Lemon & Honey cookies

I not only bake for my kids or my blog, I bake for my colleagues too. Almost two weeks ago I had a work dinner and I spent half the evening taking requests from colleagues for cookies. My cookie baking reputation at work has taken a flying leap. And every now & then I indulge them. And I always love their reaction: "You can't tell this is gluten free!" Well, duhhh, of course not. Gluten free does not equal cardboard cookies. Not if you do it right.

But first I needed a recipe for cookies that were delicious, taste like summer & that I could make in enormous quantities. So I adapted another recipe that had the consistency I was looking for with honey and lemon and a bit more sugar to match the summery feel I wanted. This is the result. So I first made a batch for my little men and soon I'll be baking a gigantic amount of cookies & I'll take a tour to visit all the cookie begging colleagues and bring them some. 

They may not look like summer, but they taste like it all the same!

This recipe makes two dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams (10.5 oz) of rice flour
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 1.5 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 15 grams (0.5 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of light caster sugar
• The zest of two lemons
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of butter
• 4 tablespoons of honey

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade (350 degrees fahrenheit)
• Put all the ingredients in one big bowl and mix till you have a combined dough. It will feel soft, but not extremely sticky.
• Pour some gluten rice free flour on a clean kitchen surface, kneed the dough on it and then roll it out with a rolling pin. Cut out cookies with your favourite cookie cutters. Repeat until you have used up all the dough.
• Put the cookies on baking trays lined with baking parchment and put in the oven for about 15 minutes until slightly risen and golden. 
• Take them out of the oven and let them cool completely before you serve them with a cup of tea or coffee. 

Enjoy! My boys loved them and I think they have a new favourite cookie.

Sinful Gigantic Chocolate Chip Cookies

I could tell these cookies would be fabulous just by tasting the dough. Crunchy, velvety dough full of chocolate. And you know what makes it so fabulous? Loads of full fat butter, sugar, vanilla & egg yolks. Lots of stuff that basically is not healthy for you, but oh so delicious every now & then. 

Those of you who know me a little know that I'm totally horrified by the fact that some people seem to think that the gluten free diet is a good way to lose weight. It's not, it's a diet that helps people get their health back. That doesn't mean that I'm opposed to living healthy either. Those that know me well know I've struggled with my weight for a period of my life and the only way I got back to a healthy weight was by cutting down portions, eating healthier (read loads of veggies, fruits, rice, wholemeal bread and such and above all no more processed packaged foods) and exercising way more (riding my bike to work every day). So I get people wanting to live healthy. I just don't believe that the gluten free diet is going to do you any favours. Because gluten aren't your enemy unless you have celiac disease. Sugar, fat & such are. But if you don't eat unhealthy stuff all day, every day, it's ok to indulge yourself every once in a while. And that's what I've done by making these cookies. Cookies that I'll serve to my kids and some of my colleagues tomorrow because I think they deserve a bit of indulgence. And I may just have one myself. ;-)

This recipe makes about 20 huge cookies. 

Ingredients:

• 250 grams (9 oz) of full fat butter
• 250 grams (9 oz) of light caster sugar
• 250 grams (9 oz) of (sticky) rice flour 
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda or cream of tartar
• 0.5 a teaspoon of iodised salt
• the scraped seeds of a vanilla bean
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of white chocolate
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of dark chocolate

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade or 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• I bought to bars of chocolate and bashed them to smithereens with my meat hammer (make sure you have some big chunks left in there too for good measure).
• Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and mix them until you have above mentioned crunchy velvety dough with tons of chocolate.
• I rolled out the dough (on a gluten free, clean surface) till it was about 0.5 cm (almost 0.25 of an inch) thick and punched out round cookies with cookie cutter with a diameter of 7 cm (2.5 inch). I put them on a baking tray (make sure you leave a lot of space in between) and put them in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. 
• Leave to cool & then impress your friends, family, colleagues (or yourself) with them as you serve them with a cup of coffee.

Fluffy peanut butter cookies with a chocolate surprise

The recipe is based on this brilliant recipe that popped up on my Tumblr feed and I decided to make a gluten free version of it because my youngest son is a huge, huge fan of peanut butter. And of chocolate sprinkles. I fear that slight addiction is all my fault, because when I was pregnant with my youngest son I suddenly developed a craving for peanut butter & chocolate sprinkles sandwiches. When I was pregnant with my first I ate tons of olives. Guess what he loves? Yeah...

Anyway, I decided to add a little twist to the recipe and hid a chocolate button in the centre of each cookie. That way my youngest had cookie that combined his favorite sandwich toppings: peanut butter & chocolate. In the next batch I'm putting in a bit more, because the balance isn't quite right yet. There isn't enough chocolate in the cookie. So f you make it, pout in a bigger chunk of chocolate & you'll be very pleased with the end result! 

Here's how mine turned out:

See, not enough chocolate. but delicious all the same!

This recipe makes about 25 medium cookies.

Ingredients: 

• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of peanut butter 
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of butter
• 200 grams (7 oz) of raw cane sugar
• 2 eggs
• 15 grams (0.5 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 300 grams (10.5 oz) of gluten free rice flour
• 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• some raw can sugar to coat the cookies with

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees centigrade/350 degrees fahrenheit. Using an electric mixer, cream peanut butter and butter in a mixing bowl until it's smooth. Add the raw cane sugar; beat it until it is fully combined. Add the eggs and vanilla sugar, and continue beating until creamy.
2. First sift your flour in a separate bowl so it will be light & airy, sift the baking powder and xanthan gum as well. The xanthan gum is needed so your cookies won't crumble. Then whisk together the flour, baking powder & xanthan gum. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter, sugar & peanut butter mixture, beating on low speed.
3. Prepare baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or lightly greased aluminum foil. Place raw cane sugar on a plate. Roll (table) spoonfuls of cookie dough into balls, press a chocolate button or chunk in the middle and then roll each ball between your hands. Roll balls in sugar to coat them completely.
4. Place cookie balls 3 cm / 2 inches apart on a prepared baking sheet. Bake until cookies begin to puff up slightly, about 12-15 minutes, until cookies just brown around the edges and crackle on top. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool at least 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!