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!

Easy to bake cinnamon rolls a la Wendy

You know that moment when you read a recipe and think: "Man, I would do that completely different and it would be absolutely amazing?" Or am I the only one cocky enough to think that? (I do hope some of you who actually use my recipes think that every now & then and improve my recipes. Because there is always room for improvement!)
The longer I'm doing the gluten free baking stuff the more I recognize a good recipe or one that could be improved. Simply because I've baked so much I just know how certain components go together or how gluten free dough reacts. So if you are just starting out & wonder what the f*ck you got landed with when you received the diagnose of celiac disease: it does get better. The more you bake, the better you become at it. It's just a new way of baking and accepting that the old way is not going to work. 

This recipe for easy cinnamon rolls is one of those: "Man I would do that differently"-recipes. I knew certain components were missing to make the dough more like "real" cinnamon rolls. More fluffy, less compact. Why settle for ok, if it can be wonderful, right? 
The fact is, my first version was sort of ok. It had the consistency I wanted, but the taste was still a bit off. Turned out I used the wrong combination of flours and too much baking soda. Bummer! So here's the recipe to my improvement of the improvement. You still with me? So don't be discouraged if something doesn't work out the first time. Just try again and change your recipe a bit.

This recipe makes about 12 cinnamon rolls and you whip them up in about 45 minutes or so. A quick fix if you suddenly have guests and you need to serve them something delicious.

Fluffy, soft, yummy cinnamon rolls

Ingredients:

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of soft butter
• 1 egg
• 40 grams (1.5 oz) of full fat yoghurt
• 20 grams (0.75 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 175 grams (6 oz) of basic bread flour (and a bit more for dusting your work surface and rolling out your dough)
• 5 grams (0.125 oz) of xanthan gum
• 5 grams (0.125 oz) of baking soda
• half a teaspoon of iodized salt
• 40 grams (1.5 oz) of finely granulated sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon of cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees centigrade or 325 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Put the butter, egg, yoghurt, vanilla sugar and honey in a bowl and mix it till it's creamy and combined. Add the flour, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt and mix it into the creamy butter mixture. Your dough can be quite sticky. If it is, add a bit of extra flour. 
3. Dust a clean work surface with a bit of flour and roll out your dough into a rectangle shape. 
4. Mix the granulated sugar with the cinnamon to create cinnamon sugar and spread it over the dough. Leave a border with no sugar so the dough can stick toghter when you roll it up. 
5. You roll up the dough from the short side of your rectangle. Then slice it up in tiny rolls. If some cinnamon sugar falls out of your cinnamon rolls, just press the top into it, so you get a nice layer on top of your cinnamon rolls, as well as in between. 
6. Put them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and put them in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. They'll come out all risen and golden. 
7. Let them cool on the tray before you serve them with a cup of tea (or coffee if you so please)
8. Enjoy!

Mini Custard Pies with an almond, coconut & oatmeal base & a fresh strawberry

I was making rumpledoodles (see recipe on my blog here) a few weeks back and as I was making the dough for these cookies full of fibers and lots of flavour I realized it would make a great base for pies too. I figured I had to alter the recipe somewhat to make for a pie crust, so that needed some thinking. I let that idea slip from the back of my mind for a while, until last week when it hit me. It would make a wonderful combination with custard. Home made, gluten free custard. And that's when the baking itch always hits me. When the idea has come to me, I just have to bake. 

The little black specks in the custard are the vanille seeds as I used a proper vanilla pod in the custard.

So I made these cute little pies as a Sunday treat & the amount of dough also allowed me to make a stack of cookies too. This recipe will make about 12 mini custard pies and about 10 oatmeal, coconut, almond cookies. When I wanted to photograph the cookies, I found out i only had three left. So that goes to show how lovely those were. 

They're gone before you know it!

And the mini custard pies? They didn't last very long either! 

Ingredients:
Pie base & cookies

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of rolled oat
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of gluten free almond flour
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of grated coconut
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of raisins, 50 grams (1.75 oz) of dates, 50 grams (1.75 oz) of dried apricots
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons molasses (maple syrup works really well too!)
• 150 grams (5.5 oz) of soft unsalted butter (if you are lactose intolerant as well, you can substitute it for soy butter or something similar)
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 1 egg
• a tiny bit of basic gluten free flour to dust the work top with and to help roll out the dough.

Custard

• 250 ml (9 fl oz) of milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 16 grams (0.5 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 20 grams (0.75 oz) of corn starch
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of granulated sugar

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade or 350 degrees fahrenheit.
• Line a muffin or cupcake tray with paper cupcake cups.

First you make the custard as follows:

1. Mix all the sugar with the cornstarch & whisk it with a bit of cold mix till all the cornstarch and sugar are combined and you have no lumps.
2. Scrape the vanilla pod seeds from the vanilla pod and put them in a pan with the pod. Pour in the remainder of the milk & heat the milk in the pan on the stove. 
3. Beat the egg yolks with the cornstarch & sugar mixture till it is is frothy.
4. Pour a bit of the hot milk on the frothy egg, cornstarch, sugar mixture while whisking and then pour this back into the pan with the milk. 
5. Bring this to a boil and keep whisking, as soon as the custard starts bubbling, turn down the heat, leave it to boil for about a minute & don't stop stirring.
6. Then pour the custard on a cold plate or in a cold bowl, remove the vanilla pod and cover it with cling film. Leave it to cool for half an hour and then let it cool further in the fridge.

Then you make the pie crust & cookie dough:

1. Put the rolled oats, the apricots, dates & raisins in a blender and blitz till everything is in small chunks and the oats look like flour.
2. Put it in a bowl and add all the other ingredients. 
3. Mix it all well until you have a firm but slightly sticky dough. 
4. Dust a spotlessly clean worktop with a bit of basic gluten free flour (I always use a bit of baking parchment to place on the work top and dust that with the flour to make sure no stray gluten can bite my gluten free dough in the butt, just to be sure) & put the dough on there. Dust it with gluten free flour again & roll out the dough till desired thickness & punch out circles for the cookies & the pie crust. Place the circles (roll them out a bit if necessary) in the lined muffin or cupcake tray and form the pie crusts. Put the cookies on baking parchment & on a tray. 
5. Bake them both in the oven for about 20-25 minutes till golden.
6. Take them out of the oven & let them cool on a wire rack before you fill a piping bag with the cooled down custard and pipe the custard onto the pie crust. Decorate with a fresh strawberry. 

Enjoy!!

A little taste of Italy: Amaretti Biscotti

I sometimes bake just to keep this blog going, and this recipe is no exception. I was leafing through one of my cookbooks when I saw the recipe for Amaretti Biscotti and I just knew I wanted to bake a gluten free version for this blog. So below you'll find the recipe for the Biscotti. All gluten free and just as yummy as regular Biscotti. Perfect with a double espresso after an Italian dinner.  They are very easy to make and make a perfect ending if you are treating friends to a gluten free Italian dinner. 

I know a lot of people think cooking gluten free Italian food is difficult, because pasta is made with wheat and hence contains gluten. But Gluten Free pasta's are fairly good and then the possibilities are endless! 
Start with some anti pasti (check if the meats are gluten free, that can be tricky!) and some home made gluten free foccaccia, then make this brilliant lasagna (which can be made in advance and is a recipe by of the genius that is Gennaro Contaldo, I just used gluten free lasagna sheets) and end it with some home made Gelato and finish with an (double) espresso and these Biscotti. 

These Biscotti's have some pistachio nuts in them for an extra bite

Now, if you are not a celiac, or allergic to wheat or gluten, and you are reading this and you want to entertain some gluten free friends please make sure you cook your dinner in a gluten free kitchen. And with gluten free I mean a kitchen where there isn't a crumb of bread, cookies, flour or anything else that contains gluten to be found. Do not use wooden utensils that have been used to cook gluten food. Make sure pots and pans are spotlessly clean. The same goes for your oven. Because one little crumb means so much trouble for a celiac, you wouldn't believe. It means pain, being sick and damage to the intestine that takes a very long time to heal. That is why in our home, gluten & gluten free food is prepared in different area of my kitchen. I have one oven that is purely for gluten free food. Our dinner is always gluten free. I only bake gluten free. Even if I bake for people with no gluten issues, I bake gluten free. I don't want gluten flour in my kitchen at any cost. Take no risks. Your guests will thank you for taking their illness seriously. 

Here's the recipe to make about 20 Amaretti Biscotti:

Ingredients:

• 125 grams (4.5 oz)of gluten free almond flour
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of powdered icing sugar
• 3 teaspoons of gluten free rice flour
• 0.5 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 30 grams (1.125 oz) of pistachio nuts bashed or crushed into tiny pieces
• 3 egg whites
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of finely granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon of almond extract or amaretto liquor

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade / 350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
3. Mix the almond flour, icing sugar, rice flour, xanthan gum and pistachio nuts in a big bowl. 
4. Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl while slowly adding the granulated sugar till the egg whites are glossy and airy.  
5. Add the almond extract or the liquor to the egg whites. Slowly fold the flour mixture into firm eggwhites, spoon by spoon, making sure the egg whites stay airy and fluffy. 
6. I used two spoons to make small ovals on the baking parchment and smoothed them with a wet spoon (this way you can smooth the top without the mixture sticking to your spoon).
7. Put them in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Turn them over half way through the baking process. 
8. Let them cool completely and store them in a airtight container until you serve them. 

Enjoy! 

Lovely Lemon and Honey Ladies (gluten free)

For Christmas one of my oldest and dearest friends gave me cookie cutters to make gingerbread girls (my boys keep telling me it's gingerbread men that are wearing coats. Right, boys!). I just couldn't wait till next Christmas to make them, and who says you actually have to? So this morning my toddler and I made cookies that taste like summer and that make you smile: lovely lemon & honey ladies (and some scary looking lemon & honey dinosaurs too, because one cannot live without dinosaur cookies ever, of course).

These cookies make a great birthday treat too

Even though I try to bake sugar free as well as gluten free I decided to use cane sugar for these cookies, because it makes them more firm and the gingerbread ladies are quite huge, you don't want them breaking as soon as you pick them up. This recipe doesn't use an insane amount of sugar, so I dared to risk it using cane sugar. 
I made a double batch of dough (as Gijs tends to eat half of it straight out of the bowl anyway) so I had two trays of dinosaur cookies and 5 enormous zingy ladies. We did not decorate them, because quite frankly, they are just lovely the way they are. 

Here's the recipe (one batch).

Ingredients:

• 175 grams (6 oz) of gluten free rice flour
• 25 grams (1 oz) of almond flour
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of cane sugar
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of butter
• 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• half a teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 1 egg
• zest of one lemon
• vanilla seeds (from one vanilla pod)
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 tablespoons of milk if the dough is too dry and won't combine.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade (325 degrees fahrenheit).
2. Put all the 'dry' ingredients (everything except the honey, milk and eggs) in a big bowl and mix well. 
3. Add the egg and honey and knead it into a soft dough using the electric mixer. If the dough doesn't combine, but stays crumbly; add the milk, spoon for spoon until it does. 
4. Do not eat all the dough out of the bowl. Yes, this is very important, because the dough is so wonderful, you might just do that and end up with no cookies at all. 
5. Knead the dough on a (rice)floured surface and roll it out into a big slab. I make them rather thick it makes the cookies nice and fluffy. The thinner the dough, the crunchier the cookies become (that's a bit of a "duuuhhh" I know). My kids like fluffy cookies. 
6. Get out your cookie cutters and knock yourself out making cute & funny cookies. 
7. Put them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. 
8. Put them in the oven and bake them until they are golden. Depending on the oven it takes 12-20 minutes. The lovely ladies took a while, because they are rather large. 
9. Let them cool on a wire rack and serve them with a cup of tea. 
10. Enjoy!

Gluten free and sugar free Dinosaur cookies

I had forgotten how tough it is to adapt your life to a diet. Cooking, or rather living gluten free has become a way of life in our home. It doesn't matter if I have one person with Celiacs Disease in our home or let's say four, it wouldn't change a thing. We are used to that.
But now that we are limiting our  three year old's sugar intake to see if that helps him, I find myself checking everything in the store over and over again, adapting recipes that were once already adapted and sometimes completely failing at it. It's not as hard as gluten free, because a bit of sugar won't make my little boy sick, as gluten really do make my oldest incredibly sick, but it's still a challenge. Because I want what's best for our son(s).  And so we struggle a bit until this is a regular thing in our household too.

Yesterday my 3 year old an I baked cookies as my cookie dough & batter lover and I often do on Thursday. And not just any kind of cookies, but dinosaur cookies, because both my sons have succumbed to the 'Dinosaurs are cool' virus. We have this favorite gluten free cookie recipe, that we always use, but that contains sugar. Bummer! We decided to change that and turn it into a sugar free version using apple syrup (appelstroop in Dutch). It's a totally Dutch thing that we eat on sandwiches. Yes, us Dutchies, we are weird. We eat sprinkles on our sandwiches and pancakes for dinner. Don't judge us. ;-)

Run, the dinosaurs are back! :-)

Here's the recipe. For my Dutch readers: The Dinosaur cookie cutters were bought at Dille & Kamille.

Ingredients:

• 200 grams (1.6 cup) of rice flour
• 0.5 tablespoon of xanthan gum (to keep your cookies from crumbling)
• 1 teaspoon of glutenfree baking soda
• 125 grams (4.4 oz) of apple syrup. Maple syrup will work too I think!
• orange zest from one orange ( I add 2 tablespoons of gingerbread spices)
• 50 (about a 1/4 of a cup) grams of butter
• 1 egg

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade (320 degrees centigrade)
• Put all dry ingredients in a kitchen aid or bowl and slowly add the other ingredients while mixing. Add some extra rice flour if the mixture is too moist, and a bit of milk if it gets too dry.
• Take it out of the bowl, dust the surface and roll out to an even dough, about half a centimeter or half an inch thick. Get out your favorite cookie cutters and cut out about twenty cookies.
• Put them on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake them in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
• Let them cool on a wire rack. If you want, you can decorate them with icing, but my kids love them just the way they are!

Enjoy!

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 and Dairyfree Cinnamon Cookies

Fall is here. To me fall means beautiful autumn colors outside, walking through the woods and the scent of cinnamon and vanilla roaming my house. Vanilla is by far the scent I love the most. It lifts my spirit, but combined with cinnamon I get that homely feeling. These glutenfree and dairyfree cookies are wonderful with a cup of soothing tea, a book and a fire crackling away in the fireplace. Fall doesn't sound so bad now does it? :-)

I sprinkled colored sugar and cinnamon sugar on the cookies before baking

Ingredients:

• 175 grams (0.75 cup) of granulated sugar
• 125 grams (0.5 cup) of shortening
• 1 egg
• 250 grams (1 cup) of buckwheat flour
• 250 grams (1 cup) of rice flour
• 0.5 teaspoon of iodized salt
• 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of gingerbread spices
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla (or the seeds of one vanilla pod)
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of soymilk or other dairyfree milk

Instructions:

1. Beat the granulated sugar and shortening in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. 
2. Whisk the buckwheat flour, rice flour, salt, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, cinnamon and gingerbread spices in a medium bowl. Gradually beat into the sugar mixture. Beat in the vanilla, maple syrup and soymilk to make a soft dough. Make a ball, wrap it in plastic foil and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees fahrenheit)
4. Roll out the dough between sheets of waxed paper until 0,5 cm (0.25 inches) thick.Cut out the cookies, transfer them to baking trays lined with parchment paper and sprinkle with either colored sugar or cinnamon sugar. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Let them cool on a wire rack before serving them.

 Enjoy!

An easy glutenfree treat: coconut cookies with chocolate pirate coins

Even though my sons birthday is months away, I'm already testing recipes for treats for his schoolmates. Not because I have to see if the recipe works, but to see how much work is involved. Because no matter how often I promise myself to make it easy, I never keep to my word. The result is that I end up in the kitchen for hours and when my husband comes home he shakes his head and then... does nothing except say: "If i was in charge of birthday treats, I'd buy them all a little bag of crisps". Well, how much I hate the time it takes me to make these birthday treats, I would never ever even consider that. Why? Because it's boring, it's an easy way out and it's not exactly healthy now is it? 

Not that my treats are usually very healthy, but they are small, i know what is in them and they are creative. Basically, a bag of crisps is just beneath me. Oh good lord, I am a treat snob! 

But since I am determined to make these treats easier this time, I'm testing a couple of ideas way ahead. This recipe is one of them. 

They are coconut cookies that are very easy to make. The most work is in the chocolate coins as you have to pour those. And I have a mould for them, but it only makes 4 coins at a time. But other than that, this recipe is a breeze. Now let's hope my little pirate loves them too. 

Argh, argh, argh!

This recipe makes 12 coconut macaroons.

Ingredients:

• 125 grams  (4,5 oz) of grated coconut
• 7 grams (0.25 oz) of vanilla sugar
• 1 tablespoon of glutenfree rice flour
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 3 egg whites
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of (powdered) icing sugar
• About 175 grams (6 oz) of dark chocolate (for the coins) 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees centigrade (300 degrees fahrenheit).
2. Mix the coconut, vanilla sugar, rice flour, xanthan gum and icing sugar in a bowl. 
3. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl to firm peakes.
4. Fold the coconut mixture into the firm eggwhites.
5. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and make 12 heaps of dough (it is quite sticky dough by the way) on the parchment paper.
6. Put them in the oven for 30 minutes until they are lightly golden. 
7. leave them to cool on a wire rack when done
8. While the cookies are in the oven, make the chocolate coins. melt the chocolate in a bowl that you place on a pan with softly boiling water. Pour some chocolate into the mould and place it in the freezer to make the chocolate solid again. Slowly take them out of the mould, be careful not to bake them and place them on some baking parchment in the freezer until you have enough coins. 
9. Then pour a little bit of chocolate onto the fully cooled coconut macaroons, put a coin on them and quickly put them in the freezer again. Otherwise the warm chocolate will melt the coins again. 
10. Voila, your pirate treasure treat is finished! 

Glutenfree Spitzbuben & an insight on travelling with celiacs

Don't we all love holidays? I do, but everytime we get into the car i realise our holidays are different than those of non-celiacs. Two weeks ago we stepped into our car to drive to beautiful Switzerland and it was filled to the ceiling with stuff. Clothes, toys, shoes, books and so on and in our case also with glutenfree food, our breadmaker, scale, mixer and breadmaking ingredients. A holiday by plane is not an option, we take everything with us. Just to be safe. Not to mention that buying everything on your holiday destination is not always possible or often very expensive as well.

Switzerland is a long haul from Holland, so we made an extra stop in beautiful Lauf in Germany to spend the night. We had had a troublesome long journey and so we stopped at 'mooie Donald' as my youngest calls MacDonalds. In English it would mean pretty Donald. I love MacDonalds for taking my kids intolerance seriously. Not so seriously that they have a glutenfree burger... But... When I ordered a burger without bun the girl behind the counter ran to the kitchen to instruct them properly. And that makes all the difference. And thus made my kids long ass day wonderful.

When we arrived for breakfast in the hotel the next morning people where pointing at me carrying my kids glutenfree bread and crackers and saying: "Look, they have an allergy or something..."  I felt like walking up to them and say: "Yes people, that exists too. Can you please enjoy your own meal instead of making my kids feel like a freak show."

It goes to show how uncommon this autoimmune disease often still is. That also was the case in the village that we stayed. I love it there, it's quiet, beautiful, the people are friendly but allergies and intolerances are still very uncommon and not all can acommedate or even understand it. One day we promised our boys French fries after al long walk at a place where glutenfree French fries weren't a problem. When we checked to be sure (never assume, that is our motto), the waitress told us it was a problem, they did not bake them separately anymore. They used the deep fryer for potato croquesttes as well, and those often contain gluten. We feared we had another glutenfree trauma on our hands again, with two inconsolable kids. The sad kids touched the waitresses heart and she went to check again, with my little card that i always carry with me that lists the most common glutenfree and glutencontaining products and hubby in tow. Thank god there turned out not to be a trauma, the croquettes were glutenfree and the kids could eat their much desired fries. And the restaurant learned a lesson too, on how a small thing can make a difference when it comes to glutenfree. They even copied my card for future reference. 

While the kids ate their own home made glutenfree bread, we bought ours at the local bakery. The first time Thijmen pressed his face against the cookie display and pointed at the local cookies with a smiley on them and said: "I can't have those can i?" When I told him no, he said: "But can you make them?" and I told him: " Yes, at home". And the next day and every following day he would say: "Mom, we will make those at home, right?" And this week we did.

Ingredients:

• 250 g (9 oz) of glutenfree riceflour
• 125 g (4.5 oz) of butter
• 100 g  (3.5 oz) of sugar
• 60 g (2.25 oz) of almond flour
• 1 egg
• 15 grams (0.5 oz) of vanilla sugar
• a pinch of salt
• one teaspoon of xanthan gum
• one teaspoon of fiber husk
• ± ½ a jar of strawberry preserve 
• powdered/icing sugar for dusting the cookies

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 °C / 350 degrees Fahrenheit..
2. Add almond flour, riceflour, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and egg in a bowl and add the butter (cold, in cubes). Mix to a firm dough.
3. Make a big ball and put it in clingfilm. Leave in the fridge for an hour.
4. Roll out the dough and cut out circles, an even amount. 
5. Put them on a baking tray lined with parchement paper. 
6. Punch out faces from half of the cookies.
7. Put them in the oven for 10 -12 minutes till they are golden brown. Leave to cool.
8. Put a teaspoon of jam on the base cookies and then press on a cookie with a face. 
9. Dust with icing sugar.

Enjoy!

My cookie crack: sugar candy cookies

I go grocery shopping with Gijs every Saturday, while my husband and Thijmen go to the gym to run on the treadmill and to have swimming lessons. And every week Gijs tries to pull half of the cookie isle into the car. And I have to tell him no, every week, simply because they make him sick. And I get his sad face, because of all the cookie boxes have his favourite cartoon characters on it. And what does he get? Boring cookies in boring boxes. His disappointment makes my heart cry, but I can't make it go away. He and I just have to deal. And our way to deal is to bake cookies together. I cannot produce fantastic cardboard packaging with his favorites on it, but I can bake him cookies he loves and he gets to help.

One of the cookies I used to love as a kid were sugar candy cookies, in Dutch we call them Bastogne cookies. It's my kind of crack. If I buy a box, it's gone before the day is over. So today the kids and I decided to try and make something similar glutenfree. Because I want to share my addiction with them. And we came pretty close to the original in taste.

Here is how you make 'cookie crack'.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams (10.5 oz) of rice flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 175 grams (6 oz) of soft butter
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of ground sugar candy
• 100 ml (3.5 fl oz) of sugar syrup 
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 2 tablespoons of gingerbread spices
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Put all ingredients except for the ground sugar candy into a bowl. Mix it all well till all is combined. 
2. Add the sugar candy and mix again.
3. Take the dough out of the bowl make a long square bar that you wrap in plastic foil and refrigerate for an hour. 
4. Eat every last bit of dough that is left in the bowl from the bowl. This is a must! Do not ever skip this step in the process. 
5. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Centigrade (337 degrees Fahrenheit).
6. Line a baking tray with parchement paper and chop up the bar into thick slices. Put the slices on the baking tray. This recipe makes about 20 cookies. 
7. I made two small incisions on each cookie like the real deal and then put them in the oven for 25 minutes. 
8. Let them cool on a wire rack before serving them with a cup of tea or coffee.

The ultimate glutenfree guilty pleasure: shortbread topped with caramel & chocolate

Just reading this recipe will cause you to gain at least 2 pounds but I promise it is worth it. This caloriepacked shortbread is my husband's favorite birthday treat. Ever since I first made it about 5 years ago he's requested I make it for every birthday. As his 40th is around the bend (we celebrate tomorrow) I got out my glutenfree baking bible, Louise Blair's Great Gluten-free Baking, and looked up the recipe. Really, get your hands on this recipebook if you love baking, every recipe is brilliant!

Now, watch the calories attach themselves to your hips as you read the recipe (don't say I didn't warn you!). It makes about 15 servings.

Ingredients:
Shortbread

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of soft butter
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of finely granulated sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of rice flour
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of corn flour
• 1 tablespoon of xanthan gum

Caramel

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of butter
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of light caster sugar
• 1 can of condensed milk (about 400 ml/14 fl oz)

Chocolate layer

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of glutenfree dark chocolate
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of glutenfree white chocolate

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit).
2. Put the butter and sugar for the shortbread in a bowl and whisk till it is all fluffy.
3. Pour in the flour and xanthan gum and mix well. The dough will be light and crumbly. 
4. Butter a baking tray of about 28x18 cm (11x8 inches) and toss in the crumbly dough. Press it and make sure it is evenly spread out in the tray. 
5. Bake in a warm oven for about 10-15 minutes until golden. Take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit. 
6. In the meanwhile put all the ingredients for the caramel in a pan with a thick base. Put it on a low fire and keep stirring until all the sugar and butter has dissolved and the mixture is bubbling. Don't stop stirring now, and let it boil for about 5 minutes.
7. Remove the pan from the heat, let the caramel cool a bit and then pour it over the shortbread. Let it cool completely.
8. Put the white and dark chocolate in seperate bowls, put those on top of pans with softly boiling water. Let it melt. Pour spoonfuls of white and dark chocolate alternately on top of the caramel and shake the tray to make the chocolate mix. Drag a knife through the chocolate to make a pretty pattern. Let the chocolate cool and freeze up in the fridge. Cut before serving.

Enjoy! Or should I say indulge?