There's a newborn in the house, take food

Blog posts have taken a back seat lately as we have been harvesting honey, fruit and vegetables and being part of the baby bubble following the birth of our grandson Lewis.

 Parents Isabelle and Ben are emerging out of the first three months of life with a newborn and it is beautiful to see them nurture their family, get to know Lewis, and learn all the things that come with caring for a baby.

One of the ways we have been able to help from a distance is with food. Arriving with a hamper of Nundle's Crawney's Hills to Grills beef, pasta bake, chicken pie and casserole meal portions for the freezer, a cake, biscuits, favourite muesli, tea, or apples for the fruit bowl just might make life easier at some point of the 24-hour baby clock. 

A new-to-me postpartum snack is the lactation biscuit. I bought a box of lactation biscuits for Isabelle from our local health food store, and after her sister-in-law gave her a homemade batch Isabelle found the recipe online. We started making them during some of my visits, tag teaming between baking and caring for Lewis. Last week I made a batch to take down, and when I arrived Isabelle already had biscuit batter in the stand mixer - such is the popularity of this snack.

What makes a biscuit a lactation biscuit? It's the nutrient dense ingredients that benefit breastfeeding mothers and encourage milk supply, like flaxseed meal, oats, and chia. They are a comforting one-handed snack for when a constantly hungry nursing mother sits and feeds their new baby and needs to replenish their energy between meals. Isabelle and I are big fans of adding a dollop of Nutella. "They're really just a vessel for the Nutella," Isabelle laughs. We've found the recipe to be forgiving when substituting ingredients on hand like almond meal, or leaving out the vanilla paste if there's none in the pantry. 

Don't think the lactation biscuits are quarantined for the nursing mother. Many non-lactating members of the family reach for the lactation biscuits! Credit the Nutella and the chia crunch.

Lactation biscuits. Recipe from Roisin @geebungalow

What you need: 165g butter (softened), 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract, 2 eggs, 1 cup flaxseed meal (we substitute almond meal with success), 1 cup oats, 1 cup plain flour, 1/4 cup chia seeds, 1 tsp baking powder. Optional: Your choice of jam, nut butter or chocolate spread topping.

What you do: Preheat your oven to 180 C. Use an electric stand mixer to cream together softened butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. On a low setting add the flaxseed meal, oats, flour, chia seeds and baking powder. (At this point we roll balls of biscuit portions, make an indentation with the end of a wooden spoon, or similar, before placing on a lined baking tray, adding topping and refrigerating for 30 minutes). Bake until coloured to your liking (usually 20 minutes), and if using two trays swap position of trays in the oven at 10 minutes.

 

Isabelle, Ben and Lewis by Solis Stories Photography.

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