Sometimes all you need is a simple biscuit, so I came up with a tasty little treat. The delicate hint of warming spices entwines softly with a playful infusion of lemon and orange zest; whilst the date that sweetens this biscuit balances and brings the best out in everything. Spelt works well in this recipe as a nutritionally superior and healthier alternative to its distant hybridised cousin wheat. I also negate the need for diary by using organic coconut butter, making for a well rounded, healthy, sweet treat.

I use mixed spice in this recipe, which is a blend of warming, sweet spices commonly used in Britain that typically includes cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cloves. I’ve heard that it is similar to pumpkin pie spice used in Northern America. If you can’t find mixed spice, then just make something up of a similar ilk.

Serves: 18 thin biscuits
Preparation time: 15 minutes (plus soaking time)
Baking time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:
100g (3½ oz) pitted dates
100ml (3½ fl oz)coconut butter/oil
150g (5½ oz) spelt flour
1 heaped teaspoon finely grated lemon & orange rind
½ teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Extra spelt flour for rolling with
Extra dash of coconut oil for the tray

You will also need:
Cookie cutter Baking tray (or two)
Blender (preferably a hand blender)
Rolling pin

How to make:

1. Soak the dates in water, in a glass jug a few hours ahead of time. This is important to make them soft enough to blend easily. Make sure they are pitted. If you are using medjool or really soft dates, then you can go ahead and use them as they are without soaking.
2. When you are ready (after at least a couple of hours), drain the dates and leave in the jug.
3. Melt coconut butter. Note: Coconut butter/oil solidifies at 24ºC, so unless your kitchen is really warm, you will need to melt it before mixing in. To melt, you can either leave it on a sunny windowsill, in a warm airing cupboard or near a fire/radiator. If your coconut oil comes in a glass bottle then you could also heat some water in a small pan – place the bottle in the water until a sufficient amount of oil has melted.
4. Once melted or soft, measure 100ml of coconut oil and then place in the jug along with dates and blend together with a hand (immersion) blender. If you don’t have a hand blender, then a regular jug blender will work fine, although you may have to keep scraping down the ingredients until blended.
5. Switch on oven to gas mark 5 (375ºF/190ºC) to preheat in advance.
6. Grate about 1 heaped teaspoon’s worth of lemon and orange zest using a fine grater.
7. Measure and place spelt, grated zest, cinnamon and mixed spice into a mixing bowl and mix with a spoon.
8. Add in and mix in the date and coconut oil blend. Mix together thoroughly with a spoon until you get a doughy ball.
9. Take about half of your ball. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until your pastry is about 0.3cm (0.2in) thick. The rolling pin might start to break it up as the pastry gets thinner so take care and use a sprinkle of flour on top to stop it tearing (I find that a thin spatula/cake slice works well to help if it needs lifting).
10. Use the cookie cutter to create little biscuits and place on a lightly oiled baking tray.
11. Toss any scraps of pastry back into the bowl for a minute and take the other solid half of your dough ball. Roll it out and cut your cookies as in the previous steps. Gather all remaining scraps of dough together and repeat until you have used all of your mixture. If there’s a bit of biscuit dough left over, then just roll out and pop on the tray as a random shape – it still tastes great.
12. Place your tray into the pre-heated oven at gas mark 5 (375ºF/190ºC) for approximately 12- 15 minutes (lightly tanned). Transfer them to a cooling tray as soon as they come out of the oven. They should cool down and firm up pretty quickly and develop a nice gentle crunch.

Original recipe by Trinity Bourne – shared with love. Please feel free to share (but make sure you link back to my site).

Check out my other free healthy sweet treats recipes for gluten-free, wheat-free, vegan and free-from-sugar inspiration:
Trinity’s Conscious Sweet Treats