I’m not sure why it is, that when I have the chance to cook for children I feel as though I have to cover off every single nutritional requirement they might have - all in the one meal. Blame it on 8 years of nannying and a few underlying control issues, but I really can’t relax watching kids throw fistfuls of processed  nonsense into their shiny new systems. Have never been that great at handling the mood swings that ensue as a result of said processed nonsense either, I have to admit. See 8 years of nannying.

So when I had a ‘tea’ call from one of our dearest high school friends (a gorgeous bonus of moving back to the town where you actually went to high school) to come farmside with his 2 little munchkins, my superfoods cape went on with a capital S. It was a tea party though, and another left over from my monkey-minding days, was avoiding at all costs being the fun police; hidden goodness was the plan. And freshly baked biscuits are one of the best places to hide goodness from little sugar seeking tastebuds.

The rest was easy, just swapping out the white flour and sugar for protein packed amaranth and spelt flours and organic rapadura sugar (evaporated sugar cane juice) turned my traditional shortbread recipe into something far better for us. At some stage I forgot I was cooking for little palates though and went with the fierce amount of freshly ground mace I normally would. When I tasted a sneak of biscuit dough it was actually hot with spice, but they came out of the oven a lot tamer than when they went in. Thank you alchemy.

The ultimate test was whether 4 and 2 years of food knowledge would give them the thumbs up. They were wolfed down, superfoods and all, just like biscuits from the shop. Cut to my cape fluttering. I won’t get too carried away though - these are biscuits after all. Can’t say I have the same magic with the ‘trees’ my niece insists I overload her bowl with every time she comes to stay.

Mace Spiced Shortbread for Afternoon Tea

makes approximately 20 biscuits

1 cup spelt wholemeal flour

1 cup amaranth flour

pinch sea salt

2/3 cup rapadura sugar (or any natural organic sugar)

1 1/2 tbsp freshly ground mace

220g organic butter

Grind the mace in a mortar and pestle (you can easily substitute ground ginger if you like, the ‘kick’ might be missing but it will still taste yummy)

Mix the flours, salt and mace together in a large mixing bowl.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes until fluffy. Stir the dry ingredients in with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together.

Leave the dough in the bowl and knead for a minute before taking out and wrapping in cling film to rest in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.

Pre heat your oven to 180C.

Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it and turn it out onto a floured workspace. Roll the dough out to approximately 5-8mm thick and use your favourite cookie cutter to cut into shapes. Or you can try my default method of using your crystal cut sugar bowl to imprint a pretty pattern. I love Mother Necessity. She hangs out quite a bit in my kitchen.

Place shortbread on a prepare baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. You’ll smell when they’re ready.