Orange, vanilla, spelt and olive oil biscuits

Last week I was looking for a biscuit recipe which used olive oil instead of butter; I started browsing for recipes in all my favourite food blogs until  I came across these in Sigrid’s blog.  I only wanted to make a small batch of biscuits to give to a friend who doesn’t eat wheat, and prefers to avoid dairy products, so I started making several adjustments, until I came up with a recipe that  I thought would work.

After halving the recipe, I reduced the amount of sugar, added vanilla extract and a pinch of salt, and substituted wheat flour with a combination of potato starch and wholemeal spelt flour. Sigrid’s recipe called for a glaze made with egg yolk and milk, but egg glazes often  smell too eggy for my taste,  so I decided to toss the biscuits in vanilla sugar,  as in the recipe for Matcha shortbread biscuits.

The biscuits turned out pleasantly crunchy and fragrant; perfect with a cup of tea, they  smell and taste delicious thanks to  orange and vanilla, and spelt flour gives them a slightly nutty flavour. I think that roasted hazelnuts should pair really well with the orange and spelt, so stay tuned for my next experiment!

Orange, vanilla, spelt and olive oil biscuits – makes about 60 small biscuits

60 ml freshly squeezed, filtered orange juice (a small orange; 60 ml is equivalent to 4 tablespoons )

60 ml extra-virgin olive oil ( equivalent to 4 tablespoons)

zest of 1/2 orange

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

50 gr vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

50 gr potato  starch

250 gr wholemeal spelt flour

3 tablespoon vanilla sugar to coat biscuits

In a bowl, mix orange juice with oil, then add the egg yolk, vanilla extract, orange zest, salt and vanilla sugar.

Sieve together flour, potato starch  and baking powder;  add the dry mix to the wet mixture,  a couple of  spoonfuls at a time, using a fork to combine the dough.

Wrap the dough with cling film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 180° C  (350° F). Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment and cut biscuits using a cutter. Coat the biscuits completely with vanilla sugar, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment and bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the edges are  golden – it’s hard to specify baking time, because it really depends on your oven.

Stored in a tin box, or an airtight container, they keep for a week.

Tagged as: baking, beautiful food, biscuits, cookies, olive oil, orange, recipe, spelt, vanilla