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 Quinoa Shortbread 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
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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.
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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.
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Once the toasted flour is cooled, sift in ¾ cup of the toasted quinoa meal (save any leftover for another use) and salt.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
Recipe 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).
briarrose says
Neat recipe. I would not have through to toast the flour.
Quinoa Diet says
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
tcmaryf says
Love quinoa, love cookies,love baking cookies, and love unique things. That makes this an absolute must try. Thnx for this
Amanda @ bakingwithoutabox says
Creative combination! Toasted flour, whole different flavor. But with the quinoa, very imaginative!
Island Vittles says
Great recipe! You’ve definitely got my creative quinoa juices flowing! Theresa
fooddreamer says
Wow, these sound so interesting! I love shortbread and I think the toasted quinoa must give it such a unique flavour and texture.
Judy says
What an interesting recipe! I’m always looking for for new ways to use recipe and combining with chocolate seems like a winning combination:)
Lisa~Korean American Mommy says
I had to take a look at this recipe. How inventive. Your adaptation seemed to have worked. Looks and sounds amazing.
[email protected] says
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.
Cassandra says
Unique recipe! just checking, is that really supposed to be a half a cup of salt, or should that be half a teaspoon?
Brandon Matzek says
@Quinoa Diet Ooo Quinoa Soup sounds delicious!
@Cassandra Good catch!! That would be disastrous. I updated the ingredient list. Thank you.
Janna M says
I can’t wait to try these out.
C&C Cakery says
I love finding new ways to stick quinoa in my meal – now I can have it for dessert! Awesome!
thoma says
thank you for sharing this. best way to stuff protein in your kids!! the salt measure still lies 1/2 cup teaspoon now!
Kelsey (Happyolks) says
Saw this on pinterest and was totally intrigued! Yum! Must try this soon!
Amy says
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.
Brandon Matzek says
Thanks for pointing that out Amy. I could have sworn that I fixed that over a year ago 😛 (see comments above).
marla says
Great recipe! Will be linking back to this in my post tomorrow.
Brandon Matzek says
Thanks so much!
Maryellen says
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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!