Pinwheel Cookies

- 1/2 cup whole wheat spelt flour (65g)

- 1/3 cup almond flour (50g)

- 2/3 cup oat flour (87 g)

- 1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water)

- 3 tbsp melted coconut oil (42 g)

For the chocolate dough:

- 1 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder

- 2 tbsp date syrup or any other dark syrup of your choice (40 g)

For the vanilla dough:

- 1 generous pinch pure vanilla powder (could sub for 1 tsp vanilla extract)

- 2 tbsp brown rice syrup or any other light syrup of your choice* (40 g)

How to:
1. Make the flour blend by mixing all the flours together with a fork. If you have to make flour of your oats and/or almonds, place the oats, almonds and spelt flour in a food processor and process until you get a well-ground flour.
2. Divide the flour mix into two different bowls. Transfer about 1/2 tbsp of flour from one bowl to the other. To this bowl, add the vanilla powder and to the other bowl (the one with less flour in it), add the cacao or cocoa powder and mix well.
3. Make your chia egg by mixing/whisking the ground chia seeds with 3 tbsp of water. This will swell pretty quickly if you're using ground chia seeds but if not, let the seeds swell for a couple of minutes before proceeding.
4. Melt the coconut oil and pour half of it into the chocolate bowl and the other half into the vanilla bowl. This is much easier if you have access to a kitchen scale so that you can tell when half of it has gone in. Also add chia egg into two and add one half into each bowl.
5. To the chocolate bowl, add the date syrup and stir until you have a thick dough. Repeat with the vanilla bowl but add brown rice syrup instead. *Note: Since brown rice syrup isn't as sweet as other syrups, you may want to add 1/2 tbsp of coconut sugar as well but that is completely up to you.
6. Wrap the doughs in cling film and chill for about 20 minutes in the fridge or until they're fairly firm.
7. Make one rectangle out of each dough by rolling it out with a rolling pin to 1/8-inch thickness. Put one on top of the other and roll lengthwise to create the swirl. Once again wrap the dough in cling film (reuse the old ones!) and place is in the freezer for about ten minutes.
8. Remove the dough from the freezer and slice into separate cookies (1/4-inch thick). At this stage I like to press down on the cookies using the bottom of a glass to flatten them out a little.
9. Bake in the oven (175C) for 18-20 minutes and let cool completely. Store in a cookie jar!

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A while ago, I received a package of Squarebars sent to me by the lovely Sarah, who together with her husband Andrew, launched Squarebar back in 2012. Let's just say our paths couldn't have crossed at a better time. Since my decision to slowly ease my way into a vegan lifestyle, I have been looking everywhere for tasty, vegan protein bars that don't taste like sand and that I feel comfortable eating. By comfortable I mean eco-friendly (no soy), refined-sugar-free and last but NOT least an ingredient list that doesn't contain 64827349 different ingredients of which you can only pronounce about 0.05%. Yup, my standards are high. Or are they? Is it really that weird to want something pure and cruelty-free, something that I know has been made with love and every earthling's best in mind? I think not. Nevertheless, those criteria are hard to fulfil.

This is where the Squarebars come into the picture. Because they are all of that and more; Non-GMO, organic, no gluten and no peanuts can be added to the list. Plus they pack a punch of protein with a whooping 11-12 grams of plant protein per 48g bar. I haven't been able to workout as much as I would've liked to lately (hehe) but I can imagine these bars would be perfect to refuel with after hitting it hard at the gym. Well, perfect for any snack to be honest. I chop these bars up and use in my baking or to top my nana ice cream bowls with (and trust me, the dark chocolate coating is even better when it freezes on top of the nice cream, yummy yummy).

All the different flavours

But, let's be honest here, no food is worth eating if it doesn't taste good. I wouldn't eat dog's shit, frog intestines (ew) or plastic pellets, even if they were the healthiest super foods on the planet because there are limits, even for health-fanatics like myself. Okay, I've probably scared half of everyone reading this away so let's just blurt it out: these bars are not any of that, they're absolutely DELICIOUS! No need to worry. They're all coated in a crowd-pleasing (crunchy, if you keep it cold), delectable dark chocolate layer, a pretty good first impression if I may say so myself. Then comes the actual filling which differs slightly between the bars. The Cocoa Almond has small slivers of almonds in it (I love the fact that you can actually SEE the almonds), the Cocoa Coconut combines the chocolate and coconut flavours wonderfully (hey, we all know that choco and coco are besties, don't we?) and finally, my favourite; the Cocoa Crunch bar which is a real chocolate hit with added crunch from brown rice crispies. Does it get better than that? (Answer: Unless it suddenly started raining perfectly ripe bananas from the sky, then no, it doesn't)

Inside the Cocoa Crunch bar

Conclusion: I can without doubt in mind tell you that these are some of the absolute best vegan protein bars out there. They're a 10/10 for me. My sole advice for you would be to get your hands on a box of these goodies asap! You can buy them from Squarebar's own website,  Vitacost or (my own no. 1 choice for international shipping) iHerb. If you're a first-time customer with iHerb, feel free to use my promo code, PWF503 for up to 10 dollars off!

So let's cut to the chase, here's the recipe, using Squarebars of course! best vegan cookies I've made so far :)

Peanut Butter Squarebar-Chunk Cookies

Vegan cookie line-up!

Yields: 12-14 cookies

Pre-heat oven to: 175C 

Mix:

3 tbsp all-natural peanut butter 

5 tbsp brown rice flour 

1/4 cup raw date sugar or coconut sugar

4 fresh or soaked dates (about 50g)

1/2 tbsp freshly ground flax seeds (don't use pre-ground as flaxseed oil goes rancid very quickly)

1 tbsp coconut oil

Fold in:

1/2 chopped Squarebar (any flavour)
1 handful raw or unsalted, chopped peanuts

How to:

1. Place all of the "mix" ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and pulse with a hand blender until the dates have become a gooey mess. This could of course be done in a food processor as well, only I find a hand blender much easier to use when working with smaller quantities like this.
2. Fold in your chopped Squarebar and peanuts. Work the dough with your hands until the yummy nuts and chunks have spread out evenly.
3. Press the cookies out on a lined baking tray and bake in the oven for about 12 minutes (175C). Let them cool on the baking tray, then store in an airtight container in the cupboard.

Cookie Monster hugs and kisses!
Tilda

Fresh from the oven 

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