Fragrant feta, parsley and dill bread

Yesterday my 89 year old tough, sweet, wonderful, opinionated grandma passed away.  My last grandparent, my mothers mother and my kids oh so beloved nanna. We have been very lucky to have had her around for so long, but her passing hurts none the less. But because weirdly enough the world moves on while you are grieving, baking bread was on the agenda for today. I decided to do some therapy baking and try something new, while contemplating my grandma and her love for food. Or better said, her not existing love for cooking and so on. My grandma has never loved cooking, she ate because it kept her alive & kicking. Of course there were things she loved to eat, but cooking never was her favorite task. Where my mom and I get our love for cooking and baking from we don't know. Not my gran, that's for sure. Her oliebollen (Dutch doughnuts or Dutchies in English) and her (mostly collapsed and thus wonderfully sticky and gooey) cake on the other hand were legendary. My gran came from a family of 11 (and only one brother now remains, so sad) and every New Years Eve my gran would bake buckets full of oliebollen. Even when her huge family decreased over the years with brothers and sisters falling away, she kept baking them in buckets. We ate tons of them, even if they looked dreadful, they tasted marvellous. I don't think she ever wrote down her recipe, and I can never ask her now. Her "oliebollen" will stay a legend from now on. 

While kneading my dough I also contemplated the possibility of my grandma being a celiac without knowing. Because my gran has had tummy troubles her whole life, but never had herself checked out. My hubs and I have so often thought: what if I baked glutenfree bread for her too, would that have helped her somewhat? But she was so old and stuck in her ways and attached to her basic wheatbread that we never pressed on. She would've been so sad as to know she made her oldest puppy (that is how she always referred to my boys) so sick, so maybe it's better that we will never know. And that she will never know for sure, because I know the thought has crossed her mind too. 

As I was thinking of my wonderful gran, my hands worked seperately and created this soft, fragrant bread, made with Turkish yoghurt, feta, dill, parsley and paprika. It would be something my gran would never eat (way too exotic for her) but that she would be very proud of me for making it. Love you gran!

This bread is very fragrant, you'll smell it through your whole house when baking

Ingredients: 

• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of butter
• 75 ml (2.75 fl oz) of milk
• 20 grams (0.75 oz) of yeast
• 175 grams (6 oz) of Turkish yoghurt
• 75 ml (2.75 fl oz) of olive oil
• 1 egg
• A teaspoon of iodized salt
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoon of xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons of fiber husk
• 450 grams (1 lb) of glutenfree flour
• 200 grams (7 oz) of feta
• 3 tablespoons of dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons of dried dill
• 1 teaspoon of paprika powder
• 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 50 degrees centigrade (122 degrees Fahrenheit) and put a bowl of water in the oven. 
2. Melt the butter and put it in a bowl to let it cool a bit. heat it the milk, just a bit so it's warm, do not let it boil, stir in the yeast and mix in the olive oil and the yoghurt. Separate the egg yolk from the egg white. Set the egg yolk aside and mix in the egg white in with the butter and the milk, yeast olive oil mixture as well. Add the sugar, iodized salt, xanthan gum and fiber husk and mix in. 
3. Add the flour and gradually work it through. When it's well combined, add the crumbled feta and the herbs and spices. Knead those through as well and then transfer the dough to a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Form a loaf and carve on the top a couple of times. 
4. Put the baking tray in the preheated oven and let the dough proof for about 30-40 minutes. Take it out of the oven and preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350 degrees fahrenheit).
5. Mix the left over egg yolk with two tablespoons of water and brush it on top of the loaf. Leave it to rest another 10 minutes while your oven preheats. Then put it into the oven for about 35-40 minutes till it's golden. 
6. Let it cool a bit before carving it, this bread is very soft and crumbles easily. 

Enjoy!

Lemon, lemon and more lemon cheesecake (and some almonds too)

As I type this I realise that this is my 40th recipeblog. Wow, time flies when you bake like a maniac. To those who read my recipes faithfully, thank you! To those sharing them to share them with other celiacs: thank you too! 

To those who make them or recreate them, I hope your cake, bread or cookie turns out even better than my versions. I hope you enjoy making them as much as i do. Please let me know if my recipes work or fail for you. I love improvements. And thank you for your faith in my silly recipes. 

This lemon cheesecake was born in my head. I saw a recipe for an almond cake, but I found their topping of yoghurt and forest fruits a bit plain. Since I love citrus fruits and the warm weather here asks for a fresh cake this cheesecake sprang to mind. I could almost taste it, al I had to do was recreate what i conjured up in my head.

A summery, fresh cheesecake with a soft base

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 250 grams (9 oz) of almond flour
• 250 grams (9 oz) of finely granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• The zest of 1 lemon and a tablespoon of it's juice

For the cheese layer

• 200 grams (7 oz) of cream cheese (I used Monchou cheese)
• 250 ml (9 fl oz) of double cream
• 1 packet of whipping cream stiffner
• The rest of the lemon juice
• 150 grams (5.5 oz) of caster sugar

For the topping:

• Half a jar of Lemon curd (I used Chivers smooth Lemon Curd,it's glutenfree and so yummy it's addictive)
• 1-2 tablespoons of water
• 1-2 tablespoons of powder sugar 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Mix the almond flour with the granulated sugar in a bowl
3. Add the eggs and whisk them in.
4. Add the lemon zest and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Save the rest of the juice of the lemon for the cream cheese layer.
5. Mix it all well and pour the mixture into a lined and buttered spring cake tin.
6. Put the almond cake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes till it's all golden and smells heavenly.
7. Let it cool for half an hour. 
8. When the base is suffienctly cooled down, you can finish the lemon cream cheese-filling and top it with Lemon Curd. 
9. Mix the sugar with the cream cheese and the rest of the lemon juice.
10. Whip the double cream with the whipping cream stiffener. Add the cream cheese-mixture to it and slowly fold it in. 
11. Spread the filling on the almond cake base. 
12. Put the lemon curd in a tiny bowl, add the water to make the curd more fluid. Add a bit of powdered sugar so it will make a nice glaze in the fridge. 
13. Spread the lemon curd mixture on the cream cheese. 
14. Put the cheesecake into the fridge for a couple of hours for a firm double cream and fresh cream cheese filling. You can make this pie/cake a day in advance and it will be perfect the day after as well.

Enjoy!

Glutenfree Turkish tea rings

I was born and raised in Rotterdam, one of the biggest city's in The Netherlands. Rotterdam is a melting pot of cultures and straight from that melting pot I moved in with Daniel, and I moved to a tiny village near Rotterdam where the other cultures are scarce, where Sunday is a day of rest. A quiet place, but there are days I miss the city where no neighbour knows your name, but where kids play on the streets while moms sit on their doorstep with food. Dutchies aren't that hospitable in general. We are a closed sort of people, where you make an appointment to visit someone elses home, where you get one cookie with your coffee (two if you are lucky ;-)) and where people don't share everything that happens behind their closed doors. Pretty weird for a bunch of people who are generally open minded, a country where same sex marriage was first legalized and where under very strict rules it is possible to choose to end your own life with the help of a doctor if your life has become too unbearable, too painful to live on. I'm proud of our open mindness, but being hospitable is generally not one of our strong suits. 

I also miss the diversity of food. We have a few restaurants where I live, but Indonesian/Chinese food (adapted to the Dutch taste so sometimes nothing like proper Chinese food) is as exotic as it gets. And in The Netherlands, that isn't so exotic anymore considering our history with Indonesia and the large Indonesian community living here. One of my favorite breads is Turkish bread. It's always so light and delicious. And you need to eat it fresh, when it's a it's best. Needless to say I can't get that here, let alone a glutenfree version. So i made that myself today, with the kids. 
You should eat it as cake, with a cup of tea, we just ate it for lunch. It makes 24 tiny rings, but I made 9 big ones to eat as a bread roll for lunch.

Ingredients: 

• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of butter
• 450 grams (1 lb) of glutenfree flour, I used a breadflour based on rice.
• 20 grams (0.75 oz) of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of xathan gum
• 1 teaspoon of fiber husk
• half a teaspoon of bakers salt
• 1 eggwhite
• 80 ml (almost 3 fl oz) of olive oil (or sunflower oil)
• 120 grams (4.33 oz) of yoghurt (I used Turkish style yoghurt)
• 3 teaspoons of sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of sesame seeds
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of poppy seeds 
• 2 eggyolks

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter and let it cool. Mix the flour, xanthan gum, fiber husk and baking powder in a bowl. Make a dent in the flour and pour in the butter, eggwhite, oil, yoghurt, sugar and bakerssalt. Knead it to a firm dough, wrap it in plasticfoil and let  it rest for 20 minutes. 
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit). Devide the dough in 24 tiny pieces or as i did 9-10 bigger pieces. Make rolls of them and push the ends onto eachother to form rings. as this is glutenfree dough it might take you a while, the rings break easily, glutenfree dough is crumbly. 
3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Mix the eggyolks with a tablespoon of water and brush both sides of each ring. Press the rings into the seeds (both sides) and put them on the baking tray. 
4. Put them into the oven for about 20 minutes (you may want to turn them at 15 minutes to make sure top and bottom are golden). Let them cool slightly on a wire rack before serving them. 

Glutenfree Toblerone-cupcakes

This recipe was love at first sight for my 6 year old boy. Not only does it have a piece of Toblerone chocolate on top, it has some in the cupcake as well. If you've never had this chocolate with nougat in it, you are missing out! In Switzerland they sell these bars per kilo's, seriously! 
This cupcake is full of chocolate overload. The buttercream is almost pure chocolate and there is cacao in the batter for the cupcakes. It's  chocolate heaven. And it looks as fabulous as it tastes!

Chocolate overload

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

• 200 grams (7 oz) of glutenfree rice flour
• 25 grams (1 oz) of cocao powder
• 1 tablespoon of baking soda
• 110 grams (3.75 oz) of finely granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 100 ml (3.5 fl oz) of olive oil
• 225 ml (8 oz) of milk
• seeds of one vanilla pod
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of Toblerone chocolate, chopped

For the topping:

• 125 ml (4.5 fl oz) of double cream
• 250 grams (9 oz) of dark chocolate
• the seeds of one vanilla pod
• 125 grams (4.5 oz) of butter (the recipe said two tablespoons, but that didn't make thick butter cream as I wanted)

For decoration:

• glutenfree colored sprinkles
• colored decoration sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of Toblerone chocolate, broken into the tiny pyramids

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade or 350 degrees fahrenheit. Line the cupcake tray(s) with paper cups.
2. Mix the flour, cacao, baking powder in a large bowl and mix in the sugar. 
3. Beat the eggs with the oil in another bowl till it's light and fluffy. Add the vinalla pod seeds and the milk and mix well. 
4. Add the flour mixture and the chopped Toblerone pieces. Mix it till it's combined well, not any longer.
5. Transfer the batter into the cups and bake your cupcakes in the oven for about 20-25 minutes till they are firm and have risen well. Let them cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to let them cool further. 
6. To make the topping heat up the double cream in a pan. bring it to a boil and them immediately take it from the fire. Pour it over the chocolate pieces and stir until all the chocolate has melted. add the vanilla pods. 
7. Add the butter bit by bit till it is mixed well. Let it cool till it is firm enough to pipe it onto the cupcakes. 
8. Decorate with glutenfree candy (I used glutenfree mini-smarties) and a piece of Toblerone on top. 

Delicious walnut, cinnamon & raisin bread

Glutenfree flour often lacks fibers. That is simply because the (semi)grains used to make them contain less fibers than wheat or rye. That is why i often add other products to the bread to make sure my kids get their daily dose of fibers. One of the things you will find in many of my recipes is fiber husk, which adds fibers (as the name already says) but that has no taste. I therefore add nuts, seeds and fruits to the breads I make for my kids. 

Last week I searched my entire house for an old cookbook, which ended up to be in the big bookcase in my living room, right under my nose. I just have too many books, and I may need new glasses too. :-) I wanted it to make sugar bread, but that recipe wasn't in it. I did find this recipe and added the ingredients in my basic bread recipe. My youngest has a sweet tooth and he loves this bread. I even pack him some for daycare, so he will eat well there too. 

I make this bread in my Breville breadmaker, but you can also make it in a conventional oven. 

Ingredients:

50 grams (1.75 oz) of chopped walnuts

75 grams (2.65 oz) of raisins

750 grams (26.455 oz) of glutenfree all purpose flour

700 ml (23.67 fl oz) of lukewarm water

10 grams (0.35 oz) of fiber husk (to add more fibers to your bread and to improve consistency)

3 tablespoons of olive oil (in this case I use the oil from the jar of sundried tomatoes as it has tons of flavour)

2 teaspoons of xanthan gum

12 grams (0,42 oz) of sugar

18 grams (0,64 oz) of yeast 

6 grams (0,21 0z) of baker's salt (you can use normal salt too but bakers salt adds iodine to your bread which gives a better taste to your bread)

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 tablespoon of ginger bread spices

2 tablespoons of caraway seeds

Made in the breadmaker:  

Add the lukewarm water to bread mold. Put in the fiber husk and the olive oil. 

On top of that you add the glutenfree all purpose flour. Now you add the sugar, xanthan gum, bakers salt or normal salt and the yeast. Make sure the yeast does not come in direct contact with the salt, because that will diminish the effect of the yeast. Then add the cinnamon, ginger bread spices, walnuts and raisins. 

Put the bread mold into the machine. If your machine has a French bread setting, use it! It gives the best result, as it allows the bread to develop and proof very slowly. If you don't, some machines have a glutenfree setting. Just make sure that the bread gets the chance to develop well. Help the machine along with a wooden spoon or fork when it mixes the dough, as it will turn into one heap and will not mix everything sometimes. That's what you get when you have no gluten to help the dough to stick together. When the machine is done mixing, sprinkle the caraway seeds (and some extra walnuts if you have some left) on top. Now wait and be prepared to take a wonderful loaf out of the machine when it's done. 

In the conventional oven:

If you use a conventional oven, put it on 35 degrees centigrade or 95 Fahrenheit so your oven is warm enough to let your dough proof. 

Put everything in a big bowl in the same order as you would in the breadmaker. 

Add the lukewarm water to bread mold. Put in the fiber husk and the olive oil. 

On top of that you add the glutenfree all purpose flour. Now you add the sugar, xanthan gum, bakers salt or normal salt and the yeast. Make sure the yeast does not come in direct contact with the salt, because that will diminish the effect of the yeast. Then add the cinnamon, ginger bread spices, walnuts and raisins. 

Mix it on a slow mode for 2-3 minutes first. When it's mixed well, put the mixer on a fast mode a mix some more (usually 6-8 minutes will do). Mind you, this will train your arm muscles, mixing is hard work. 

Grease a bread mold and transfer the dough into it. Even it out. Top it with the caraway seeds and some left over walnuts if you have those. Put the dough in the preheated oven and add a bowl of water, that will help the proofing process of the dough. Put the timer on 50 minutes. 

When your dough has risen to double it's size, take it out of the oven and cover with a damp dishcloth while you preheat the oven to 225 centigrade or 437 Fahrenheit. After ten minutes, put the bread (without the dishcloth) back into oven. Leave the bowl with water in the oven and bake the bread in 45-50 minutes until it smells heavenly and is golden brown. 

When it's done, leave it to cool on a wire rack under a fresh (dry) dishcloth for at least an hour and a half. When fully cooled, enjoy a slice or slice it up and put it in packets in the freezer to enjoy later.  

The best lasagne ever

I have a confession to make. I love Jamie Oliver. There, I said it. For a woman who claims to only love darkhaired men, this is a bold thing to say. ;-)
It was love at first sight when i saw him on tv, in one of his first tv shows. I love how he talks about food and I love the simplicity of his recipes combined with the most fantastic products. I have almost all his cookbooks, I buy his magazine and I even have some of his cooking shows on dvd. And I even watch those. When my kids are asleep and hubs is away, I curl up on the sofa and I watch Jamie cook and talk about food. And I get inspired to cook. 

I love the passionate people in his shows too. Just as I love Jamie, I love Gennaro. Also because BBC GoodFood Magazine once published his Festive Lasagne and it's been an instant hit in my household ever since. The magazine looks dreadful, because it's been in my kitchen for nearly 5 years now, and i can't count the times I made this recipe. It's not neccesarily a glutenfree recipe, but it's very easy to make it glutenfree. All you need is some glutenfree lasagne sheets (I always use Schars lasagna sheets that you need to precook for 5 minutes) and some glutenfree basic flour and some glutenfree salami and prosciutto (read packages closely or ask your butcher, because not all is glutenfree unfortunately). 

I just want to share my glutenfree version of Gennaro Contaldo's recipe here, because it makes the perfect pasta for a dinner party with friends, or as a huge family lasagna. I always have some left over that I put in plastic containers in the freezer for my kids on busy workdays. They just love it. 

Truly the best lasagne ever!

Ingredients:

• 500 grams (1 lb 2 oz) of (glutenfree) lasagne sheets
• 200 grams (8 oz) of Parmesan grated
• 6 slices of prosciutto, roughly chopped (check if it's glutenfree)
• 12 slices of Napoli salami (check if it's glutenfree!)
• 200 grams (8 oz) ricotta
• 4 balls of mozzarella roughly chopped

For the tomato sauce

• 125 ml (4 fl oz) olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 4 x 400 grams (16 oz) cans of plum tomatoes ( I use the ones with already chopped up tomatoes by Heinz. They are always glutenfree)
• couple of handfuls of basil leaves, roughly torn

For the meatballs

• 250 grams (9 oz) minced beef
• 250 grams (9 oz) minced pork
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley
• 1 egg, beaten
• glutenfree basic flour for dusting 
• olive oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Make the tomato sauce. heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onions and cook until softened. Add the tomatoes and basil and season. Your pastasheets will take up less of the water of the sauce, so you will need to add some glutenfree flour of maize starch in your sauce to make sure your lasagna will not get soppy. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 25 minutes, then set aside.
2. Meanwhile make the meatballs. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Shape into small balls the size of cherries and dust lightly in glutenfree flour. I use basic rice flour for that. Heat a shallow layer of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the meatballs in the hot oil until golden. You'll need to do this in batches, drain the meatballs on kitchen paper and set aside. (BTW, my kids love these little meatballs so I sometimes make even more and fry them and freeze them. I can defrost en heat up & serve them with some potatoes and veggies another day ;-))
3. Now, if you are working with glutenfree pasta sheets you will need to precook the lasagna sheets, otherwise you will end up with horrid tough pasta in your otherwise wonderful pasta dish. So get a pan on stove and bring plenty of water to a boil. Precook the pasta in batches while layering your dish, so about 4 sheets per layer because they tend to stick together and you don't want that with all the sheets in one go. It will get very, very messy. So you boil the first 4 sheets while preheating the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit) and lining the ovenproof dish  with some tomato sauce. Line this with the first precooked lasagna sheets. Precook the sheets for the next layer and meanwhile add a layer of tomato sauce, sprinkle it with some parmesan, arrange a third of the prosciutto, salami and meatballs, a few knobs of ricotta and some mozzarella pieces. Your second set of lasagne sheets will be ready now, so you put those on top. You precook the next ones while you make another layer as mentioned above which you then top with the lasagne sheets. You finish with tomato sauce, meatballs and cheese. 
4. Cover it with foil and bake for about 30 minutes, remove the foil and cook for a further 5-10 minutes, until the cheese has melted over the top. 
5. Serve with a salad and a wonderful glass of red wine for the adults. 

Ps. This recipe is a bit of work, it will take you 30 minutes to prep and 30-40 minutes to cook at the least, so don't do this when you are in a hurry. If you have guests over, you can make it a day in advance and keep in it in the fridge. You will only have to cook it in the oven the next day, so you'll have time for your guests. 

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.