My gluten free version of The Cupcake Cafe Peacekeeper Cookies

If you are a sucker for funny, sweet stories, if you love books that just make you smile and if you like baking, just like me, then Jenny Colgan's books are a must read. I'm currently reading Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe, a sequel to Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe, and it is bakers heaven. The story just captures your heart and the recipes make you want to hit the kitchen. 

So when my three year old asked if we could make cookies today, which in his world means: "Can we make cookie dough and then eat it?" I knew what to make. This recipe had just stolen my heart and it is really easy to make in a glutenfree version. These cookies are filled with raisins, dates and walnuts. What more can you want? Ok, so they are actually Christmas cookies, but don't we all just love Christmas?

Here's the recipe. I divided the amounts in half, because over 1 kg of cookies is just a bit much in my opinion, but other than that i stuck to the recipe and added the ingredients to turn it into a gluten free cookie. 

Ingredients:

• 115 grams (4 oz) of soft butter
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of sugar
• 115 ml of treacle (about 4 fl oz) (since we don't know treacle as such, I used Dutch apple syrup)
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp sour cream
• 275 grams of gluten free rice flour
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of gluten free buckwheat flour
• 1 tbsp of baking powder
• 5 grams (0.125 oz) of baking soda
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• a pinch of salt
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of chopped walnuts
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of golden raisins
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of chopped dates 

Instructions:

• In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar together. 
• Add the treacle, sour cream and egg and mix well. 
• Combine the rice flour, buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, cinnamon, ginger and salt and gradually add this to the creamed mixture.
• Stir in the walnuts, raisins and dates.
• Chill the dough in the fridge for about 2 hours or until easy to handle. I wrapped it in cling foil  as gluten free dough is even more sticky. 
• On a floured (and gluten free!) surface, roll out the dough finely. Cut out cookies with an 2,5 inch round cookie cutter. Place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 160 degrees centigrade /325 degrees fahrenheit (gasmark 3) for 12-15 minutes. Let them cool completely before serving them.

Dear Jenny, thank you for the recipe & inspiration and I look forward to more Cupcake Cafe adventures & recipes. :-)

Gluten free pecan and choc chip cookies filled with chocolate ganache

My head is filled with recipes. I can walk through a supermarket and end up with a gazillion different things to make in my already busy head. And some ideas just have to be made instead of just thought up. This recipe is no different. I follow a bunch of food blogs on Tumblr (don't ever do that if you are like me, it will make you constantly hungry and constantly thinking about new things to bake) and one of the things that ended up on my dashboard was an ice cream cookie sandwich. I saw it and thought: "That would be so much better if the cookie were choc chip and the filling between the cookies would be dark chocolate ganache". And that thought kept coming back. It haunted me, saying: "Bake me, bake me!"

I put it off for about a week, but today I couldn't any longer. My youngest wanted to bake cookies so we made these heavenly choc chip & pecan cookies (thought up in the isle in the supermarket this morning) with a dark chocolate & nougat ganache in between them. 

I recommend you do not count the calorie intake and just enjoy them. :-)

I always bake a lot, so I have a stash of regular pecan & choc chip cookies now too

Ingredients for a small batch:

• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of soft butter
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of light caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of gluten free rice flour
• 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of chocolate (chopped up to tiny pieces)
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of pecans (chopped up to tiny pieces)

For the ganache:

• 100 ml (3.5 fl oz) of double cream
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of dark chocolate
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of nougat (chopped) or nougatine

Normally ganache is made with some liqor in it, but since my kids eat these cookies too, mine is alcohol free!

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade or 450 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Put the sugar and butter in a bowl and beat it until it is light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and mix it in. Add the other ingredients until you have a soft dough. If your dough doesn't form a ball, add a bit of the left over egg white to help  the dough along.
4. Put parchment paper on some big baking trays and form little balls the size of a walnut and place them on the baking trays. 
5. Put them into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes till they are golden.
6. Let them cool a bit before you transfer them to a wire rack to let them cool completely.
7. Now you make the ganache. Blitz the living daylights out of the dark chocolate until you are left with very tiny pieces. Heat up the double cream. Take it off the fire as soon as it starts boiling and pour it over the chocolate. Now stir it till it is all combined and let it cool off for some time. Since I am lousy at being patient I placed the bowl in the fridge for 20 minutes and then the freezer for some 10 more minutes (yes, I really don't have any patience) until my ganache was quite thick and added the nougatine. I stirred that in and then put a big dollop on the cookies and placed another one on top.

Enjoy!

Glutenfree multigrain bread with Parmesan cheese and Italian herbs

It's no biggie, having two glutenfree kids at home, but they eat like maniacs. Which means I have to bake 2-3 breads per week for them. I do not even want to think about the fact that they'll eat an insane amount when they are teenagers with an appetite. I fear I'll have to start up a full time bakery by that time.
Baking a bread (especially in the breadmaker) isn't that big of a deal, the machine does all the work for me. Iit just takes up to 4 hours before it's done. But my kids like different stuff (well, I convince myself that they like eating different kinds of bread LOL) so i bake other variantions in the oven as well. Some bread are an instant success, like the pizza bread that you will find in the bread section of this blog. Others... not so much. And who gets to eat those? Yes, my husband and myself. In the end it's me experimenting, so if my kids don't like it, I will gladly eat it for lunch or breakfast. I don't mind eating it, because I actually like the taste. Of course you musn't compare it to normal bread because the structure of the bread will always be different, but glutenfree bread (especially if you bake it yourself) is a perfect alternative.
My husband and I eat everything glutenfree (except for the bread, otherwise I would have to bake even more and it really would be a bit too much. And glutenfree is also pretty expensive, so it saves money if we eat a "normal" breakfast and lunch. But if i have to, I will gladly eat my kids cast aways. ;-)

My oldest appreciates this bread, my youngest doesn't. He helped me kneed the dough and when he smelled the dough he yelled: Eeeeeewwwww!I guess he is not a fan of the aromatic smells of Parmesan cheese and Italian herbs. Oh well, I'll eat his slices then... 

Ingredients:

• 250 ml (7 fl oz) warm water
• 200 ml (9 fl oz) warm milk
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 7 grams (0.25 oz) of fiber husk
• 450 grams (1 lb) of a glutenfree multigrain flour.  
• 7 grams (0.25 oz) of xanthan gum
• 4 grams (0.14 oz) of iodized salt
• 8 grams (0.28 oz) of granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 15 grams (0.5 oz) of yeast
• 2 teaspoons of dried mixed Italian herbs 
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of Parmesan cheese (grated) and a bit extra for decoration 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 50 degrees centigrade (122 degrees fahrenheit) and put a bowl of water in the oven.  
2. Put the ingredients in a big bowl in the order shown above and kneed it (with an electrix mixer) to a sticky dough. Make sure it is well combined. 
3. Put some baking parchement on a tray and transfer the dough to it. Wet your hands and form an oval bread of the dough.  Carve it (diagonal) a couple of times and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on it for decoration. 
4. Put the dough in a preheated oven and let it proof for about 30-45 minutes. 
5. Take it out of the oven when the dough has risen and preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit). 
6. Piut the bread back into the oven as soon as it is on temperature and bake your bread golden in 30-35 minutes. 
7. Leave it to cool on a wire rack before serving. 

Apple, chocolate & walnut cake decorated with marzipan

Spring is in the air! ;-)

This colorful cake was made using one of my most favorite "glutencakes" ever: chocolate, apple and walnut cake. Of course I made a glutenfree version of it, but the original recipe has been a long favorite of mine. Because it is foolproof and it is so incredibly tasty. I used to make it for every birthday and it was a hit every single time. 

Here's the recipe for the chocolate, apple and walnut cake. I covered a simple cake with a bit of vanilla buttercream and then decorated it with marzipan. The bug & butterfly (made of the same cake batter) were made with a small cakemould and then covered in marzipan. 

Ingredients:

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of chocolate
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of walnuts
• 2-3 apples
• lemonjuice
• 2 x 0.5 a teaspoon of cinnamon
• 3 + 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
• 125 (4.5 oz) grams of butter
• 150 (5.5 oz) grams of light caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 jar of sour cream (125 ml/ 4.5 fl oz)
• 250 grams (9 oz) of rice flour
• 10 grams (0.35 oz) of cream of tartar
• 7 grams (0.25 oz) of xanthan gum

Instructions: 

1. Grease a cakemould & the bug & insect mould (if you want to make the cake you see above) or (for just a simple undecorated cake) a rectangular pyrex bowl.
2. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade or 350 degrees fahrenheit.
3. Chop the chocolate & walnuts to small pieces. Peel the apples, remove the core and chop them into tiny pieces or grate them.
4. Mix the apples with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of cinnamon and 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar.
5. Make the cakebatter by mixing the soft butter, caster sugar, eggs, sour cream, xanthan gum, cream of tartar and riceflour. Add the apple, chocolate and a third of the chopped walnuts to the batter. (If you make the cake as shown above, add all the walnuts and the extra sugar and cinnamon at this stage)
6. Pour the batter in the cake moulds or the pyrex bowl. If you make a simple undecorated cake, mix the remainder of the nuts with half a teaspoon of cinnamon and two tablespoons of granulated sugar and sprinkle on top of the cake.
7. Put the cake in the oven and bake them for about 50-60 minutes until golden. 
8. Leave it to cool before you cut the cake in squares (re: the one in the pyrex bowl) or before you decorate your cake with vanilla buttercream and marzipan.