Did you know that healthy carbs and sweets honestly help counter depression, anxiety, and other mood imbalances? They are calming, grounding, strengthening, rejuvenating, milk producing, satisfying, sweet tempering, comfort food. That’s good for baby – and everyone else, of course. Best leave out a few ingredients, like chocolate, and see below.
So, cookies are not inherently a sinful food, ladies and gentlemen! Serotonin increasing, there are multiple reasons the nervous system benefits from sufficient good carbs, properly prepared and used. If you know the metabolic principle “Vata dosha” let’s just say cookies are a vata pacifying food, if you digest them well ;-).
About 2 weeks after birth or when bowels and digestion are working well, our mamas LOVE our cardamom shortbread cookies so much they keep asking for them again. Free of leavening, egg, and with lotsa good fats and carbs, they suit our craving for good calories and healthy building foods. Needs are much higher after birth, right? Digestive needs are too, hence the leavening and egg free; follow your AyurDoula’s guidance too.
So to adapt the usual recipe, AND make them wheat or gluten free, we take iron rich sugars with organic good cholesterol fats with non-gmo grain/flours, some digestive spice…. It’s not classical Ayurved, but with good digestion and elimination works better than most sweets and they give more lasting fuel. So satisfying! The complex carbs, protein and fats give stabilizing blood sugar ie longer burning fuel and nutrition. Stability is well, very desirable with the post birth fragility, even if we don’t usually think in those terms THERE’S OTHER BENEFITS, NOT JUST THE YUMMINESS OF COMFORT FOOD!
Here’s a variation for WHEAT FREE OR GLUTEN FREE SHORTBREAD. The first grain option has gluten, the second does not. Many handle the first better than wheat. Yes, it is more digestible than the gluten free option for most. See key notes below on the gluten free option.
1.5 cups unbleached spelt flour (or amaranth flour)
1/2 cup barley flour (or sorghum flour)
1 cup butter
1 cup succanat
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2-1 tsp ginger powder
1/4-1/2 tsp salt option
Option: 1/4-cup or so whey from yoghurt, or coconut water, water (or something similar).
The moisture is definitely not required but helps the food processor capture all sugar and butter into smoothe, and makes them a little lighter. A standard shortbread recipe has an extra 1/4-1/2 cup flour but I find the spelt and barley or amaranth/sorghum options are drier and need more fat.
Yes, fat to counteract dryness in the body. Opposite of dry is oily, in Ayurved. Opposite of dense is liquid, including water, whey, oil et al.
To prepare:
- Set butter out to soften, earlier.*
- Turn oven on to 300 degrees and get your 9X12 ish brownie pan out. No butter or flouring is needed.
- Put butter, sugar, AND spices in the food processor or mixing bowl. Blend well, optionally adding a little liquid.
- In separate bowl, add flours and use a whisk to mix and fluff.
- Blend in the buttery mixture in the flours. IT works better NOT to put all in the food processor unless you just give a few pulses the gluten will over develop and make cookies tough.**
- Press the mix into your baking pan. Sprinkle nuts on top if you like, or add to batter.
- Put in the hot oven (300 not 350) and SET YOUR TIMER for about 25 minutes – check then and optionally add 5-10 minutes – some ovens are cool or baking pans smaller (translate, more per square inch to cook) than others. They are better a little soft and not burnt on the edges, and they will crisp up when cool.
- While still somewhat warm, cut into desired size and shape. Remove when cool and enjoy! Store for several days if they last that long in your home, in covered jar or tin.
Optionally
- Add a few nuts or seeds to add protein staying power, or even chopped candied ginger (ummmm!) or Tbs fresh lemon peel….options are many.
Our wheat-free Cardamom Ginger Shortbread with “Sweet-water Lactation Tea” - Great with a teaspoon of anise seed instead, which is a galactagogue (promotes lactation), by the way. They are not just for taste.
- We might add chopped dates or fig later, but raisins and other dried fruits have a sour “vipak” (post digestive effect) and add more risk of fermentation in the gut. So we minimize this combination with other foods of any kind, cereal included.
* *GLUTEN FREE NOTES: I did put flour in with butter/sugar in food processor, when we made a 3 parts amaranth and 1 part sorghum flour version of this recipe though. Note that the amaranth is higher protein, but a more astringent and heavier food. Better wait another week or 3. Many gluten free mixes are on the market. Those with legume flours may be more gas producing for mama-baby. Which means, risky to comfort and health. Those with potato or tapioca starch along with grain flours, may be more complex on your digestion too (grain enzymes being different from starch enzymes and sometimes confusing our tummies). As noted, this one is heavier too, but neither amaranth or sorghum is a grain really. See what works, experimenting when digestion is stronger.
* Have you ever compared the difference between organic and non-organic butterfat? Make ghee with them, and taste the stuff at the top and bottom. You will never go back to non-organic.