Walkin’ Biscuits (Cookies)
The Recipe:
Walkin’ Biscuits (Cookies)
Ingredients
- 70 g Wholemeal/Whole wheat flour or 140g if using 1 type of flour
- 70 g Oat flour oats ground in a spice grinder or food processor – optional
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 60 g unsalted butter or refined coconut oil
- 2 Tbsp milk (dairy or non-dairy) you might need a 3rd if you use dry sugar instead of maple syrup
- 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup or 4 Tbsp coconut sugar ground to fine powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract (I actually use 1-2 tsp Princess Cake and Cookie Emulsion by Lorann)
- 2 TBSP Powdered Milk optional – this adds a little extra milky comfort sweet to the flavour of the cookie. Not optional for chocolate variation
For chocolate variation
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder (or 2 TBSP – I recommend dutch/alkalised cocoa if using this much)
- 1 TBSP Powdered milk minimum – I've put it here in case you thought you could "optional" out of it above. If using the 2TBSP above, skip this. If using dutch cocoa, you may be able to skip this.
- up to 1 Tbsp milk (dairy or non) add bit by bit until dough is right
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C/Fan 170°C and prep two to three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, no need for anything fancy, your hands will do great. If it's too dry and crumbly, add a bit more milk, if it's too sticky, let it rest 10 minutes on the counter or in the fridge, if it's still too sticky – add a little extra flour.
- Using either parchment paper or a little flour, roll the dough out to about ⅛-¼ inch thick
- Cut shapes using small cookie cutters and space on your baking sheets – these spread very little, you can get pretty daring. I think I put them about 1cm apart.
- Bake for 12 minutes (assuming cookies are about ⅛" thick, longer if rolled thicker), rotating the cookie sheet half way through. They will be browning around edges and narrow bits (i.e. unicorn horns, animal feets, cat tails 😉)
Notes
- This can be made just with the wholemeal/whole wheat flour. We like it with the oat flour – it gives it a little extra sweet and the dough generates a less gluten and rise a little less.
- I use small cookie cutters, aiming for bite to two bite size ours range from about 4cm x 2cm (the piggies and dinosaurs. I’m sorry, the piggies are too tiny and cute to call “pigs”) the flowers are about 4cm x 4cm, the fox, unicorn, and bee are a bit bigger (~ 5.5cm x 5cm). I also like to use our alphabet cookie cutters which are a bit small (X is about 3cm x 4cm) – they hold up well very few cookies break.
- I’ve done a cinnamon variation – I melted about ¼ of the butter with ½ tsp of cinnamon in it – it needed a little more sweetness, still tinkering, kids loved it, it grew on me.
- I’m also considering adding some citrus zest, or maybe some freeze dried berry powder?
- easily vegan adaptable – coconut oil yields a crunchier cookie, it’s a very forgiving dough, I imagine Trex or Stork, or US vegan margarine or butter would do fine. Skip the powdered milk – or try powdered soy or nut milk it’s not a critical ingredient – and switch the liquid milk to your favourite substitute.
The Waffle:
Like Big Joe needs Little Joe (how do you know which Joe you’ve met until you’ve met them both?) these are the not-so-fancy Toddler Crackers answer to the Fancy Toddler Crackers – ultimately, they’re quicker to make, a little less fussy and very nearly as tasty. They’ve been renamed by the little one – because we share them on the walk home from preschool
This has basically become weekly mandatory baking. When I pick her up from school, our daughter insists on sharing them with all her friends. The adults dip into them to have one with our afternoon cuppa. I’ve justified sneaking two (tiny piggy ones “you won’t even notice you’re eatin’ them, you won’t even feel them going down”) before breakfast as a “taste test”.
They’re trouble – but really – are they?
These are based on the Easiest Animal Crackers Recipe from Yummy Toddler Food. Sometimes I make a half batch of chocolate and a half batch of plain and then mix them when rolling them out. Sometimes I add a little food colouring – especially when I’m a/b testing variations. For example, in the photos: green = whole wheat and oat flour, and blue = just whole wheat flour. I cut some all green and all blue ones for taste testing and then mix – this works great with the chocolate variation, in fact, when I make chocolate, my favourite ones are the half chocolate (with 1½-2Tbsp cocoa powder), half plain.