GF quinoa and chocolate chip cookies

Ok, ok I know it doesn't sound very Christmasy, but I bought some quinoa flour for the first time (my trip to Peru inspired me and I now want quinoa in everything!) and came across this recipe while searching for ideas on what to do with it. Actually I also found a recipe of pancakes but they were so yummy that I didn't get the chance to take a picture of them before eating them, so I guess I'll have to cook some more before posting!

Anyway these quinoa and chocolate chip cookies are absolutely gorgeous and are the closest thing I found to the wheat cookies I used to bake. I'm already loving quinoa flour.

Ingredients

- 125 g of quinoa flour

- 1 ½ tsp of GF baking powder

- 80 g of sugar (I used half muscovado/half demerara)

- 25 g of almond butter

- 25 g of oil

- 1 egg

- 100 g of dark chocolate chips

Directions

1/ Mix the almond butter and the oil until you get a smooth texture, add the sugar and whip for a bit. Stir in the egg.

2/ In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and chocolate chips. Stir in the first mix. Leave it aside for 10-15 minutes.

3/ Preheat the oven on 180°C.

4/ On a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper, form little bowls of dough (leave enough space between them, they are going to spread a bit). Flatten them.

5/ Bake for 10 to 15 minutes. They are ready when they get a nice golden colour but are still soft inside. You can keep the cookies for a few days in a tin.

Dark chocolate truffles

It's time to get ready for Christmas :)

And I don't know if it's the same for you, but I can't imagine going through December without a box of biscuits and chocolate in my cupboard. Naturally, it gets more complicated when you have to eat gluten and dairy free, especially when you are used to your Christmas fix full of nasty gluten :-S

But my will of eating sweet things and my desire to enjoy this time of the year being what they are, (and because I have some spare time to bake), I have decided to accept the challenge and find the best gluten and dairy free Christmas recipes.

Let's start with a French classic, chocolate truffles. The recipe comes from La faim des délices.

 

Ingredients

- 300 g of dark chocolate 60-70% cocoa

- 15 g of honey

- 70 g of water (I added a bit of almond milk too, but I would stick to this quantity of liquid next time to get harder truffles, maybe half water/half dairy-free milk)

- 25 g of vegetable oil

- some cocoa powder for coating

Directions

1/ Carefully melt the chocolate in the microwave, give it a stir.

2/ In a bowl, warm up the water, oil and honey. Pour over the melted chocolate and stir until you get a smooth and even texture.

3/ Add anything else you like to personalize the flavour : vanilla, rhum, orange blossom, cinnamon, chestnut puree, bergamot oil... I put half a teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 tbsp of chestnut puree and chose a strong chestnut tree honey.

4/ Leave it to cool down and keep in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight) until the chocolate mix sets.

5/ Prepare a bowl with some cocoa powder in. Scoop a teaspoon of chocolate mix and roll between the palms of your hands until you get a nice round truffle. Coat into cocoa and keep aside. Start again until you run out of the preparation. Have fun and enjoy! ;-)

Hazelnut cake

I had a whole pot of ground hazelnuts that I had bought in France last summer with my mum. I had somehow forgotten about it until yesterday when I found myself a baking mood. I was remembering the taste of a really moist hazelnut cake, even though it would be impossible for me to tell when and where I had it. So I decided to try Scally's recipe in the hope that it would match the cake I had in mind.

Here is the recipe of what seems to be called a gâteau creusois.

Ingredients

130 g of sugar

200 g of ground hazelnuts

100 g of melted salted butter/margarine

5 eggs

Instructions

1/ Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2/ Separate the eggs. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar for 3 minutes. Add the butter, then the hazelnuts and stir well.

3/ Whip the egg whites until soft peaks. Fold delicately in the egg yolk mix.

4/ Pour in a greased/lined baking tin and bake for 45 minutes.

This cake is awesome! Really moist, light and full of flavour, plus it's naturally gluten free :)

It will keep for a few days without a problem if you don't eat it all before! Enjoy!

Chestnut pancakes

I woke up this morning and wanted something special for breakfast. Because it is my day off, I have all the time in the world to cook so that's perfect :) 

In my cupboard, some chestnut flour that I really need to finish (the packet is small but because chestnut flour is quite strong you only use a tiny bit at a time), in the fridge, eggs and almond milk. Ok, I should be able to manage some pancakes with that, shouldn't I? After a quick look on internet for gluten free pancakes, I found a recipe on La Table de Clémence of pancakes with chestnut and rice flours. Sounds good to me!

Here it is.

Ingredients (for a dozen of pancakes)

55 g of chestnut flour
40 g of rice flour
15 g of demerara sugar (I put 30g)
1 teaspoon of GF baking powder
1 egg
10 cl of dairy free milk (I added a bit more at the end because I found my batter was too thick)
35 g of vegetable oil

Directions

1/ Combine dry ingredients in a bowl (flours, sugar, baking powder).

2/ Combine wet ingredients in a second bowl (egg, milk, oil).

2/ Combine wet and dry mixes and mix well. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes.

4/ Heat up a frying pan on medium heat with a bit of oil. When it's hot pour some of the pancake batter to form the pancakes. Cook until you see little bubbles (about 2 minutes or so), then flip the pancakes, cook for a bit longer on the other side and take out of the pan.


The result is very different from traditional wheat flour pancakes, so don't expect your pancakes to taste like them. The taste of chesnut is really lovely and because I put a bit more sugar than stated in the recipe, I could have eaten my pancakes on their own (I still spread some home made jam on them though!). Enjoy!

Gluten and dairy free courgette and potato quiche

I had been trying different recipes for a gluten free shortcrust pastry but could not find anything really satisfying, until the other day I came across this recipe by Valérie Cupillard: a vegetable quiche with a pastry made of rice and buckwheat flours, olive oil and rice milk. I had all the ingredients in my cupboard so it was perfect!

The pastry

- 60 g of brown rice flour

- 60 g of buckwheat flour

- 2 tbsp of olive oil

- 6 cl of rice milk

- 1/2 tsp of gluten free baking powder

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and roll the dough on a floured board with a rolling pin. 

(I usually put the dough between two sheets of grease proof paper and then use the rolling pin. It is much easier to roll and to lay the pastry in the tin.).

Lay the pastry in a quiche tin lined with grease proof paper.

The filling

- 1 large potato

- 1 small courgette

- a few dried tomatoes

- 3 eggs

- 10 cl of non-dairy cream (I used rice cream as I'm avoiding soy)

- some herbs/spices of your choice (basil, cumin, parsley...)

Peel the potato. Cut the potato and courgette into dices. Stry-fried them for a few minutes (the original recipe says to steam them). They must be al dente.

In a bowl, beat the eggs and the cream with a fork, add salt, pepper and spices/herbs.

Line the pastry with the cooked vegetables and some dried tomatoes, then pour the egg mix on top.

Cook for about 35 minutes in a oven preheated to 180°C.

It's really really easy to make so no excuse, plus now that you have the base, you can use the recipe with whatever filling you like :)

Gluten free blackberry cake

So I found out there was a blackberry bush growing up in our London garden! Some might see it as a thorny invasion, but I chose to see the bright side of it: I just have to open the door to get some fresh fruits for free :) Not quite as sweet as the blackberries growing up back home in France, but perfect for a cake!

Ingredients

- 180 g of flour (I used rice flour today with a bit of chestnut flour to give a nutty taste to the cake)

- 2 tsp of baking powder (gluten-free)

- 3 eggs

- 125 g of sugar (demerara as usual + a bit of agave syrup)

- 80 g of sunflower margarine (replace it with butter if you don't eat dairy-free)

- some cinnamon

- 300 g of blackberries ( but it can be any other berries)

Directions

1°/ Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2°/ Combine eggs and sugar and whisk for a bit. Then add melted margarine, flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir well.

3°/ Add the blackberries and stir gently. 

4°/ Pour the mixture in a greased round cake tin (or loaf tin) and bake for about 45 minutes (I covered with foil after 30 minutes).

So easy to make and really moist, it's the perfect summer cake. I couldn't wait until it had completely cooled down to try it... but I can now tell that warm, it's delicious too :)

Gluten free marble loaf

I got a great book by Valérie Cupillard in which everything is gluten and dairy free (some recipes are eggless too) and taste amazing. Today's test was a marble loaf. A really basic cake but great at any time of the day.

Ingredients

- 120 g of brown rice flour

- 90 g of demerara sugar

- 80 g of dairy free margarine

- 40 g of ground almonds 

- 3 eggs

- 1 1/2 tsp of GF baking powder

- 1tsp of liquid vanilla

- 1 tbsp of cocoa powder

Directions

1°/  Preheat the oven to 210°C.

2°/ Whisk together the sugar and margarine. Add the ground almonds and eggs and keep whisking. Then add in the rice flour and baking powder.

3°/ Divide the dough into 2: pour a smaller half in a bowl and add the cocoa powder to it. Add the vanilla to the first half. 

4°/ In a greased loaf tin, pour half of the vanilla mix. Then pour over it the chocolate mix, following a central line, and the rest of the vanilla mix, still following the middle of the cake. 

5°/ Bake for 10 minutes at 210°C, then lower the temperature to 180°C and bake for about 30 more minutes.