My Paleo Royals
Just like the real thing only healthier!
As a child, I regarded Arnotts royal biscuits as a luxury in our house. Whilst snowballs were relegated to school fundraising drives, they didn’t quite have the same texture as the chocolate coated marshmallow sandwiched with jam on a vanilla biscuit. Similar to the Scottish Tunnock’s teacake, American mallomar, or New Zealands mallowpuffs, the royal comes in two versions; dark chocolate (with white marshmallow) or milk chocolate (with pink marshmallow). The milk chocolate one was always my favourite.
There was ceremony in how you had to eat it too. We smashed them on our foreheads to break the crisp shell of chocolate, in order to pick it off and savour slowly, then we sucked the marshmallow off before gobbling up the shortbread base! Having written this down, I’m almost embarrassed to admit it!
The chocolate royal biscuit was one of my all time favourite biscuits as a child – not so for my sons, who much preferred their marshmallow in a wagon wheel biscuit. I think size did matter!
Use stevia if you want these to be sugar-free
As previously promised, here is my healthified version of a chocolate royal. I have included a paleo biscuit version and a gluten-free biscuit version. Personally, I prefer the gluten free version which has a little more crunch than the paleo version. Both are good – the paleo biscuits will be faster to cook and quicker to brown. They are not as fiddly as they sound and surely all the components are fun to make. The kids will love putting them together. I used some dehydrated strawberry powder to colour and flavour my marshmallow pink. Omit this for a white marshmallow or use a little beetroot juice.
Feel free to use a decent sugar-free chocolate to dip them – I used my own Mockolate recipe. Or if you are feeling a bit lazy, you could also roll them in toasted coconut instead, but you won’t be able to smash them on your forehead then!!
Shortbread Base (Paleo) 100g almond meal (blanched) 1/4 teas guar gum (or xantham) 10g butter 30g honey (or coconut nectar) 1 egg yolk pinch salt Mix together all of the ingredients on SP 6 until forming a soft dough. There is no need to rest this pastry (no gluten) but after rolling out to about 4mm thick, cut 5cm rounds and chill for 15 minutes. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes in a moderate oven or until golden. Set aside to cool. Shortbread Base (Non Paleo) 2 tabs coconut sugar 160g GF flour mix – I used this homemade one, feel free to use your own) 1/4 teas xantham gum (or guar gum) 40g blanched almonds 80g butter, frozen preferably 1 egg yolk Mill the sugar & almonds on SP 9 for 10 seconds. Add the flour & lard and mix on SP 6 for 5 seconds. Add egg and mix on SP 6 until just forming crumbs. There is no need to rest this pastry (no gluten) but after rolling out to about 4mm thick, cut 5cm rounds and chill for 15 minutes. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes in a moderate oven or until golden. Set aside to cool.
The kids will love the dipping part!
Prick the biscuits with a fork before baking
clevercook 