GINGER BISCUITS (MAKES ± 85)

Extracted from Wholesome Nutrition by Ian Craig and Rachel Jesson (Struik Lifestyle). © Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd 2016.

If you have a dehydrator, dry the biscuits at 45ofor about 8 hours. They need to be soft-dry. If the biscuits become too hard, they have been dried for too long. 

•    250g pitted dates
•    warm filtered water
•    1kg organic rolled oats
•    3 cups chopped raw or activated nuts
•    2 cups raisins
•    1 cup cranberries
•    2 heaped tbsp ground cinnamon
•    1 level tsp ground nutmeg
•    200g fresh ginger, grated

1.    Soak the dates in warm, filtered water for 40 minutes, or until completely softened.
2.    Place the oats in a food processor and grind roughly. Transfer to a large bowl.
3.    Place the nuts in the processor and chop roughly.
4.    Add the nuts and dried fruit to the oat mixture.
5.    Place the dates with their soaking water, the spices and grated ginger into the food processor and blend into a paste.
6.    Mix into the oat mixture until well combined.
7.    You may need to add more filtered water to ensure that it is well mixed.
8.    Using your hands, squeeze and shape the mixture into balls (roughly 4cm in diameter).
9.    Place them onto a baking tray covered in wax paper and press down with a fork.
10.    Bake in a preheated oven at 170oC for about 2 hours (they should be slightly crunchy).
11.    Store in a large glass jar.