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    Home / Recipes / Course / Dessert

    0 Nov 4, 2010 Cookie  |   Jump to Recipe

    Toasted Quinoa Shortbread Cookies

    Toasted Quinoa Shortbread Cookies

    This post may contain affiliate links.

    I must admit that up until this year, I had never thought of toasting flour when making cookies.  Usually, one scoops flour from a bag, levels it off, adds it to other dry ingredients (sifting if ambitious) and eventually mixes with wet ingredients.  Toasting not in the equation!  After reading about toasted flour on 101 Cookbooks, I was instantly intrigued.  This recipe is my adaptation of Heidi Swanson’s Quinoa Cloud Cookies and my first experiment with toasted flour.  Featuring a mix of toasted quinoa meal and toasted flour, these flavor-packed shortbread cookies are sweet, nutty, salty and wonderfully textural. Continue reading for the recipe.

    Toasted QuinoaToasted Quinoa Meal

    Toasted Quinoa Shortbread Cookies

    Toasted Quinoa Shortbread Cookies

    Toasted Quinoa Shortbread Cookies

    by Brandon
    Adapted from 101 Cookbooks.
    No ratings yet
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Servings 15 cookies

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 cup quinoa, rinsed thoroughly and dried
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour
    • ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
    • 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
    • 1 cup sifted fine-grain natural cane sugar (or light brown sugar)
    • ½ cup bittersweet chocolate shards*
    • Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

    Instructions
     

    • Place quinoa in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the quinoa is golden, fragrant and toasted. The quinoa should start to pop and feel crispier to the touch (about 15 – 20 minutes). Let cool. Place cooled, toasted quinoa in a food processor or blender and grind as finely as possible.
    • Add the flour to the same skillet and return to medium heat. Toast the flour, stirring constantly, until it is slightly golden and fragrant (about 15 – 20 minutes). Remove from the heat and sift into a bowl. Set aside to cool or place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes for quicker cooling.
    • Once the toasted flour is cooled, sift in ¾ cup of the toasted quinoa meal (save any leftover for another use) and salt.
    • In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter on a medium speed. Add the sugar, then cream until light and fluffy (scraping down the sides as needed). Add the flour mixture and stir on low sleep until just incorporated (do not overmix here). Add chocolate shards and stir once again until just mixed in.
    • Lay out a slipat or large piece of parchment paper. Turn out the dough onto the non stick surface of choice. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten into a ½ inch thick disc, wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill (at least 45 minutes).
    • Preheat oven to 350°F . Place a rack in the middle of the oven. Line one or two baking sheets with a silpat or parchment paper and set aside.
    • Once chilled, roll out the dough on your silpat or parchment paper ¼ inch thick. If you find the dough is sticking, you can lightly flour the surface and rolling pin. Use your hands to repair any cracks or splits in the dough. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into desired shapes (I did rectangles) and place on the lined baking sheets (cookie cutters would work fine here as well). Sprinkle each cookie with a good amount of turbinado sugar. Bake for 12 – 14 minute, until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a cooling rack.

    Notes

    * You want to avoid using whole chocolate chips here because they will make it difficult to roll out your dough thin enough. Instead, mix in chocolate shards or shavings. You can make shards by chopping up a bittersweet chocolate bar with a knife or box grater. I had bittersweet chocolate chips in my cupboard and chopped them up with my food processor (using one of the disc attachments).
    Tried this recipe?Tag @brandiego on Instagram so I can check it out!
    0
    Brandon and Federico
    Brandon

    I’m Brandon: food explorer, recipe curator, cocktail shaker, dessert lover. Kitchen Konfidence is how I document my time spent in my favorite space, the kitchen. Did you make a recipe? Tag @brandiego on Instagram so I can see the how it went!

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    Categories: Cookie Tags: butter, cane sugar, chocolate, flour, quinoa, sea salt, turbinado sugar

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. briarrose says

      November 5, 2010 at 2:12 pm

      Neat recipe. I would not have through to toast the flour.

      Reply
    2. Quinoa Diet says

      November 5, 2010 at 4:39 pm

      I’ve already seen quinoa pancake, quinoa energy bar, quinoa soup recipes but these shortbread cookies are the best so far.
      I have to give this fabulous recipe a go.
      Thanks for sharing it!

      Naomi

      Reply
    3. tcmaryf says

      November 10, 2010 at 9:38 pm

      Love quinoa, love cookies,love baking cookies, and love unique things. That makes this an absolute must try. Thnx for this

      Reply
    4. Amanda @ bakingwithoutabox says

      November 10, 2010 at 9:49 pm

      Creative combination! Toasted flour, whole different flavor. But with the quinoa, very imaginative!

      Reply
    5. Island Vittles says

      November 12, 2010 at 6:54 pm

      Great recipe! You’ve definitely got my creative quinoa juices flowing! Theresa

      Reply
    6. fooddreamer says

      November 12, 2010 at 10:34 pm

      Wow, these sound so interesting! I love shortbread and I think the toasted quinoa must give it such a unique flavour and texture.

      Reply
    7. Judy says

      November 12, 2010 at 2:43 pm

      What an interesting recipe! I’m always looking for for new ways to use recipe and combining with chocolate seems like a winning combination:)

      Reply
    8. Lisa~Korean American Mommy says

      November 13, 2010 at 1:36 am

      I had to take a look at this recipe. How inventive. Your adaptation seemed to have worked. Looks and sounds amazing.

      Reply
    9. [email protected] says

      November 14, 2010 at 8:00 pm

      These sound soooo good. I recently made an almond biscotti recipe with cornmeal that added a nice texture. I’m betting the quinoa is even more interesting….plus how can you beat cookies with protein??
      Thanks for a great recipe.

      Reply
    10. Cassandra says

      November 15, 2010 at 4:38 pm

      Unique recipe! just checking, is that really supposed to be a half a cup of salt, or should that be half a teaspoon?

      Reply
    11. Brandon Matzek says

      November 15, 2010 at 4:59 pm

      @Quinoa Diet Ooo Quinoa Soup sounds delicious!

      @Cassandra Good catch!! That would be disastrous. I updated the ingredient list. Thank you.

      Reply
    12. Janna M says

      November 17, 2010 at 10:13 pm

      I can’t wait to try these out.

      Reply
    13. C&C Cakery says

      November 26, 2010 at 4:20 am

      I love finding new ways to stick quinoa in my meal – now I can have it for dessert! Awesome!

      Reply
    14. thoma says

      November 28, 2010 at 1:09 am

      thank you for sharing this. best way to stuff protein in your kids!! the salt measure still lies 1/2 cup teaspoon now!

      Reply
    15. Kelsey (Happyolks) says

      July 26, 2011 at 1:47 pm

      Saw this on pinterest and was totally intrigued! Yum! Must try this soon!

      Reply
    16. Amy says

      December 20, 2011 at 4:42 pm

      Note on the recipe: The recipe calls for 1/2 cup teaspoon salt. I’m pretty sure that is supposed to be 1/2 teaspoon salt.

      Reply
      • Brandon Matzek says

        December 20, 2011 at 7:08 pm

        Thanks for pointing that out Amy. I could have sworn that I fixed that over a year ago 😛 (see comments above).

        Reply
    17. marla says

      August 26, 2012 at 9:13 am

      Great recipe! Will be linking back to this in my post tomorrow.

      Reply
      • Brandon Matzek says

        August 26, 2012 at 1:25 pm

        Thanks so much!

        Reply
    18. Maryellen says

      April 22, 2014 at 7:33 am

      Hey! I’m at work surfing around your blog from
      my new apple iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts!
      Carry on the superb work!

      Reply

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    Brandon and Federico

    I'm Brandon: food explorer, recipe curator, cocktail shaker, dessert lover. Kitchen Konfidence is how I document my time spent in my favorite space, the kitchen. Read More…


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