The great thing about staying in a house with kids is that they give you an excuse to go nutty with the cookie batter. The bad news is that, well, you get nutty with the cookie batter!
Luckily, my gluten/dairy/nut/white sugar free, medium oxalate cookies are just as high nutrient as the rest of my diet, so I really didn’t feel too bad scarfing down a bunch; those that I managed to wrestle away from my friend’s daughter anyway. She declared them “delicious!” – this from a kid who, though a healthy eater, hasn’t been too interested in my date sweetened concoctions in the past (not sweet enough).
So this time I went with coconut sugar. While it’s still sugar, and not in it’s whole form as I normally prefer (dates, banana etc as sweeteners), being lower GI and less processed (so they say) than other commercially available sugars, I can live with it, especially when cooking for others as well as myself.
These cookies are a lot sweeter than I usually make them, but given that I haven’t had any real sugar, store bought treats or anything else nasty for quite some time, I decided to throw the calories to the wind and just go for it.
Rather than use a ton of oil/butter (coconut of course!), I decided to use sunflower seed butter. It definitely imparts a pleasant nutty type of flavour, as well as being rich in Vitamin E, B1, copper and good source of magnesium. While sunflower seeds are anti-inflammatory, particularly exhibiting activity against a number of mast cell mediators (the stuff that leaks out of mast cells, histamine being one of them) [1] and also in alleviating asthma symptoms in mice [2] I’ve found a study showing that they can cause severe anaphylactic shock in some (what can’t?), so please always proceed with caution if trying something for the first time. You can substitute it with almond butter, apple sauce, banana, anything really that’s a little sweet or nutty, or buttery texture. You could also use more coconut oil, vegan coconut yoghurt, or yoghurt instead.
The picture of the cookies above is what they looked like with one cup of sugar (I know sounds like a lot, but I made three trays of cookies!). They were totally sweet enough for me, maybe because I added organic coconut sugar chocolate chips to the batter, but everyone else preferred another half a cup of sugar. Sadly, because coconut sugar doesn’t behave in the same way as regular stuff, it gets very liquid and that batch turned out every flat and large (as in the photo below!). I didn’t realise that was the case (as I had the cookie dough in the fridge) and didn’t adjust the cooking time accordingly, so they came out a little too dark, prompting the littlest one to dub them “kaka coloured”.
Should’t have that problem if snagged at the right time!
This recipe makes a whole bunch of cookies, as I said, at least two trays, maybe more, depending on how big you make them. But I had a lot of fun making different batches to match everyone’s expectations. I used chocolate chips, which though organic and white sugar free, may bother come on a low histamine elimination diet (check out why I don’t believe low histamine elimination diets heal – and how I fixed myself without using one). Feel free to use carob chips, no chips (add a little more sugar in that case), or cacao nibs (what I used for my cookies).
Sunflower Seed Butter Cookies (gluten/dairy free/medium oxalate)
Prep Time: 10| Cook Time: 20-30 | Servings: many!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup rice flour (or half rice and half tapioca for lower oxalate)
1 cup oats
1/2 cup sunflower seed butter
2 eggs (or 1 duck egg)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp scraped vanilla from a pod
1 cup coconut sugar (add 1.25 cups if not using chips, and 1.5 if you’re really into your sugar – I used 1.25 cups for the ones I ended up eating)
pinch sea salt
Optional
1/2 cup vegan chocolate/carob chips, or cacao nibs (use less sugar if using)
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F.
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Combine the wet ingredients in another, mix thoroughly and then combine with the flours. Place in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up.
Spoon bits of dough onto a non-stick baking tray and bake for 20-30 mins, depending on sugar used and oven type.
Once cooked through, allow to cool on a rack for at least 10-20 mins.
Enjoy!
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The Anti-cookbook, while it doesn’t treat any conditions, due to its high nutrient, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients, has been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. It features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods. It comes in regular and Paleo.
The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes.
Take a peek at my low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes. If you’ve found this information useful I’d appreciate your support (at no extra cost to you!) – please check out my online store for your health foods, supplements, kitchen items and beauty product purchases. Affiliate sales through my online store go towards maintaining the website, funding travel to interviews and purchasing all the lovely foods for my free online recipes.
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Please don’t forget antihistamine, pain killing foods can still hurt us, so please always check with your doctor before adding new foods to your diet.
———–REFERENCES————-
[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X08003707
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18097616
