Last Sunday was one of those seldom days that we actually spent outside from morning until evening – just the three of us together in the cold but colorful autumn weather. We were invited by a friend to pick apples from her apple tree. The branches were hanging heavy from all the fruit and the ground was covered with fallen apples. We filled the trunk of a borrowed car with 2 boxes and 2 bags of sweet and slightly tangy fruit and drove to a farm that specialized in juicing apples. We had such a lovely afternoon on that farm. Eating lunch, walking in their garden and playing with their swings. Elsa fed the farm animals while we waited in line to get our apples juiced.
”Honk if you want to juice”
The sound from the juice machine was pounding, but luckily drowned under the tones of Chopin that was being played on maximum volume – spreading outside the small juicing shack and out through the forest.
We came home with 10 large bottles of delicious pure apple juice. After having filled our fridge, freezer and tummies with juice, we gave a few bottles to family and friends. But since we still had some left, we boiled it down to an apple syrup that is fantastic to sweeten all kind of desserts and breakfasts with. Simply boil down your apple juice in a large pot until only 1/3 of it remains. When it cools down it thickens into a syrup. Pour into in an airtight container and use within a few weeks.
We saved a few apples to cook with, so we have enjoyed both savory and sweet apple dishes during this week. One favorite recipe that we came up with was these scones inspired apple & oat biscuits. They are whipped together in a whizz. And after a few tries we actually managed to make them both gluten free and vegan, so they don’t feel as heavy on the stomach as biscuits/scones sometimes do. Although slightly more compact than a classic flour biscuit, they still have a light texture and wonderful flavor from the shredded apples, almond butter and oat flour. As always with these kind of baked goods you need to remove them from the oven in just the right time – it only takes a moment for a perfectly baked biscuit to become too dry. And the experience will be a whole lot less fantastic.
Vegan & Gluten-free Apple & Oat Biscuits
Makes around 8 biscuits
Dry ingredients
1 3/4 cup (200 g) gluten free oat flour (make your own by grinding rolled oats in a food processor)
1 1/4 cup (150 g) buckwheat flour (if not gluten intolerant you can use spelt flour instead.
3 tsp arrow root or corn starch
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
Wet ingredients
6 tbsp (75 g) extra virgin coconut oil, room temperature
4 tbsp almond butter
1 cup plain soy yogurt (or yogurt of your choice)
2 apples, shredded with peels on (around 1 1/2 cup apple shreds)
Place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat it to 450°F (230°C). Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut the coconut oil into small cubes and add to the flour mixture together with the almond butter. Use your hands to combine until everything has a pebbled texture. Add soy yogurt and apples and stir around with a wooden spoon until you can work the dough by hand. It can be slightly crumbly but should come together as you kneed it. If it feels too dry you can add a dash more yogurt, and if too wet – more flour. Gather the dough into a ball that you flatten out on a floured surface. It should be around 1 inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter or 3-inch (8 cm) wide glass to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Gather the rest of the dough into a ball again, flatten it out and cut out the rest of the biscuits. Cover the hot baking sheet with parchment paper and place the biscuits on it. Bake in the oven for 15–16 minutes or until crusty on the outside and slightly moist on the inside. Slab some fruit compote or homemade marmalade between two halves and eat while still hot. Nothing tastes like freshly baked.
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44 Comments
This makes me want to move to Sweden just so I can eat apples… gorgeous – as always! Both the recipe and wee Elsa :-)
I am so going to bake these this weekend – they look amazing! It do sounds like you had a perfect day. Oh how I wished I had a trunk full of apples…
These look divine! Can’t wait to make these biscuits this weekend!
What a beautiful way to spend a Sunday! I remember seeing the photos of the apples and the juicing and the farm on your twitter feed. Apple syrup is a great idea too and I like the wholesome, rustic look of those biscuits.
Gorgeous pictures. I’m new to your blog and it looks like I have a lot of awesome recipes to go through.
Beautiful, beautiful photography.
I love this recipe!so healthy and hope so very tasty;)
m
As a vegan blogger, I just love it when your posts (which are consistently well-written and filled with unique photography) specifically cater to vegan tastes. I’m so jealous of your apple juicing experience- fresh apple juice is unparalleled!
Keep up the great work! Looking forward to seeing your book, too.
She is such a cutie! Can’t wait to try this over the weekend whilst I’m indoors working!
Beautiful pictures and a homely, comforting recipe as always from you guys :)
Thank you!
xx
Oh guys what a wonderful post! Love all the apple photos and the biscuits and Elsa is so cute!
Oh yummy.
What a great way to spend a day outdoors and come home with such goodies! This inspires me to go apple picking and preserve them. How long can you freeze the juice for?
The pictures are very beautiful as always.
These sound so lovely!
Simply just beautiful!
hi, these look AMAZING — and i’m not a biscuit person at all. quick question: i don’t have arrowroot or corn starch in the pantry, and i’m wondering what that ingredient adds? will the biscuits have issues keeping together without it, or do you think i could attempt it without?
Hi Lindsey, arrowroot or corn starch add starch to the flour mixture, which makes it less crumbly. We have also tried making it without using any starch, the dough was a little more difficult to handle but the biscuits turned out great in the end. If you are not a vegan you could add an egg to the dough instead of the starch, but then perhaps use a little less yogurt.
Good luck!
/David
I just finished making these and I had mine with some homemade apple butter. They are so amazingly delicious!!! It is apple season for us in the northeast USA and this is the best treat I have ever made with my apples. Thank you so much for the recipe. And your daughter is so beautiful. We too like to enjoy apple picking with our two young boys. Can’t wait to buy your cookbook when it comes out :)
I’ve been craving apples lately. These look perfect!!
I’ve been on a buckwheat kick lately. I’m so making these!
Thanks for sharing the clever technique of chilling the coconut oil. I live in the tropics where fresh coconut oil is readily available, but turning it into a solid makes it more usable in baking!
Fresh picked apples, a cider press, Chopin, and a family to enjoy it all together– sounds divine! Some of my best fall memories are of going to a farm with a hand-cranked apple press, making fresh cider with my children and drinking it while eating apple fritters. These apple oat biscuits sound like a much healthier– and equally tasty– accompaniment to a glass of freshly made fall apple cider.
Hi Green Kitchen Stories
What exactly is the difference between baking soda and baking powder? AND WHAT ARE THEY CALLED IN DANISH?? :-)
Regards
Dagmar, Denmark
Hi Dagmar, baking powder is called bagepulver in Danish and is the most common way to get baked goods to rise. But when you have a dough with some kind of acidity (like apples and yogurt) you can also add a pinch of baking soda (natron in Danish) to help it rise even better.
If you don’t have natron at home you could use only bagepulver, but it might rise a little less.
Good luck!
/Luise
Yum and yum! I will certainly be making these biscuits. I think my mom will love them. I am really loving apple season this year I only wish more people were able to grow them organically here in the midwest of the US so that I could buy them locally.
Also, I was wondering if it’s possible to substitute anything for the yogurt? Almond milk perhaps? Thanks for sharing your fun day and recipe!
Love the idea of these biscuits. I stood mesmerised at the collection of apples in my local greengrocers yesterday. What a beautiful way to celebrate them.
YAY for apple picking! Love that these are both vegan and gluten-free… and they STILL look amazing! I bet they taste marvelous!
Apples, almond butter and oats – simply inspired. Apple-picking season is a favorite time of year. So many varieties grow well here that wandering through local orchards is like shopping a grocery store of only apples – aisle 1: cortlands. aisle 2: winesaps. aisle 3: honeycrisps. aisle 4: northern spies. Magical.
I absolutely adore the flavor of apples with hearty grain bread, and these oat/buckwheat biscuits fit right in. I can’t get enough of apples at the moment. Wonderful!
I highly recommend boiling down apple juice or cider to make syrup. I actually refrigerated mine and it lasted for a year.
I’ve just made them and they taste really nice, but I think I might’ve added too much extra flour thinking it was too wet and I also was wondering about the coconut oil, doesn’t it have to melt down into the batter as you knead it? Ive put mine in the oven with little lumps of oil still intact. Haven’t got much experience with coconut oil.
Gorgeous pictures! Thank you and I’m also looking forward to your book.
Oh how fantastic these look! I’m looking for ways to use apples these days as the harvest is so great this year :)
I have a gluten allergy so I found your recipe and am very excited to make these cookies. They look sooo delicious and I didn’t have any cookies in months… I am confused though, is oat flour glutenfree? I missed something very important here… :/
Hi Annique, thanks for your comment!
Non-contaminated, pure oats are gluten-free. They are safe for most people with gluten-intolerance.
If you have Celiac disease read more here: http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/theglutenfreediet/a/OatsForCeliacs.htm
/Luise
Oh, these sounds delicious!
I’m thinking of substituting almond butter + yoghurt with soaked + mixed almonds (ie almond milk + pulp) as I’m not overly fond of yoghurts.
Hope my kids will enjoy them anyway, just as Elsa does!
Made these yesterday and they are fab! Am always looking for sugar free baked goods for my children and they devoured these. Thank you so much and please post more biscuit recipes! (or muffins, cakes, etc!!)
Thanks! Erin
Hi, I just love this recipe! But I live in Brazil and I can’t find almond butter here, what would you recommend as a substitute?
Thank you sooo much for this recipe! I made these last night and they taste amazing. I made them as drop biscuits, which worked pretty well. I am on a no gluten and no sugar diet (other than stevia and limited amounts of sugar found in fruit) and these really hit the spot. :)
We enjoyed these delicious biscuits today with a nourishing celery root, fennel and sweet potato soup. A true Sunday treat. I ended up with a really moist dough (I used spelt flour) so I had to add more flour. The result however was wonderful. Next time I may add more shredded apples though.
wow! how i wish i could tastes these now
made them the night before for breakfast! toasted it, almond buttered it, banana slices and it was the most Delicious thing i had ever had…
I was so excited to make these- and they came out bland, flat and very dark in color– any ideas what went wrong? I would love to try again.
These were amazing with apple butter. I used kefir, cause that was what I had, and they were so light. Next I’m planning to make some a bit bigger in diameter, split them & put grilled portobello & a farm egg on top.
Ok, maybe some lemony hollandaise & chopped herbs too.
I just baked a batch and they are delicious! The batter itself was so good it’s amazing I had any left to bake. A few thoughts/questions: my dough was very very wet, even after I added another 1/2 cup of flour. Did you drain you apple shreds before adding? Or use a dry measure for the yogurt? Also is buckwheat flour in Sweden very light? Here in the US it’s dark, so my biscuits are brown. Still very hearty and tasty without being heavy. Thank you!!!
Just made these little fellows exactly according to the recipe, and they were absolutely adorable, yum!!
These look delish! What temperature should I bake them at and is any kind of apple fine?
Many thanks
I have had a couple attempts at making these. The first attempt was the trial run for the 2nd which were great. Everyone really enjoyed them and they didn’t last very long …which I guess is a good sign.