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.

Coffee + sesame cakes

Long time, no bake!

I know there’s been quite a long hiatus since my last post. At that time I felt quite creatively blocked- I was putting myself under so much pressure to come up with original recipes and I wasn’t happy with anything I created.

Yesterday I felt an urge to bake and got inspired by the sesame seeds I had in my cupboard. I’d seen a lot of people on Instagram use them in desserts, particularly paired with chocolate. Although it’s a relatively new trend to Western baking, many Asian countries have used sesame in desserts for decades.

Sesame has a sweet, nutty flavour that I wanted to experiment with. I personally can’t tolerate much cocoa due to a medical condition, but I love coffee flavoured desserts. Coffee and chocolate have similar qualities, with deep, roasted flavour notes. So why not coffee and sesame?

I can assure you, this combination really works. The sesame adds a sophisticated depth of flavour to the cake (and makes it seem much fancier than it is). I also added a spoonful of treacle to the batter- I was aiming for a slightly sticky cake, and the deep molasses works well with the other strong flavours. I used golden caster sugar for this recipe, but it would be interesting to see the results with a darker sugar.

The cake is soft and moist, with a little bit of texture from the seeds flecked through. My boyfriend described the flavours as a rollercoaster; first sesame, then coffee, then sesame again to finish. A little squiggle of chocolate on the top finishes these cakes off, and it works brilliantly with the rest of the flavours. This is one of my new favourite flavour combinations, and I can’t wait to experiment with it more!

Coffee + Sesame cakes

170g gluten-free self-raising flour

115g golden caster sugar

170g butter or dairy-free spread

1 tbs treacle

1 tbs coffee extract

30g sesame seeds

3 eggs

Chocolate and more sesame seeds for the top

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan.
Prepare whatever tin you’re using. This would make a lovely traybake, cupcakes, or possibly a loaf cake. I used my silicone tin with 12 small rectangular holes.
Mix the flour, sugar, butter/spread, treacle, coffee extract, sesame seeds and eggs together thoroughly in a bowl.
When the mixture is smooth and well-combined, place it into your tin and bake for about 15 minutes (depending upon the shape and size of your tin, this is how long mine took). I believe that you can smell when a cake’s ready, but you can always use a toothpick if you don’t trust your nose (an inserted toothpick should come out clean).
When the cake/s are ready, bring them out and allow them to cool in the tray. When cool, drizzle them with a little melted milk or dark chocolate (make sure the chocolate isn’t too hot or runny, allowing it to cool a little will make it easier to pipe) and sprinkle a few more seeds on the top to finish. Enjoy!

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!

Nutty chocolate chunk cookies

I’d like to start this post by apologising to my followers- two cookie recipes in a row might seem excessive. Rest assured, these recipes are pretty different. The papaya and coconut biscuits which I posted yesterday are firm and slightly crumbly, with tropical flavours. These are closer to an American cookie, softer and cakier, with crunchy nuts and caramelised chocolate chunks.

I used what’s known as ‘blonde’ chocolate in this recipe. It’s a white chocolate which has a lovely caramel appearance and taste. I actually used a bar which already had almonds and hazelnuts in it, which made the prep for these cookies very easy. I found this in my local supermarket, but you could always replace the chocolate and nuts with your own preferences.

I tempered the sweetness of the chocolate and added a depth of flavour with a little coffee extract. This paired really well with the chocolate and the nuts. You may be able to find this in the supermarket, online, or in baking shops. A little goes a long way, and I didn’t want coffee to be the dominant flavour, so I used it as I would use a vanilla essence.

In this recipe I tried a few tricks from the blog Meaningful Eats. I’m not very practised in biscuits so I thought a bit or prior research wouldn’t hurt!

These biscuits turned out a bit pale (happens a lot with gluten free baking) but they’re soft and tasty with a great biscuit to chunk ratio!

Nutty chocolate chunk cookies (makes 12)

210g gluten-free plain flour

30g ground almonds

110g brown sugar

55g white sugar

110g butter

1 egg

1 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp coffee extract

1 tsp baking powder

135g nuts and chocolate, roughly chopped

Mix the flour, ground almonds and baking powder together.
Melt the butter.
Mix the sugar, egg, milk and extracts into the melted butter. Add this mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine.
Cover the bowl and leave to sit for half an hour. This will allow the dough to firm up a bit.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 160 degrees and line two oven trays with baking paper.
I used an ice cream scoop to measure out the dough into equal portions. The dough isn’t terribly firm and may be a bit sticky but do your best to wrangle it into a circle. My cookies didn’t spread too much so you can put them close together.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until they’re lightly golden and not sticking to the paper.

Cinnamon + blueberry mini cakes

I first started experimenting with this particular flavour trio (blueberry, cinnamon and white chocolate) when I was young. I remember buying waffles from the supermarket and covering them with a fresh blueberry compote spiked with cinnamon, and then drizzling molten white chocolate over the top. I called them ‘midnight waffles’.

Years later I’ve decided to reunite the trio in cake form. The result is a toothsome cinnamon sponge (I don’t like to go small with spices) with fresh, bursting blueberries and white chocolate grated on top. I think this looks sweet, you may think it looks like toenail clippings. You could always drizzle melted chocolate instead, or even put chocolate chunks into the sponge along with the blueberries.

Cinnamon + blueberry mini cakes

110g Gluten free self-raising flour

110g softened butter

2 eggs

55g light brown sugar

One handful fresh blueberries

3 tsps ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 bar white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add the other ingredients (except the blueberries) and mix to combine.
Gently fold the blueberries into the mix.
Distribute the mixture and bake for around 12 minutes (times may vary depending on your tin).
Extract your cakes from the tin whilst they are warm but not hot, and grate the chocolate over them (if desired). If the cakes become too cool the chocolate will not stick to their surface.

Vegan date and chocolate flapjacks

In all truthfulness, this is not the recipe which I hoped to share today.

I’ve been thinking for a while about doing a vegan recipe. I had a can of pumpkin puree in the cupboard which I bought on a whim, and I thought I would try to do something with that. I planned to make nutty pumpkin muffins with a molten date caramel core. The batter looked promising, but the final results were disappointing (I’m not even sure they were edible).

It was time to come up with a plan B. I had about half the date caramel left (which was really more of a date paste). I also realised that I had some dairy free chocolate chips in the cupboard. The thought struck me: flapjack. Cake can go wrong in so many ways, especially when you attempt to make it vegan and gluten free. But flapjack? Making a flapjack vegan requires one simple substitution (dairy-free spread instead of butter). This can’t go wrong.

Sure enough, the flapjacks turned out well! Sticky, golden and toothsome, with a sweet layer of chocolate and date paste in the middle. Who said vegans have to live off celery sticks and hummus?

Vegan Chocolate and Date flapjack:

150g dates

1 tbsp almond butter

Almond milk

Vanilla extract

50g dairy-free chocolate chips (I used a mix of white and milk chocolate)

500g pure oats

8 tbsps golden syrup

200g light muscovado sugar

250g dairy-free spread

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a deep pan with baking paper.
Combine the dates with the almond butter, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt in a food processor. Add splashes of almond milk until you have a paste.
Melt the spread, golden syrup and sugar together, then add them to the oats and stir to combine.
Place half the oat mixture into the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Then spread the date paste on top of this layer.
Scatter the chocolate chips over the date paste layer. Then place the rest of the oats on top.
Bake for half an hour until golden, then leave to cool completely before slicing.