Lemon Happiness Cookie's

I call these cookies, but technically they should be called shortbread since they have no eggs in and loads of flour. They're called Happiness Cookie's because they make me very popular in my house (which in turn makes me happy), everyone seems to like them and they're my Baking Trump Card which I usually play when a person who has previously been cynical about gluten-free food comes over for coffee and I palm them off at non G/F. Nobody knows the difference and the g/f sceptics go home with a few tucked in their handbags and the recipe in hand. Yes, I am that good.

 

Ingredients

• 50g/2oz Salted butter
• 75g/30z Caster sugar
• 150g/6oz Self raising flour (Doves Farm)
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Makes 16

Extras

• Large baking tray
• Greaseproof paper
• Butter or oil for greasing

Method

• Preheat your oven to Gas 3 and get to work greasing and lining your baking tray.
• Beat together the sugar and butter in a large bowl either with a wooden spoon or if your a lazy mare like moi then dig out the electric whisk. give the whole lot a good beat/whisk until its soft and light and well mixed.
• Stir in the rind and juice of the lemon (careful of paper cuts!) and mix through the sugar/butter mix.
• Sift the flour into the bowl and rub it in with your finger tips, pulling the mixture into a ma-hussive ball. At this stage if it feels dry add a few drops of milk,likewise if it feels too wet add a sprinkle of flour. Your aiming for a non crumbly non sticky dough (clear as mud,eh?).
• Pull small bits off of the mixture and roll into large walnut sized balls and pop on the baking tray.
• Bake in the oven for around 15minutes, due to the totally unpredictable nature of g/f baking they may need 5-10minutes more. They will brown slightly on top and will be firm when cooked so check on them and give them a poke to judge whether they're done.
• Serve to all those who say 'I don't want any of your manky/dry/bland gluten-free crap' and once they've devoured your awesome cookies, they can then EAT THEIR WORDS. 

Christmas Spiced Snickerdoodles

I harked on about Snicker-doodles in yesterdays post, but actually failed to explain what they are. According to Nigella they're sort of like an oven baked doughnut and a cross between a cookie and sponge, they remind me of those massive sweet pretzels with the cinnamon sugar, and everyone knows I'm a slut for cinnamon. They're the sort of thing that could be varied in so many different ways, but for now I'm going to give you the original recipe without any variations. It's a nice Christmas type recipe, and I've already eaten my body weight of the batch I made yesterday, they are defiantly VERY morish, and something which look good without much effort (shame the same thing can't be said for my hair).

Ingredients
Makes around 24-32 

• 1 Egg
• 1 Tsp vanilla essence or extract (I used essence here)
• 125g Butter
• 100g Caster sugar
• 250g Gluten-free plain flour (Doves Farm, or a multi purpose plain mix)
• 3/4 Tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 1/2 Tsp salt 
• 1/2 Tsp nutmeg (ground)

For the cinnamon sugar

• 2 Tbsp caster sugar
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

 Method

• Pop your oven on lowish heat, at Gas 4/180c and grease and line a few baking trays.
• Using a food mixer, whizz up the butter and sugar until its smooth and creamed together. Crack in the egg and add the vanilla and blitz for around 10 seconds.
• Add in the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt and blitz until you have a thick mixture, which shouldn't be runny, but look almost like pastry and which can be handled without falling to bits or crumbling. 
• Pinch off walnut sized balls and roll them around in your hand to make them smooth and even. 
• On a dish or plate mix your cinnamon and 2 tbsp's of sugar together. Roll your 'doodles through the cinnamon/sugar mix until they're completely covered and place on your baking trays.
• Pop in the oven for around 15-20mins, they should have coloured all over and be slightly hard on the outside.
• Let them cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling down. 
• They'll last around 5 days in a jar or sealed Tupperware, that's if you don't eat them all within 24 hours of baking them...not that I've done that or anything...

Jam, balls and Snicker-doodles.

Today I made strawberry jam. If anyone knows an easy way to making jam I want to hear it, because it was a total ball ache from start to finish. I shan't be doing it again, and I'm actually going to stop talking about it now, because I'm still terribly vexed about the whole thing.
However, my first attempt at the infamous Snicker-doodles turned out rather well, I was very pleased, and they were really easy to make, which as you know for me is a pre-requisite for any recipe. Rather stupidly I thought Snicker-doodles were THE new baking craze on the block (Nigella's in her Islington home wringing her hands at my total ignorance). I'd been having a research online for new baking fads, and came across Snicker-doodles, so in my defence I was mislead by the site on which I found this information, but also rather stupidly I hadn't noticed that the sodding recipe was actually in my Nigella How To Be a Domestic Goddess book (did I mention it's signed?). Didn't I feel like a pillock.
Anyway, my stupidity aside, Snicker-doodles (I'm going to call 'em Doodles because I'm getting irritated calling them by by the full name) are very very yummy, and because they have cinnamon and nutmeg in they're  a very christmassy type biccie/sponge hybrid which would make a nice pressie in a pretty bag, or you could keep them in a box under your bed and keep them for yourself. I know a lot of American recipes use vanilla ice cream to sandwich them together, and other recipes I've seen have used a cream or frosting but since this was the first time I made them I haven't made a butter or frosting or cream to eat them, but I can see why they would be even yummier with such an accompaniment, and it's something I'll probably do next time I make them.
In other news I got some really pretty vintage style baubles from Sainsbury's of all places and they're so lovely, very shabby chic. I used to have a lovely big hand painted bauble that I used to hang in my room, and then I had an accident and it smashed..OK that's a lie, my MUM actually broke it, but in her defence I had hung it on the back of the door, and hence when my bedroom door was open it would push against the side of my wardrobe, so upon an over zealous door opening from mother my poor bauble got crushed in between.
Crushed balls aside, I'm getting on with making my pressies now, I successfully made an owl a la Emily (at the moment sans wings) and I must remember to send her a pic of my (dire) attempt, I'm not sure its going to make the grade to be given as a present yet, but we'll see, I might get desperate.
I've managed to wangle an interview with one of Dietary Specials lovely staff, so that's coming up soon, probably in the new year when I pull my finger out. Also, I have a FACQ guide, (Frequently Asked Coeliac Questions) that you can pass on to family, friends and all those people who ask (stupid) questions about the ins and outs of coeliacs.

Awkward as arse jam.

P.s. Sorry for the crap title name, It's a constant effort to be witty. Stayed tuned for the 'Doodle' recipe tomorrow, if I haven't commited Jam-O-Cide and thrown the whole lot out the window.

Outrageously Oaty, Sultana and Cinnamon Biccies.

I adapted this recipe from ye old faithful Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook who's cakes and biccies are on a par with my one and only Nigella.

Ingredients
Makes 20

• 270g Soft butter
• 160g Caster sugar
• 160g Soft brown demerara sugar
• 2 Large eggs
• 1/4 Tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp of vanilla essence
• 380g Plain Flour (as always Doves Farm are great, but any plain flour mix works just as well)
• 1 Tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 1/2 Tsp cinnamon
• 110g Rolled oats (omit if you can't tolerate oats)
• 220g Sultana's 

Note: I use Sultana's in this cookie recipe becauseIi think they're not so shriveled as raisins and tend not to burn as easily either, but feel free to use raisins if you prefer.


Method

• Whack your oven up to Gas 4/180.
• Cube the butter up and throw into a food mixer and blend with the caster and demerara sugars until soft, smooth and well mixed.
• Mix in an egg at a time, making sure it's all thoroughly combined. next add your vanilla and give it all another good blitz.
• With your wet mix done you can get on with the dry ingredients. Sift your flour, salt, bicarb and cinnamon into a large bowl and then adding the oats, giving the whole lot a good stir so the oats and raising agents are distributed well into the mix.
• Stir the butter mix through the dry flour/oat mix and give it all a ruddy good mix, you don't want any dry pockets in the mixture where the flour hasn't been mixed through properly so give it some wellie.
• Add your sultana's or raisins to the mix and give it all one final big mix.
• Spoon onto baking trays lined with parchment, these babies spread faster than swine flu so make sure they're all evenly spaced so you don't end up one with big giant cookie.
• I found that these cookies needed longer than Hummingbird's allotted time of 12minutes, it was more like 20-30 minutes and I had to up the temperature from gas 3 to 4. My advice would be to start off on gas three and check the biscuits after 12 minutes and go from there.  They should be firm, and golden (slightly darker round the edges) when they're cooked.
• Once cooked, take them out the oven and leave to cool for 2-3 minutes before you pop them onto a cooking rack.
• Enjoy with a glass of full fat milk or a hot chocolate with your feet in your favourite slippers, your nose in your favourite book and my favourite cookie in your mouth!

Riskin' it for a biscuit.

It's a spanking nice day here in my little house by the sea. The sun is shining, I've got my cosy winter slipper boots on and its the perfect day for baking. The day is oh-so much sweeter as The Boyf will be here by eight-thirty tonight and we get to spend a whole week doing lots of nice smug couple things like shopping in The Laine's, going out for dinner at our favorite restaurant and watching our favourite telly programs in our PJ's.
Today's recipe is for one of my most favourite all time biscuits. I don't often have much need to make cookies or biscuits as there's such a vast range of gluten-free biccies in the shops that I only tend to make them when it gets to seven in the evening and theres nothing sweet to eat in the house. I should really make them more, because they're one of the easiest G/F items you can possibly make.
This recipe is for an oatmeal and sultana cookie. If you read my July post To Oat or Not to Oat you will know that oats are not suitable for all Coeliac's, if your sensitive (you poor lamb) to oat's this recipe isn't for you as it uses pure rolled oats, they're pure in the sense that they are processed in a factory which doesn't handle wheat or gluten and are therefore considered 'clean'. However, these biscuits are just as yummy without the oats so feel free to omit them.
In other G/F news, good old Phil Vickery has got a new book out, Seriously Good! Gluten-Free Baking, which will be worth at good butchers at I should imagine, also in the Telegraph recently (hark at me with my broadsheets!) there was a little article by Xanthe Clay (what a name!) on Phil's new book and is worth a little read as well, I'll put the link under Links to Love so you can peruse at your leisure.
It was also bought to my attention that annabelkarmel.com now do gluten free items, including some oh-so-cute gluten-free pasta stars (which are suitable for 7months+ by the way so I think we're all in the clear there). They also do some really very sweet baking sets, which I really shouldn't be coveting as they're for children, but what can I say, I cant resist the lure of tiara shaped cookie cutters.