “free from” that entire list above, you really have to use the Sunbutter.  My guess is you could use any of the nut butters if nuts are not a problem.  These “butters” provide the fat needed to create a cookie that is flavorful and moist at the same time.  I did not use chocolate chips, but you could substitute your favorite chocolate chip for my mix in’s.  Here’s the recipe!

Teff Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Teff flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbls ground flax seeds
• 1/4 cup mix-in’s (I used chopped pumpkin seeds and dried apples)
• 1/2 cup Sunbutter (I use the Organic, unsweetened variety to avoid the refined sugar)
• 1/2 cup Agave syrup (make sure yours does not have added corn syrup)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium size bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together.
3. In a small bowl, mix the Sunbutter and Agave syrup until well blended.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until all the flour is incorporated.
5. Drop tablespoon size spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet (these do not really spread) and flatten slightly with a fork.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes.  They may look underdone but take them out anyway.  As the cookies cool you will find they are just right.

The interesting thing with Teff is that when paired with Sunbutter it has an amazing resemblance to chocolate.  So, if you cannot use chocolate chips either… I don’t think you will miss them in this cookie!  Give it a try.