Ingredients and Method to make Vegan Quinoa Spicy Cookies
3/4 cup quinoa flour (see notes)
1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida) (see notes)
1/2 cup almond meal (see notes)
2 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (or according to taste) (optional)
1 tsp aluminum free baking powder (or any other baking powder)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp dried curry leaves crushed into small bits ( alternatively use about 7 to 8 fresh curry leaves torn into small pieces) (optional)
3 Thai or Indian variety green chillies (cut very fine) (or according to taste)
1/2 cup almond butter
10 tbsp oil (see notes)
1 tbsp flax seed meal (powdered flax seeds also known as Alsi in India) + 3 tbsp water
Preheat oven to 350 deg F
Line a cookie sheet/ tray with parchment paper and keep aside
In a bowl add all the dry ingredients ( items 1 through 10) and mix well.
Whisk together flax seed meal + 3 tbsp of water well and keep aside.
In another bowl, add almond butter and this flax seed + water mixture and whisk together gently until mixed well.
Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Add the oil last and add it spoon by spoon, mixing the dough continuously. Once in between ( after about 5 tbsp of oil) take a little of the mixture and place on your palm and make a fist, if the dough sticks together means it is pretty much ready, you do not need more oil. This will also depend on whether you on the type of almond butter or some other type of butter since the moisture from other butters could be different and a bit more. ( Also some types of store bought butters have some oil in them so that could change the requirement of oil too)
Roll the dough into small lime sized balls and place about an inch apart on the lined tray.
Bake in the oven for about 20 to 25 mins until the cookies are slightly brown.
Remove from oven and cool thoroughly and store in an airtight container.
Yielded me about 22 to 23 cookies
Notes
For the quinoa flour I dry roasted quinoa until it emitted a slight fragrance, then I cooled and powdered it as fine as was possible in my spice grinder ( In case you find quinoa flour at your local store you could try using that too )
I used all purpose flour since I ran out of spelt flour, if you want you can use spelt flour in place of ap flour
Almond meal means powdered almonds, I used my spice grinder to make this. If you want to make this flour, then powder about 1/4 cup of raw almonds in your spice grinder or blender until it powders . Do not overdo the powdering since the butters in the almond will start to bind so this has to be done in quick short bursts on your blender. You can easily find almond meal in most stores
I felt that the cookies were a little crumbly when they were first out of the oven but when they cooled they firmed up. So handle them with care when hot out of the oven.
