Healthy Baby Rusks- An easy teething biscuit recipe
My youngest baby is now no longer a baby, so this may well be one of the last times I make these baby rusks.
Although not a baby, she is teething at the moment with her canines coming through, these baby risks make a fabulous teething biscuit and are therefore on the menu again.
Hopefully, as I am moving out of the baby phase I won't be making them many more times, so it is high time I share the recipe for others to start making them!
This recipe came about around 3 years ago but has been tweaked and refined as I went. Two original recipes caught my eye when I started making baby rusks was one by Super Healthy Kids which uses banana and another sweet potato teething biscuit recipe that was based on wheat.
I also noticed that many teething remedies included chamomile so I tweaked and played and came up with my own version. I started making these for my eldest, but they have served me well over all three children.
My healthy baby rusk recipe
My baby rusk recipe is easy and is based on oats. I make my own oat flour. Do not freak out, it is not tricky. To make oat flour you literally blitz porridge oats in a food processor.
I quite like oats as a base for baby biscuits, as they are naturally relatively high in iron. I also choose sweet potato (or Orange Kumara as we call it here in New Zealand) as a main ingredient as it too is a vegetarian source of iron, and is typically well-liked by babies.
My addition of Chamomile may or may not do anything to aid with teething pain, but it is just a nice twist and adds a mild floral note to the biscuit. My kids have had them without the chamomile as well.
If you are a visual learner then check out the video a little bit further down which shows how to make these healthy baby rusks
Healthy Baby Rusks Teething Biscuits
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Ingredients
- 200 g sweet potato
- Chamomile tea bag
- 1 Cup oat flour 140 grams
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil or other light flavoured oil
Instructions
- Watch the quick recipe video before you get started, scroll up a little to find it
- Check the notes at the bottom of the recipe for little bits of extra info and help
- Peel and chop the sweet potato
- Place into a saucepan and cover with water, add the tea bag to the water
- Boil sweet potato until tender
- Remove the tea bag and drain the majority of the liquid, leave a minimal amount, 1-2 teaspoon to help with the puréeing
- Purée the sweet potato, yield should be approximately ¾ of a cup
- In a bowl Add oat flour, sweet potato purée and oil
- Mix with a wooden spoon or similar until a ball forms
- Line a baking tray with baking paper or a silicone sheet
- Place the dough on the baking paper and roll to approximately 5mm thick
- Take a knife and score the dough into large shapes that your baby will be able to grasp
- Bake at 180 degrees Celsius 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25mins, until firm to touch and golden on the edges
- Cool
- Snap the rusks along the score marks
- Store in an airtight container
Would these work with coconut flour? Or spelt flour?
I have not tried with coconut flour or spelt flour. I think they probably would Wirth spelt, but coconut flour can be more crumbly than other flours so I am not sure how it would go
Could I use Be Sleepy Tea (chamomile, passionflower and lemon balm)?
Absolutely, any tea (tanin and caffeine free would be fine) you can make them without tea as well
Thank you! Can't wait to try with my little teether. She really needs something to sooth her and loves sweet potatoes.
How long do these store? Did you store in refrigerator or pantry? What is oat flour?
Oat flour is just ground oats. I make it by blitzing my rolled oats (i.e. porridge oats) in a food processor
What is the youngest baby age you can give these to?
My baby is 4 months but I'm wondering if he I'd too young?
From an ingredient perspective based on current guidelines they would be ok from when you start solids which could be between 4-6mths. However due to their nature as a finger food they will not be suitable until your baby is ready for finger foods which is usually closer to 6 mths.
What's the best way to store these? I put mine in an airtight jar and they'd gone mouldy in 4 days. Care they good to freeze?
Yes you can freeze them
Can you freeze these?
Just made those today. They re great thanks! Also Keen to know if they could be frozen. Thanks!
I have not tried freezing this recipe. It should be fine though
I haven't tried freezing them, but based on the ingredients it should be fine
Can these be frozen please?
I haven't tried but it seems other people have and it has been a success!
Are they hard like bought rusks ?
They are different to store bought rusks, if you cook them for a short time they are a spft biscuit that melts when weating, if you bake them longer they go hard.
Oh so great to hear they were a success
I've made these and store them in the freezer. I give them straight from the freezer will my teething boy loves.
My mixture seemed to be too soft, even when I added more oat flour ... When I got them out the oven, the paper had stuck to the bottom so I lost almost half my biscuits ? Any suggestions? I rally want to give him homemade snacks!
What may have happened was your sweet potato puree was too moist. after you've cooked the sweet potato drain it then leave it to sit while warm so that some of the water evaporates. What sort of paper were you using.. make sure it is noon-stick cooking/baking paper
What age are these suitable for
From 6 mths
I never comment on blogs but these are so good, I had to! I made this for my son tonight while he was asleep. Let's just say I'm not sure how much he'll actually get to eat because I can't stop snacking on them! I used gluten free rolled oats so even though I'm on a cleanse, this makes an awesome snack for me too! (I also omitted chamomile because I didn't have it on hand.)
Oh thanks for letting me know!!