Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Millionaire's Shortbread

Given the content of my blog, this may be surprising but, I'm not a natural at baking gluten free. (Which means that all recipes on the blog are all very achievable; if I can do it, so can you.)  I often struggle with the limitations of baking without gluten and get frustrated by the temperamental nature of all those different flours (some absorb loads of water, some make a delicate dough, some taste too strong to use in certain baked goods...the list goes on). I enjoy baking and it's certainly easier to share a cake at work than it is a casserole, for example, but the thing that gets me through the day is the thought of cooking dinner.  Cooking is where my heart lies, it's what keeps me awake at night and what gets me out of bed in the morning.  I seldom write about my cooking exploits on the blog because I think that most people want to read about foods they can't normally eat, made gluten free - not food that is, in the main, gluten free anyway.  I might be wrong (and do tell me if you'd rather see more naturally gf recipes on here) but, I know that when I was first diagnosed Coeliac I wanted to know how to make gingerbread biscuits and fairy cakes, not cassoulet or risotto.

The reason for my preference is this; baking is specific, measured, while cooking allows me to be more instinctual and creative.  In my mind, baking is science and cooking is art.  Of course, there are times when cooking needs to be precise and baking is more relaxed, and I am generalising here but, I feel freer when I cook.   

Why am I telling you this now?  Well, I have been feeling a bit like something is amiss from my writing recently, I don't feel very inspired.  The husband commented that it seems like the passion has gone out of my writing and immediately, I knew why - the passion has gone out of my baking.

I had a disastrous day in the kitchen on Monday.  The seemingly simple task of baking shortbread turned into a nightmare, the first batch was still liquid after 40 minutes at 180°C; the second batch was so gritty that I had half a mind to keep it until the roads freeze over again; the third batch would have worked if I had remembered to oil the tin before adding the batter to it, consequently, it fell to pieces when I tried to un-mould it.  I felt beaten and started to doubt my own ability to do anything in the kitchen.  In fact, I lost all faith in myself to do anything.

That revelation aside, my recipe for you today is more like baking than cooking.  I needed to reassure myself that I could still make something work, without failure, and I wanted to show you that sometimes you can make a silk purse from a sow's ear...



Millionaire's Shortbread.
I had to throw away two batches of shortbread on Monday, so by the time my third batch fell to pieces I was unwilling to discard it.  Millionaire's shortbread was a favourite treat in our family when I was a child and always succeeds in cheering me up.

250g gluten free shortbread
125g butter
225g caster sugar
150ml double cream
120g milk chocolate, melted

  • Melt 100g of the butter while you bash the shortbread into crumbs.  The end of a rolling pin works well, or pop them in a freezer bag and whack it with the bottom of a saucepan. This is especially useful for working out the stresses of the day!  Pour the melted butter over the crumbs and stir well.  Press the mixture into a 20cm springform tin.  Put it in the fridge to set.
  • Put the rest of the butter, the sugar and double cream in a saucepan oven a gentle heat. Once the sugar had dissolved, bring to the boil and simmer for about 6-8 minutes, stirring often.  If you have a jam thermometer, you can used that - you're looking for it to reach soft ball, or 240°F.  Pour the caramel over the biscuit base and leave to cool.  
  • (If you want a darker caramel, heat just the sugar and butter until it is deeply coloured (don't stir), being very careful not to burn.  Then add the cream - it will bubble fiercely, so be careful - then simmer as before.)
  • Once the caramel has cooled, pour over the melted chocolate and allow to set.  Cut into squares slightly before the chocolate has completely hardened.  Warming your knife in hot water first will help you to cut cleanly through the caramel layer.



Thursday, 19 January 2012

Lavender Sugar Cookies

Growing up, I spent many happy summers on my Grandparents' farm in Norfolk.  There are many smells that can instantly whisk me 20 years back in time to those carefree days: ripe tomatoes, buddleja, and lavender flowers.  Norfolk and lavender are synonymous in my book, and (possibly due to the many day trips to the lavender farm in King's Lynn) their sweet fragrance pervades every memory of my holidays there.

On a whim late last year, I decided to make lavender sugar.  Perhaps it was a fit of nostalgia, maybe just a subconscious attempt to remember my Grandparents at a time of year when I miss their presence most. Whatever it was, I added a heaped teaspoon of dried lavender flowers and a recently deseeded vanilla pod into 500g (ish) of caster sugar, put the whole thing into a container, sealed it and left it in the cupboard for later.  Apart from the occasional shake, I haven't given it much thought since.  Until this week, when I was researching sugar cookie recipes and a spark of inspiration suggested that this might be a good use for the lavender sugar.

Well done to that spark!  As the name suggests, sugar plays a significant role in a sugar cookie, so it was a brilliant way to showcase the deliciously scented sugar.  In a nod to my Grandpa's prized buddleja (sometimes called a butterfly bush), I decided to dig out my prettiest cookie cutter.


Lavender Sugar Cookies

150g lavender sugar, sieved to remove the flowers (see above)
150g butter, softened
1 egg
150g white rice flour, plus a little extra for dusting
100g brown rice flour
  • Whisk together the egg and sugar until frothy and no grainy bits are left.
  • Sift in the flour and add the butter, combine well then turn out on to a floured surface and knead well until you have a smooth dough.
  • Wrap with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for about an hour.
  • Once the dough is chilled, roll out on a floured surface (about the thickness of a pound coin) and cut out your shapes.
  • Place cookies on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius, until lightly golden.
  • Allow to cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack (if you move them sooner, they'll be too soft and you'll break them).


I iced my cookies with plain water icing.  Sift icing sugar into a bowl and add a couple of drops of food colouring.  Mix in hot water, a teaspoon at a time to make a thick paste.  Put a couple of spoonfuls into a piping bag with a thin nozzle and pipe the outline around your cookie.  Thin the remaining icing with a little more water and spoon it in to fill the rest of the cookie.  Use a cocktail stick to push the icing to the edges.  Then decorate with edible glitter, chocolate beans, or whatever you fancy!




Sunday, 18 December 2011

Free From & Festive - Day 7

I make more cookies at Christmas than I do in the rest of the year combined! At a time when you have more guests in your home than usual, and you are visiting friends and relatives, cookies are ideal.  What could be better than greeting visitors with cookies, warm from the oven, or a tin of homemade cookies as a gift for your host?

The holy grail for the cookie baker is that deliciously soft, but chewy, American-style cookie.  Bunmi at Foods You Can has come up with the perfect cookie recipe for you to check out.

"All very well," I hear you say, "but I don't bake.  Never have."

Neither had Alex over at Food Allergy and Intolerance Ink.  He has baked Spicy Mesquite Cookies for the very first time!  Head over there now to see how it went!
Bunmi's American Style Cookies

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Mulled Spice Cookies

Nothing says Christmas like the scent of mulled wine.  Not just Christmas - winter.  I remember the snowboarding holiday (actually, for me it was a sitting-on-my-bum-in-the-snow holiday) where I first tried vin chaud - warm, spicy wine, cradled in frozen hands, it was almost as beautiful as the scenery.  All I need now to be transported back to that snowy mountain-top is a whiff of mulled wine!
This month, the Gluten Free Ratio Rally are making cookies.  Head over to Caroline at The G Spot Revolution to see the results.  The ratio for cookies is 3:2:1 - 3 parts flour : 2 parts fat : 1 part sugar.  What could be simpler?

Since it's nearly Christmas, and the weather has (finally) turned frosty, I found myself wondering -  could I make cookies with some of the appeal of mulled wine?  To achieve this I used some of the spices that give Glühwein, Glögg, and all their friends their aromatic goodness.  (Doesn't the fact that practically every cold weather country has its own variation of mulled wine tell you just how wonderful this particular beverage really is?!) 


All I need now is some snow!


Mulled Spice Cookies


70g light brown sugar
10g maple syrup
160g butter, softened
160g brown rice flour
80g white rice flour
1tsp vanilla extract
pinch ground cloves
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp ground ginger
1 star anise, seeds only
1 green cardamon pod, seeds only

  • Grind the anise seeds and cardamon seeds until they are a fine powder.  Mix with the other spices then combine with the flours.
  • Beat the butter, sugar and maple syrup together until light and fluffy, add the vanilla extract  and combine well.
  • Add the flour and spice mix and fold in until you have a stiff-ish dough. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
  • You can either roll the dough into a sausage and slice 1/2cm thick rounds off that, or roll the dough out on a floured surface and cut shapes.  Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.
Variation: before you put the cookies in the oven, place a blob of marzipan on top of each cookie, then bake as before.

Clementine Icing: Juice one clementine (you can also zest it if you like) and add the juice to 3-4 heaped tbsp of icing sugar (powdered sugar) mix well to make a smooth, runny icing. Spoon over cooked and cooled cookies, or use as "mortar" to hold together a cookie-tree like the one above.



Amanda | Gluten Free Maui | Simple Shortbread
Amie Valpone | The Healthy Apple | Grapefruit Sugar Cookies
Brooke | B & the boy! | Candy Cane Shortbread
Caneel | Mama Me Gluten Free | Cardamom Date Cookies
charissa | zest bakery | Coconut Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Caroline | The G-Spot | Double Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies
Claire | Gluten Freedom | Chai Latte Cashew Cookies
Erin | The Sensitive Epicure | Spritz Cookies with Jam
gretchen | kumquat | Classic Sugar Cookies
Irvin | Eat the Love | Apple Brown Butter Bay Leaf Spice Cookies
Jean |Gluten-Free Doctor Recipes | Chocolate Reindeer Cookies 
Jenn | Jenn Cuisine | Basler Brunsli
Jonathan| The Canary Files | Vegan Salted Oatmeal Cherry Cookies
Karen | Cooking Gluten Free! | Mexican Wedding Cakes
Lisa from Gluten Free Canteen | Molasses Rum Raisin Cookies
Mary Fran | frannycakes | Pinwheel Cookies
Meaghan | The Wicked Good Vegan | Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Meredith | Gluten Free Betty | Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Morri | Meals With Morri| Stevia Sweetened & Grain-Free Thumbprint Cookies with Apricot Preserves
Pete & Kelli | No Gluten, No Problem| Belgian Speculaas Cookies
Rachel | The Crispy Cook | Melomakarona
Shanua | Gluten Free Girl & the Chef | Gluten-Free Soft Molasses Cookies
Silvana Nardone | Silvana’s Kitchen | Old-School Italian Jam-Filled Hazelnut Cookies
T.R. | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies | Cinnamon Lemon Cookies
Tara | A Baking Life | Walnut Shortbread 


Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Peanut Butter Cookies

On Friday, I received the appointment letter for my colostomy and realised that I'd be spending Stir-up Sunday under sedation, so I thought I should probably start baking the Christmas a bit early this year.  It is in the oven now.  Actually, the second one is in the oven, the first one is wrapped and in the cupboard happily soaking up its first feeding of Whisky. (Yes, Whisky!  I have also switched the glace cherries for stem ginger for a bit of change this year.)  Since the Husband is allergic to nuts, the cake is nut free -  I have even found a recipe for nut free marzipan that I shall be trying out!

On the subject of Christmas, I have teamed up with a bunch of great gluten free bloggers to bring you some brilliant recipes and reviews from the 12th December until Christmas Eve!  Just because you can't have gluten, it doesn't mean you can't enjoy mince pies, cookies, canapes, trifle, and lots of other goodies at this (most wonderful) time of year,  Tune in on Monday 12th December, and every day after until Christmas Eve, for some truly fabulous ideas to help your Christmas be jolly and bright.  (And probably a ton more Christmas puns, I can't help it, I'm sorry!)

Back in the present.  Crohn's Disease is continuing to surprise me with new and mysterious ways to b*gger up my week.  Some horribly strong antibiotics are the order of the day (3 times a day for 7 days, to be precise), so I need something to lift my spirits.

My photo appearing as the first of Your Katie-Boo Bakes n' Makes over at A Girls Guide to Gluten Free Baking certainly cheered me up!  Almost as much as her snickerdoodles recipe.

Inspired by that, I made these little peanut-buttery wonders.  (The husband is in the USA this week so I'm eating all the things he doesn't; macaroni cheese, cauliflower, and peanut butter!)  They are a kind of snickerdoodle/cookie cross, seriously quick easy to make and really very tasty, too!
Peanut Butter Cookies


200g unsweetened smooth peanut butter
50ml rapeseeed oil (light olive oil or sunflower oil would work too)
250g caster sugar
2 eggs
225g plain flour mix (I used Doves Farm Rice Flour)
1tsp baking powder
24 small pieces of chocolate (try caramel nibbles, chocolate chips, or just a chocolate bar broken up)

  • Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
  • Combine the peanut butter, oil, and sugar until the sugar has dissolved.
  • Beat in the eggs until well mixed
  • Stir the flour and baking powder together and add to the rest of the mix.  Combine well.  (I suggest using an electric mixer with a dough hook, it's hard work by hand!)
  • The mixture will look a bit like crumbs, but when you squash it together in your hands it will come together.
  • Take a chunk of the mixture and press into a walnut sized ball.  Push a piece of chocolate into the middle of the ball and seal the mixture over the chocolate.  Flatten the ball and place on a baking sheet.  You will make about 24 cookies from this mix.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden.  Allow the cookies to harden for about 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.