Who doesn’t love a dough ball? Oozing with butter and great for dipping! Trouble is, they’re mostly made with white flour and not a lot else! That spells empty calories and not a lot of goodness, nutritionally speaking.
So, I’ve been creating with my daughter Lucia this week and we’ve come up with our own dipping dough ball recipe that’s packed with goodness! They are brilliant on their own, with a dip or with a meal such as meatballs and tomato soup!
Please note: This isn’t a gluten free recipe as it has spelt flour in it. I use the spelt with gluten free flour to cut down the amount of gluten in the recipe.
Dippy Dough Balls Recipe
Ingredients
- 150g Wholemeal spelt flour (if you don’t have spelt you could use regular wholemeal, but I like to use spelt as it’s less refined)
- 100g Gluten Free Flour (I used a wholemeal blend from Artisan Bread online, but it can be tricky to get wholemeal gluten free. You can also use regular plain flour).
- 10g Chia seeds
- 10g ground (milled) flaxseed or linseed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon quick yeast (I use Doves Farm gluten free quick yeast)
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- 2 tbpsn olive oil
- 175ml luke warm water
Method
Put your dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Make a well in the middle and pour in the oil, and about ¾ of the water. Mix well, and test to see if you need to add any more water. Different flours absorb water differently. You want it to come together in a silky bread dough, not too wet. If it’s still a little dry and not coming together, add some more water.
Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth and silky. Kids love doing this part!
Then put in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to prove, for at least an hour until it’s doubled in size.
Once your balls have risen, take a greased baking sheet and put something round and heat proof in the middle. If you don’t have anything, don’t worry you can just make a ring, but I like to put something in the middle so it holds its form and creates a well for your dips.
Make balls of dough, and put them in a circle shape around the metal ring, joining them together and creating 2 rings. Put a few rosemary leaves into the joins, and then drizzle with oil. Bake in the oven at 180C for around 18 minutes, until golden on top.
Take out of the oven, remove the metal ring and put onto a plate. Brush some butter onto the balls. You can use the hole to put something to dip into. I mixed some olive oil with some green pesto, or you could use olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Or how about making your own hummus?
Dip Recipe: Quick and Speedy Hummus
Hummus traditionally has tahini in it, but if you don’t have any in the cupboard, here’s my cheat’s version!
Ingredients
- 1 tin of chickpeas, drained.
- Juice of half lemon
- 3 tbspns of olive oil
- Salt and pepper to season
- 1 heaped tablespoon of almond butter/tahini/smooth peanut butter
- Pinch of smoked paprika
Method
Put everything into a blender or NutriBullet and blend until smooth. You can also use a hand blender and a bowl or jug. Add a little cold water; start with ¼ cup to make it smooth and achieve the consistency you want. Check the seasoning.
Put into a bowl, drizzle with some extra olive oil and a pinch of smoked paprika if you want to feel a bit fancy, try topping your hummus with some pine nuts.