Orange biscuits (cookies) for cheesecake base

Makes about 8 biscuits (with a total weight of about 300 g)

As it stands, this recipe is not edible as a biscuit. It would need some oil adding and I would change the ratio of almonds (i.e. increase) to gram flour (i.e. decrease), as you can taste the gram flour when the biscuits are whole. However, when the biscuits are processed, you don’t get that taste. What you do have is good, dry crumbs, which are perfect for a cheesecake base when mixed with coconut oil.

Helen

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Dry ingredients
1 cup gram (i.e. chickpea, garbanzo bean or besan) flour
½ cup blanched almonds
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
6 tsp FOS/stevia mix
Zest of 1 large or 2 small organic oranges

Wet ingredients
6 TBSP vegetable glycerine
3? tsp natural orange extract (I used 4 tsp and that was too strong)

1. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, or in a measuring jug, whisk together the vegetable glycerine and the orange extract. Pour the wet ingredients mix into the dry and stir to combine.
2. Transfer the biscuit dough to a container, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 ºC/ 350 ºF/Gas Mark 4 and line an extra large or two smaller baking trays with baking parchment.
4. Remove the biscuit dough from the fridge. Pick up pieces of the dough in your hands and mould the mixture between your hands into a ball - about the size of a large cherry tomato - and flatten slightly. Place biscuits well apart on the lined baking tray(s).
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes (note that the biscuits will smoke, but don’t worry about it). If you have had to use two oven shelves, swap the trays around halfway through the baking time.
6. Remove the baking tray(s) from the oven and, using a fish slice, transfer the biscuits from the tray(s) to a cooling rack to cool completely. Place in a covered container and refrigerate until ready to process into crumbs for the cheesecake.

For the cheesecake recipe, see http://wholeapproachforums.com...141099073/m/60810658

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tarilee,

Helen,

What does a person do if they don't like the orange flavor? Would it be fine not to add any flavor or should one substitute with something else? By the way, I'm so impressed with what you can accomplish with always being in pain and not feeling well! I'm glad you enjoy cooking/baking so much I'm sure that helps you get by and we are very thankful for your recipes!

Sarah

Thank you Sarah, you are very kind.

You could substitute lemon flavouring for the orange. The reason I chose orange was that it gives a nice contrasting flavour with the lemon topping. Lemon in the base as well as the topping might be a bit much.

Alternatively, you could substitute probably ½ tsp (certainly not more than 1 tsp) almond extract in the biscuits, but this might be overkill on the almond flavour. The extracts contain oil, so if you do choose to add almond extract, you'll probably need to make up with oil for the other 2½ (or 2 tsp) of flavouring that will then be missing. You could use melted coconut oil or, if you are making the biscuits the day before and can't be bothered with the extra washing up, use grapeseed oil. Also, note that I did make a version of the cheesecake using almond biscuits made with ghee as the base and found it too rich (plus I got oily water running out of the bottom of the cake tin when I took the foil off and that's why I don't add any extra oil to these biscuits).

I realise that neither of these alternatives may work, so I suggest that if you have a suitable plain or ginger biscuit you already like, use those instead.

Do let me know how your cheesecake turns out.

Still working on the bread recipe - there's only so much bread a girl can eat without descending into a complete carb fest!

Helen