Traditional Ingredients:  Close to Nature, made to Nurture

The Vegan Shortbread Spice Bar is designed to please even the most sophisticated taste buds, mingling flavors and textures throughout. 

The Vegan Shortbread Spice Bar also aims to please our bodies beyond the awareness of our senses.   For example, can a taste bud discern if a food is grown with or without pesticides?  Probably not, but our bodies can.  Can we taste which vitamins are in the flour?  I don't think so but our bodies know! 

All our ingredients are used in their form closest to nature so we can enjoy the cookie's great taste and let our natural bodies enjoy the nutrition nature provides! 

1.  Unrefined Coconut Oil​

We chose this coconut oil for many reasons, two of them are that it is tested for glyphosate and is made in small batches according to traditional methods of the Philippines.  Check out this neat video.

2.  spices 

​These spices are ground in my coffee mill right before going into the batter.  This keeps their taste very fresh and light.  

3.  Flour Power

Fresh milled organic wheat berries!

To use the whole wheat berry in its entirety and natural form is so simple.  The grains are self contained, nature preserved packets of energy and nutrition in 3 parts, the bran, wheat germ and endosperm.  

Milling the berries right before baking, keeps all of this naturally occurring nutrition in tact and needs no special processing or refinement - the only variable is the size of the grind.  The unground berries can be stored in a closed container and will keep as long as no moisture gets in.  This is the simplicity and completeness of nature and this is why The Local Batch grinds the flour for each batch right before mixing!

See the nutritional difference between typical whole wheat berry and unfortified white flour, which has had the bran and wheat germ removed, even flour that has been fortified typically only reintroduces a small number of nutrients, mainly iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folate, and does not come close to what a whole wheat berry offers.

We use soft white wheat berries sourced from Pleaseant Hill Grains and New York State einkorn grains sourced from Farmer Ground .

4.  All inclusive sweetness

Organic Panela

Sugar gets a bad rap but if we use it in its form closest to nature with minimal processing, sugar can be nutritious too.  Take a look at the nutrition in the Panela we use!  Compare that to a popular box or bag of sugar on the supermarket shelf!

5.  Unrefined mineral salt

This salt is delicious, domestic and unrefined!  

6.   The Packaging

The Local Batch cellophane mini packs are made in the US and are compostable.