Stem ginger and buckwheat cookies (GF, DF)

When you’re eating gluten free, you can usually find some great substitutions in the shops. Pasta, cereal, even the bread that’s available in shops is improving. But there’s one thing I’ve been struggling to find, and to make. The object of my desire is a perfectly chewy cookie. The cookies that I’ve been making and buying so far have all been wrong; too crunchy, too cakey, just plain wrong. That is, until now.

One day I decided to experiment with some buckwheat flour that I’d bought for another project. Buckwheat is a gluten-free grain with a nutty flavour, commonly used to make crepes. It’s also the not-so-secret ingredient to making perfect, chewy, flavoursome GF cookies.

In this recipe I don’t use a typical GF flour blend, just the buckwheat flour (this is available from health food shops). I also use chunks of crystallised ginger to add a really autumnal flavour and texture. I’m sure if you prefer you could use the balls of stem ginger in syrup, but the crystallised ginger lasts a long time in the cupboard and is generally neater to handle.

This may sound a bit nonsensical, bit I’ve started piping my chilled cookie dough onto the prepared trays before baking. I find that GF mixtures tend to be sticky and difficult to shape, and one day I decided to pipe the mixture using a piping bag and large round nozzle. Large chunks of ginger or chocolate chips tend to get a bit stuck (use the end of a teaspoon to unblock the nozzle) but I do think it makes my cookies more even in shape and size. They’re still not perfect, but they’re homemade, so I’m not worried about perfection! Plus, the piping saves me fiddling around with spoons.

I finished these babies off with a swirl of dark chocolate. This was a surprisingly relaxing process: cut the very tip off a piping bag and don’t try to be too neat about it. Let your wrist swing in a natural circular motion, the chocolate will flow and all will be well.

Stem ginger and buckwheat cookies (makes 18, GF, DF)

100g crystallised stem ginger, chopped into bite-size pieces

150g light brown sugar

110g soft butter or dairy-free spread

1 egg

150g buckwheat flour

pinch salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 bar dark chocolate for decoration (use dairy free chocolate if you’re making these DF)

Cream the soft butter/spread with the sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.
Add the egg and mix well.
Add the flour, salt and baking powder and mix well to combine.
Stir in the chopped stem ginger until distributed.
Cover the bowl with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan and prepare two large, flat baking trays with baking paper.
Put the cookie dough into a piping bag fitted with a large, round nozzle and pipe the dough onto the trays, ensuring space between the cookies. This mixture will make about 18 cookies; each portion should be roughly the size of a golf ball.
Bake the cookies for around 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Once baked, carefully place the cookies on a cooling rack. Melt the whole bar of dark chocolate and allow to cool for two minutes before placing in a piping bag. cut the very end off the piping bag (you only want a very small opening for the chocolate to flow through).
When the cookies are fully cooled you can decorate them. Starting in the middle of the cookie, smoothly move your wrist in a circular motion to achieve the chocolate spiral effect. Leave for the chocolate to set, and then keep in an airtight container.

Easter Rocky Road

When I was a child, we had an Easter tradition. Every year we would crush Shredded Wheat, mix it with melted chocolate and form it into nests. They were finished off with mini chocolate eggs and taken into primary school, where they were always received well.

Now, sadly, I can’t eat cocoa or wheat (shredded or otherwise). I can, however, eat white chocolate, and I think the colour looks so bright and springlike.

The textures of this rocky road are provided by crispy puffed rice, chunks of crumbly shortbread, and cubes of hot cross bun. If you’re disappointed by the lack of marshmallows in this recipe, then by all means put some into yours.

This recipe is definitely for those with a sweet tooth, so I’d recommend cutting it into dainty cubes. This would be a nice project to do with children; they’ll be entranced by the melted chocolate, and they’ll love the mixing and decorating.

To decorate, I used pastel sugar sprinkles and white chocolate eggs. Feel free to deviate! The shops are full with so many gorgeous Easter treats to use.

This quick, no-bake treat is also suitable for freezing! Why not make some this weekend and freeze them, ready for the big day (If you can wait that long!)

Easter Rocky Road

1 gluten-free hot cross bun

100g gluten-free shortbread

15g gluten-free puffed rice

405g white chocolate

Decorations

Cut the hot cross bun into small cubes and set aside.
Cut the shortbread into big chunks.
Measure out the rice and set aside.
Break all the chocolate. Place two thirds of it into a bowl set over a pot of water. Gnetly heat the pot to melt the chocolate, making sure to stir and watch it carefully.
Once the chocolate’s melted, add in the shortbread, rice and bun pieces. Stir to combine then press into a 20cm square pan (lined with baking paper).
Melt the final third of the chocolate. This will be poured over the top of the rocky road to make the surface smoother.
Once the chocolate has been poured and spread on top, the surface of the rocky road should look even and ready for decorating. Place your decorations on before the chocolate sets. When you’re happy, place in the fridge and leave to chill for about an hour.
Once it’s set, cut into small chunks and enjoy!

Papaya + coconut cookies

One thing which I haven’t mentioned so far on my blog is that I suffer from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and a reflux condition. Because of these I’ve ‘restricted’ my diet over the past few years, excluding and reducing certain foods to treat my symptoms.

When I was first diagnosed with IBS in December 2014 I did what people usually do and went to google. Online I saw countless stories from sufferers who were thoroughly miserable. People with no social life, people who felt completely helpless (it is a sad truth that there are links between digestive issues and poor mental health). These stories terrified me, and I was determined to find control over my illness in whatever way I could.

My life completely transformed once I got onto a low-FODMAP diet and cut out gluten. Later on I also had to cut out cocoa (sob) to treat my reflux disorder. Although the diet is a nuisance sometimes, I can honestly say that I feel normal again. I’m not debilitated by my disorders anymore, and any flare-ups are infrequent and much easier to manage.

That’s the back story in brief. I’ll leave some links below the recipe for those of you who’d like to know more about the topic.

When I started my diet I had an app that indicated which foods were ‘safe’ to eat on the diet, and which should be avoided. Once I was done mourning for the foods that I couldn’t eat (technically an ongoing process) I decided to focus on the ‘safe’ foods which I hadn’t tried before, which included lots of lovely tropical fruit like papaya.

If anything, this diet has pushed me to become a better and more creative cook. If you’re also on a restricted diet, or you have some digestive trouble, I hope to be a positive corner of the internet for you. You’ll find replacements, and you might even find some new favourite foods. You don’t have to lose the joy in food.

Now I’ll tell you about these cookies. Lightly crispy and golden on the outside, these are robust biscuits with gorgeous chewy pieces of dried papaya and a mellow coconut flavour which isn’t overpowering. If you’re not keen on papaya you could replace it with chunks of dried pineapple for a pina colada style cookie!

Papaya + coconut cookies

200g gluten-free plain flour

100g light brown sugar

50g dessicated coconut

90g small dried papaya chunks (I got mine at Holland & Barrett)

50ml coconut oil

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp baking powder

Line two baking trays and preheat your oven to 160 degrees.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Melt the coconut oil and add to the dry ingredients alongside the egg and milk.
Mix until combined. The mixture should look damp but a little crumbly.
Take an amount a bit larger than a golf ball and shape it into a patty in your palms. The dough should just hold together when pressed into shape. I made 9 cookies with this amount of dough.
Bake for around 17 minutes until the cookies are golden and not sticking to the baking paper.

More information about IBS:

The IBS Network: a British IBS charity with information and support

The NHS webpage for IBS

Information on the gut-brain connection (link between digestive and mental health)

Information about the low-FODMAP diet

Salty Dog biscuits

I’ve been lucky enough to spend this weekend by the seaside with my family. I grew up in the countryside, and I’ve lived in cities for the past few years, but nothing compares to the seaside in my opinion. Every time I’m here I think, the Victorians got one thing right, health-wise: this place has healing properties. Something about the air and the water helps even the most wound-up amongst us to get some rest. As my mum says, the biggest problem around here is what to eat for lunch (a problem easily solved; platefuls of smoked fish and prawns for me, fresh lobster and chips for the parents).

I decided that during my visit I wanted to bake something which complimented my surroundings. That’s when the Salty Dog cocktail popped into my head. The name alone makes one think of the sea, and then when you consider the ingredients (gin, grapefruit juice, and a salt rim), it sounds like a very tasty way to keep scurvy at bay.

The next question to solve was the form of the bake itself. I briefly considered a traybake, but I don’t want this blog to be full of cake. I need to stretch myself a bit and do some other bakes. I’m not much of a biscuit baker though, and I was worried about how to get the strong flavours of this cocktail into a biscuit.

In order to do this, I added the zest of a grapefruit into my biscuit dough, as well as something a little more experimental. Before I mixed my dough ingredients together I dampened my sugar with a bit of grapefruit juice; not enough to dissolve the sugar or make it syrupy, just to make it sort of damp and clumpy. The citrus flavour definitely carries through these biscuits.

The icing is also made with grapefruit juice and some gin, and the biscuits are finished with a little more zest and some sea salt. The salt is my favourite part of these biscuits: it enhances the other flavours so well without being overwhelming. It’s not a consistent flavour either, as you would expect from a salted caramel, for example. The flecks of salt burst on your tongue at unexpected moments as you eat the biscuit.

I also really like the ‘sunburst’ design of the icing on these biscuits, but it’s tricky to master and required a bit of practice. I used a teaspoon with the icing, dripping the icing in a thin stream over the biscuits, but you could probably achieve more precise results with a piping bag.

These biscuits are quite light and crumbly, so for goodness’ sake PLEASE don’t even think about putting them in your tea. I think the elegant nature of these biscuits make them perfect for an afternoon tea. Pretty and delicate, with unexpected flavours, I reckon they’d be a hit.

Salty Dog biscuits: (makes 28)

300g plain gluten free flour

200g butter or substitute

100g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

2 grapefruits

1 tbsp gin

300g icing sugar

Sea salt

Combine the zest of 1 grapefruit with the flour and butter. In a separate bowl, dampen the sugar with a wedge of grapefruit until it is damp and clumpy but not syrupy or dissolved.
Add the sugar to the flour/butter mixture with the egg yolk and combine into a soft dough. Wrap with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least one hour.
Prepare a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper and preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
Take your dough from the fridge and place it between two pieces of greaseproof paper. Roll it out until it is about the thickness of a pound coin, then cut circles. I used a glass to do this; my circles were about three inches across.
Place the biscuits onto the paper. You can place them closely together, the dough doesn’t really spread as it cooks. Bake them for 10-12 minutes until they are dry and do not stick to the baking paper. They should be golden brown at the edges.
Place the biscuits on a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely. Combine the icing sugar with the gin and mix. The icing should be of a pourable consistency. If it is not, add fresh grapefruit juice (you can use a sieve to avoid getting chunks of grapefruit flesh in the icing).
Drizzle the icing back and forth in a ‘sunburst’ pattern. Then, before the icing dries hard, sprinkle on a little sea salt and grate some fresh grapefruit zest on top.