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! 

Gluten-Free Raspberry, Walnut and White Chocolate Cake

This recipe is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe that was published in the Dutch edition of Jamie Magazine (nr.24 to be precise). My son saw that recipe and begged me to make it. I had to substitute certain things, because it was a 'normal' recipe at first, and decided to add white chocolate to it and substitute the hazelnuts for walnuts as we all like those more. As usual, I ended up with a different recipe and thus had to figure out everything by trial and error again. I kept to the normal baking temperatures and times as the original recipe and found out that wasn't getting me anywhere. My cake was totally uncooked and so I kept adding time. In the end, this cake took 2 hours to bake, but it was well worth it. 

So the moral of this story: gluten free baking is totally different, but don't despair, it will be alright in the end if you just keep your head cool and the oven at a constant temperature. ;-)

This cake is quite heavy, so cut it up in small slices! 

Fresh raspberries make all the difference and give this cake just the right texture and taste!

Ingredients:

• 175 grams (6 oz) of butter
• 175 grams (6 oz) of granulated sugar (and three tablespoons for the topping)
• 3 eggs
• 200 grams (7 oz) of walnuts (chopped or blitzed in the food processor) to tiny pieces
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of white chocolate (chopped or blitzed)
• 150 grams (5.5 oz) of all purpose flour (I used Schärs C - cake & cookie mix)
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 175 grams (6 oz) of raspberries (and some extra for decoration)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees centigrade (350 degrees fahrenheit)
2. Beat the butter and granulated sugar in a bowl till you have a light and frothy substance.
3. Beat in the eggs. 
4. Fold in half of the walnuts and all the white chocolate. 
5. Sift the flour, xanthan gum and cream of tartar over the bowl and fold it in. 
6. Add the Raspberries and fold them in. 
7. Grease and line a spring cake tin and scoop in the cake batter. Smooth the top and then mix 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar with the remaining chopped walnuts and spread it over the the top. Add a few small knobs of butter on top and cover the cake tin with aluminiumfoil. 
8. Put the cake tin in the oven and leave it in for about 90 minutes. Then take off the aluminiumfoil and bake the cake for another 30 minutes till the walnuts have turned golden, your kitchen smells heavenly and the cake bounces back when you tap on the top. 
9. Leave it to cool and then serve it with fresh raspberries and maybe a bit of whipped cream. 

Enjoy!

Typically Dutch Sticky Cinnamon Buns

I've always wanted to make these, but never bothered to look up the original recipe to make them or to check how difficult it would be. Well, as it turns out, these typically Dutch sticky cinnamon buns, also known as cinnamon turds in my house thanks to my dear husband, are really easy to make. And also very easy to make gluten free. So it goes to show you should never assume things. 

They may not look like much, but I'm so proud of these!!

So here's the recipe that will make about 12 buns. 

Ingredients:

• 250 grams (9 oz) of gluten free rice flour
• 250 grams (9 oz) of gluten free basic bread flour (I used Le Poole's Twello's wit)
• 15 grams (0.5 oz) of granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• half a teaspoon of iodized salt
• 1 egg
• 50 ml (2 fl oz) of milk
• 215 ml (7.25 fl oz) of water
• 30 grams (1.05 oz) of dry yeast
• 30 grams (1.05 oz) of butter

For the cinnamon-sugar coating of the buns:

• 250 grams (9 oz) of dark caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons of cinnamon

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 50 degrees centigrade/ 122 degrees fahrenheit en put a bowl of water on the bottom of the oven. This will help the dough proof. 
• Mix all the ingredients for the the bun in a big bowl, except for the butter. Mix it with an electric mixer until all is well combined and you have a firm dough. 
• Then add the butter, mix it in and when it is all combined make tiny balls of about 80 grams (about 3 oz). 
• Now here is where the recipe differs from making the normal gluten versions of the cinnamon buns. Normally you would let the dough proof before rolling them out, but that is not effective with gluten free dough. Since it lacks the gluten the dough lacks flexibility and when you roll it out after proofing, the dough will not bounce back. You will end up with dense, tough buns instead of fluffy buns. So... you now take the balls and roll them out as sausages of about 30 cms (about 12 inches). 
• You brush them with some water and then roll them through a mixture of dark caster sugar and cinnamon which you have put in a large oven tray like this:

Make sure you mix the cinnamon & sugar well before rolling the dough in it

• Then you roll them up like this and place them on a baking tray lined with baking parchment:

Roll them up form and 'glue' them together with a bit of extra water

• Place the baking tray in the oven for 20 minutes to let the buns proof. They will come out the oven almost doubled in size, looking  like this. 

They proof really well, so make sure you don't put them too close together on the tray

• Heat the oven to 225 degrees centigrade or 425 degrees fahrenheit. When the oven is ready, put the buns in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.  Take them out of the oven, and immediately put them upside down on a clean baking tray to let them cool, like this:

I have to admit seeing this picture, that my husband sort of has a point...

When they are cooled, they will look like the picture on top of the blog. Serve them with a cup of tea and enjoy!

Ps. If you try out my recipes, please let me know how you get on. That way I can improve my recipes and help more people. If answering here is a bit daunting, you can always let me know on my Twitter account or tumbler linked to this blog. 

Raisin & Cinnamon Bread made with determination and love

Well, it's been a while since my last blog. Been way too busy fangirling (Yes, I'm a fangirl and proud of it) over my childhood crushes, New Kids on the Block. But after tasting some horrid prefab gluten free bread yesterday I felt it was time to start baking & blogging again. Because I don't, for the life of all that is holy, understand why people eat the stuff that some (gluten free) companies produce simply because they say they can't bake. I'm glad gluten free products are more & more available, and yes, convenience is mighty handy sometimes. But why does convenience often equals tasteless food? 

Why do people settle for bad food, when you can do so much better if you just gave it a shot yourself? And don't give me the old: I can't cook & bake to save my life, because I can't isn't an option in my book. It drives my kids mental, but I do not accept I can't. I accept "I won't", "I don't want to" or I even "I'm too lazy to", but not I can't. Because if you really want to do something, you can. If it is your choice not to try something, fine, live with the consequences, but never, ever say i can't. Especially if you haven't even tried. It's a lousy excuse. 

And a lot of prefabricated, mass produced gluten free food is just tasteless. It lacks love. Love and understanding what it means to eat gluten free because you have no other choice. And it lacks determination of making something better, just because you are not the one that has to eat it. The best products, in my opinion, come fro the companies founded by people who have celiacs in their life. People who started it out of love. Out of determination to produce something tasteful for their loved ones suffering from a necessary but tough diet. 

This recipe was born this morning. It was born in my head, with the horrid stuff I ate yesterday in the back of my mind. I wanted to make something that would pop the tastebuds in my kids mouth, something that would make them smile, instead of make them scrunch up their nose in disgust. 

This is what I made. And I made it with love & determination. And so can you. if you are willing to invest time, love & determination as well. Don't say you can't, say you can. And you will. You will succeed. If you set your heart & mind to it. 

This is where determination & love gets you

Ingredients:

• 550 grams (1 lb 4 oz) of gluten free bread flour
• 1 teaspoon of fiber husk
• 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• half a teaspoon of iodized salt
• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of granulated sugar (if you want to make it without, you can, I only used it to sweeten the bread a bit more. You can replace this for a few tablespoons of honey I think)
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 20 grams (0.75 oz) of yeast
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of raisins
• 25 grams (1 oz) of cinnamon sugar (optional)
• 75 ml (2.5 fl oz)of olive oil
• 3 egg whites
• 250 ml (1 cup) of warm water
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 50 degrees centigrade (122 degrees fahrenheit) and put a bowl of water in the oven. This will help the bread rise later on. 
• Take a big bowl and add the flour, fiber husk, xanthan gum, salt, sugar, cinnamon, yeast, raisins and cinnamon sugar. Mix it all well. 
• Now take the warm water and out it in another bowl, mixing it with the egg whites, olive oil, honey & white wine vinegar. Whisk it well and pour it on the flour mixture. take your electric mixer and mix it all till you've got a well combined, firm dough. You don't want sticky dough, so if it is sticky, add a bit more flour. 
• Need it on a clean surface, dusted with gluten free flour (make sure it is one hundred procent uncontaminated) and knead the dough. Divide it into two pieces, that you roll out like sausages. Then wind them around each other and turn it into a circle. Put some baking parchment in a round oven dish or baking tray and pop in the bread. It should look like this:    

                               
                                                                                           

• Pop the bread in the middle of the preheated oven for an hour to proof. When the hour is over, it should look like this:

                              

• Keep the bread out of the oven when you heat it to 200 degrees centigrade or 400 degrees fahrenheit. When the oven is warm, pop it back into the oven (on the lowest spot possible) and bake it for 10 minutes. Then lower the heat to 180 degrees centigrade or 350 degrees fahrenheit and bake the bread for another 40 minutes. I popped the bread out of the round dish 20 minutes before the end and baked it upside down for the remainder of the time to make sure it was golden and fully baked. 
• Enjoy this with a bit of salted butter and some wonderful cheese. 

               

Upside Down Apple Raisin and Cinnamon Cake

One of my favorite pies is apple pie. Proper Dutch apple pie with raisins and cinnamon. I haven't, however, been able to recreate the real thing gluten free. It is just not the same. Somehow gluten free dough doesn't have that same texture that I love so much. But I've found something else. This upside down cake is tasty, soft, fragrant and delicious. It is easy to make and makes a perfect treat for a lazy Sunday, a birthday or for an ordinary day that you just want to treat yourself. Or bake something, just like me. 

Simple & Delicous! 

Here's the recipe to the upside down cake:

Ingredients:

For the topping: 

• 75 grams (2.75 oz) of butter
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of brown sugar
• a bit of cinnamon sugar
• 25 grams (1 oz) of raisins (soaked in water or if you won't serve it to kids, some liquor)
• 2 apples, peeled and sliced into thin slices

For the cake:

• 125 (4.5 oz) grams of sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of soft butter
• 1 egg
• 150 (5.5 oz) grams of rice flour
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of almond flour
• 1.5 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 0.25 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 100 ml (3.5 fl oz) of milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Grab a round silicone cake pan and butter it. 
3. Put a pan on the stove, put in the butter and brown sugar and melt the butter. take the pan from the heat when the sugar is dissolved. Pour it in the silicon pan. 
4. Scatter the raisins onto the butter & sugar mixture and then put the slices of apple on top. Sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar for extra taste. 
5. Now make the batter:
6. Beat the granulated sugar and butter in a bowl untill it's light and airy. Beat in the egg. Add the rice flour, almond flour, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, salt & cinnamon & mix well. Beat in the milk & pour the batter over the slices of apple. Smooth the top and put it in the oven for about 25-35 minutes. 
7. When the top feels firm, bounces back when you softly touch it and looks all golden & pretty, take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit. Then turn it over using a plate on top. 

Enjoy!

Don't judge me on my label...

No, this isn't a blog about clothes, and it isn't a blog about a recipe either. This is a tale about something that bothers me about today's society: how we treat people who are different. I happen to have two boys who are different so maybe that is why I feel so strongly about this. They are different from what society considers normal. But what is normal actually?

My oldest is, as a celiac, different because he eats different. It shouldn't matter, because it's just food, but it does. To some. Especially grown ups. My sons friends are very laid back when it comes to him. To them, it's just a detail. So he eats differently. Big deal...
The parents, they just think it's scary. So he hardly gets asked to eat at a friends home, they always come to us. Because that is safe. That he feels left out, not wanted, well, that is something for me to solve. It breaks my heart sometimes, that he is excluded from things, just because certain foods make him very, very sick.

My youngest son, he is different too. He shares his brothers diet, but there is something else too. We are still figuring out what makes him different, we have an idea, but we basically need a label as to help him better. We need a bloody label as to explain why he is different and then we have to ask people not judge him on that same label. Am I still making sense?

My youngest is choatic, has the attention span of about 5.3 seconds, he is loud, never sits still, his head is in constant overdrive, and the craziest stuff can make him freak out, act out and throw the biggest almighty tantrum you've ever seen. And the worst thing of it all is that it bothers him. He knows. He feels it.
But most of all he is very funny, very sweet & loving, he is generous, he says please and thank you more than most grown ups, he is smart (he is a smart ass too ;-)) and he is very sociable and the star of every party as long as he can be his loud, cheery self. And all that gets overshadowed sometimes by something he never asked for in the first place.

And the worst is that people (seem to) judge him on it. Heck, I even do that and I'm his mom. I know where he is coming from, but I can't always get what is going on in his head and after a day full of misunderstandings and frustration from the both of us, I often think: Why can't you just be normal? And then I feel very ashamed. Because I know better, but this "normal" thing has been programmed into me too. And then I hug him tight, and I wonder & worry about how he will survive "out there". But I also know it is up to me and my husband to help him survive and very slowly, with some help we are getting there. We are understanding him better and that makes him more at ease.

But he will always have others judging him because he is happily playing with his cars in a store or a doctors office and is making loud noises while doing so. Or have people tuttutt-ing because he is in his own little safe world sometimes, where even mom & dad can't reach him unless they really, really, really make an effort. Or worse, people shaking their head because he is throwing the biggest hissy fit you've ever seen, because he has trouble explaning to us what he really wants. His head is too full to tell us, so he freaks out. It's the only way he knows how express himself at such a time. 
And then there are the people who think this is funny. Who think his behaviour is cute & the struggle is funny. Well, it's not. Those moments are tough.

We are getting help, to help our son cope with what society thinks is normal, what we think of as normal, even if he can't always help himself that he does not exactly fit into that box. We are helping him adjust to the 'normal box'. But what if we all just allowed ourselves a bit understanding? What if we stretched the normal box somewhat? What if we stopped judging people on things we don't know? I know it starts somewhere, so I'm going to take a good look into the mirror and start with myself. I'm going to stretch my normal box (disclaimer: Crocs will never fit in my normal box though ;-)) so more people fit in. Will you do that with me?

Gluten-Free and Sugar-Free cake crammed with dates, figs, walnuts & pecans

I'm still experimenting with this sugar-free thing for my youngest. Gluten-Free is one thing, but this sugar-free baking is still a bit of a challenge. But this cake has turned out really well. I've found out I like baking with honey best. It gives a great result, so in this cake I've replaced the sugar with honey. Basically, I've changed everything of the original recipe, except the pecans. :-)
I do that a lot. I see a recipe (in this case a cake with cranberries, walnuts and raisins) and just change it all up with stuff that I like. Why I even bother to look up a recipe, I don't know. Maybe I just need some inspiration or a bit of a guideline. 

When baking gluten-free I believe that experimenting & testing is the only way to get better and better, so I would encourage anyone to just go ahead an try stuff when you've got the basics down. That's how I ended up with 70 recipes on this blog. 

Yes, this is my 70th blog and recipe already. Quite an amount, now I've come to think of it. And plenty more to follow, I'm sure. So thank you Jordan Knight for once asking on twitter what everyones new years resolution was and to say you just have to stick with it. This blog was my New Years resolution for 2013 and I guess after that tweet I decided to just start and see where it would take me. I had been talking of blogging my silly recipes for a long time, just never got my butt into gear to actually do it. One day.. you know... 
well, I'm glad I started and I hope my silly little blog is of help to others struggling with this difficult diet. Because no matter the amount of recipes, the challenges of a gluten-free life are difficult sometimes, if not frustrating. 

Healthy and delicious, what more can you ask for?

Anyway...This cake has lots of healthy stuff in it so you don't have to feel guilty when having a slice. 

Ingredients:

• 250 grams (9oz) of gluten-free rice flour
• 90 grams (3.25 oz) of chopped dates
• 90 grams (3.25 oz)  of chopped figs
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 140 grams (5 oz) of soft butter
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of mixed spice
• 175 grams (6 oz) of honey
• 80 grams (3 oz) of chopped walnuts
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of chopped pecans
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 125 ml (4 fl oz) of milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade (325 degrees fahrenheit).
2. Grease a cake tin.
3. Chop the walnuts and pecans together and then the dates and figs. I chopped them into oblivion with my kitchen aid, so the were really fine and melted into the cake. 
4. Take a large bowl and mix the rice flour with the dates, figs, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, cinnamon and mixed spice. 
5. Add the butter and honey and mix well with an electric mixer.
6. Add the chopped walnuts and pecans with the egg and beat into the mixture. Then add the milk slowly till all is combined and you have a soft fragrant batter.
7. Pour/transfer the batter to the cake tin and smooth the top. Decorate the cake with some sliced dates (or if you have some walnuts or pecans left over, use those). 
8. Put the cake in the oven for about 45 minutes, then lower the heat to 150 degrees centigrade (300 degrees fahrenheit) and bake for another 45 minutes. 
9. Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then take it out of the tin & let it cool completely on a wire rack. 

Enjoy!