Amaranth and Raisin Cookies

I'm not totally convinced about super foods but a lot of the ingredients I use fall naturally into that category so don't really feel any need to concentrate on them. However, I did not know amaranth so decided to give it a go.

I put 80g butter, 2 tablespoons honey and 50g crunchy peanut butter into a small saucepan and heated it until it had melted and mixed well. It was then left to cool.

In a large basin I mixed 150g plain flour, 100 amaranth flakes (the recipe called for puffed amaranth but I was unable to obtain it), 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger. 75g caster sugar, 75g brown sugar and 85g raisins. These were well mixed and a beaten egg was stirred in together with the cooled butter mixture.

The oven was turned on to heat to 180ºC and two trays were lined with baking paper. The mixture was taken about a tablespoon at a time and squeezed in the hand repeatedly until it had formed together well enough to be rolled into a ball. When all of the mixture was laid out on the trays a fork was used to flatten them a little. They were cooked in the oven for about 15 minutes until browned.

The cookies were left on the trays for about 5 minutes before they were lifted off the baking paper and placed on a rack to cool.

While I wouldn't rave about these they were pleasantly enjoyable and worth trying as they were easily made. There was no distinct flavour that I could label as 'amaranth'.

Taste: ✔✔
Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Banana, Honey & Walnut Bread

From Supergrains, Chrissy Freer, Murdoch Books, 2013.

Despite all the statements about how good quinoa is for you, I find it pretty much a non-entity as far as flavour is concerned. Nevertheless I try it every so often just in case I’m missing something. In a cake, I thought, might be a good way.

I mixed 225g plain flour with a teaspoon ground cinnamon and 3 teaspoons baking powder. These were sifted together, then had 70g quinoa flakes added with 40g chopped walnuts.

In a separate bowl I mixed together 2 eggs, ½ cup honey, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 60g crème fraîche (instead of the sour cream in the recipe) and 3 mashed bananas. Once well combined this was added to the flour mixture. I stirred it until, like a muffin mix, it was just combined.

It now went into a baking paper lined loaf tin. The surface was sprinkled with more chopped walnuts and went into a 180ºC oven for 50 minutes.

This was an enjoyable moist bread. A mixture of walnuts, honey and bananas can hardly fail. It had a flavour as though it was made with a wholemeal flour that was, I guess, the result of the quinoa. The second day I found that I enjoyed it a little more when the flavours seemed to have matured somewhat.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔