Gluten-free • Easily made vegan/dairy-free
Crumbly, buttery little shorties with the warm, aromatic flavour of common hogweed seeds.
Hogweed seeds are one of my favourite wild spices. Once dry-toasted and ground, they release an incredible fragrance with notes of cardamom, citrus and warm spice, which works beautifully in sweet baking.
These shorties combine buckwheat, almond and chestnut flours for a rich, slightly nutty biscuit, with coconut sugar adding a deeper caramel flavour. They’re naturally gluten-free, and using a plant-based block such as Naturli makes them dairy-free and vegan too.
They’re lovely alongside a cup of tea, packed into a wild picnic, or made as an autumn treat when the hogweed seeds are ready to gather.
Ingredients
- ● 140g buckwheat flour
- ● 100g almond flour
- ● 100g chestnut flour
- ● 100g coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
- ● 2 tsp common hogweed seeds, stalks removed, dry-toasted and ground
- ● 1 tsp sea salt
- ● 200g butter or plant-based block (I use Naturli for a dairy-free/vegan version)
- ● 5ml vanilla extract
Method
1. Add the butter, coconut sugar, ground toasted hogweed seeds and vanilla extract to a bowl. Cream together until well combined.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the buckwheat flour, almond flour, chestnut flour and sea salt.
3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture, mixing as you go, until everything comes together into a stiff dough.
4. Place the dough in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a large baking tray with baking parchment.
6. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to approximately 5mm thick.
7. Use your chosen biscuit cutter to cut out your shorties and transfer them carefully to the prepared baking tray. Gather and re-roll the scraps until almost all the dough has been used. (And enjoy that last little bit before the kids get to it 😉.)
8. Bake for 10–15 minutes, until the centres are just set and the edges are crisp and golden. Be careful not to over-bake them – they’ll firm up considerably as they cool.
9. Leave the shorties on the baking tray for around 1 minute, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Enjoy!
Foraging Note
Common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) must be identified with complete confidence before harvesting. It belongs to the Apiaceae family, which contains several potentially dangerous plants.
The sap of common hogweed can also cause phytophotodermatitis, where skin exposed to the sap can react when subsequently exposed to sunlight. Take appropriate precautions when gathering and handling the plant.
Never consume a wild plant unless you are 100% certain of its identification.
