ASH COOK (VALIS ABLAZE)

On the menu: Boundless Cookies

“I grew up in a musical house, but as my father was a chef in the Armed Forces and my mother comes from the spice island of Zanzibar, I was subjected to a lot of culinary experiments too! Our meals were either straight-up African or Indian dishes, but sometimes we’d have an unusual take on classic British dishes with onion bhajis in place of chips, or we’d mix curries with roast dinner elements. It didn’t always work for me!

I got into cooking purely by chance when I was at university. I occasionally cooked for my housemates and, in my final year, I got a part-time job in a kitchen. My wife now endures my kitchen experiments as we both agree that having the same thing over and over again can get boring. It’s really fun to make food with ingredients you might not normally use.

My father is diabetic so sugary products were scarce when I was growing up; now I lean towards sweet dishes and chocolate is my weakness. I switched to a mostly vegan diet a few years ago so these cookies are vegan and glutenfree, but you really can’t taste the difference.”

Ingredients (makes 10)

For the cookies: ½ tsp sea salt flakes, 32g buckwheat flour, 150g ground hazelnuts, 250ml maple syrup, 160ml vegetable oil. For the filling: 250g dark chocolate, 3 tbsp almond butter, 120ml maple syrup, a pinch of sea salt or ground cinnamon.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°c/Gas Mark 4 and line two baking trays with baking or greaseproof paper.

sift the buckwheat flour and salt flakes into a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the ground hazelnuts and mix again. Next, slowly drizzle in the maple syrup and add the vegetable oil. Mix until the mixture sticks together.

Roll a heaped tablespoon of the mixture into 20 balls and flatten them slightly before placing them on the prepared baking trays. cook in the oven for 18-20 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, then stir in the almond butter and maple syrup until it’s mostly smooth. Turn the cooled cookies upside down and add the filling to half of them. Press the other half down to make a sandwich and leave to cool before eating.

“These cookies are quick to make and extremely satisfying. The darker chocolate gives you a little bitterness and the salt contrasts the sweetness. you can mix things up with different types of chocolate for the filling as well.”