Easy grain free soft cookies

While away I was looking for a cookie that I could make quickly, These have been so successful I have made three batches in a couple of weeks. You can add anything you fancy I have added raisins, dark chocolate chips or cherries . Maybe try adding chopped nuts. I think hazelnuts would work well.

Recipe –

100g ground almonds

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

2 tsp ground flax seeds

2 tbsp coconut flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp cinnamon ( you could add cacao or ground ginger instead )

1/3 cup honey

1 large egg

70g butter or coconut oil ( melted )

1/2 cup  or more – a mixture of raisins / cherries / chocolate chips /  sultanas  Be inventive !

Method

Put all the dry ingredients in to the bowl

then add in the egg, honey, melted butter or coconut oil.

mix well together , form into balls , place on a baking sheet with  greaseproof paper

squash down with your hand to flatten as they don’t spread much by themselves

bake for 12 mins at 175c

cool on a wire rack

store in an airtight container or freeze in two’s ready for a snack attack!

The ground flax seed and coconut flour are not cheap but kept in an airtight container they last ages .

Happy Baking !

 

 

 

 

 

Gluten free ‘oatmeal’ raisin cookies

I really miss biscuits and cookies since starting on the Specific carbohydrate diet. When I spotted this recipe in cooking for the Specific Carbohydrate diet by Erica Kerwien I was excited to give them a go!

 

The recipe is also available on comfy belly.com here

The recipe is called ‘oatmeal’ raisin cookies and uses coconut to give the same texture as oats.

Firstly I mixed the wet ingredients the almond butter ( I used Meridian smooth almond butter ) gorgeous ! an egg and vanilla extract.

 

To this I added the dry ingredients the desiccated coconut, ground cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda salt and raisins

then I mixed everything together.

I spooned mixture on to baking tray with parchment paper leaving a space for the cookies to spread. I made mine quite big and only made 11 the recipe says you can make 24!

they cooked quickly and in just 12 minutes the were baked and smelling delicious.

I allowed them to cool, on a wire rack

They were chewy and delicious and very moreish

You could lower the amount of honey if you are watching your sugar consumption . But these were made for a very rare treat. So I left the recipe as it was.

My husband said these were the best biscuits he had eaten in ages. I will have to hide the rest!

( We only have gluten free biscuits in the house )

I have tried many of the recipes from this book and can recommend if you are avoiding grains or are gluten free, or simply if you are trying to eat more healthily.

You can follow comfy belly on Twitter @comfybelly

 

Baking gluten free cookies

Today is The Great British Bake Off and as it’s biscuit week I thought I would make some gluten free cookies.

I decided to firstly make Ginger cookies from a recipe in The Gluten free baker by Hannah Miles. This book is fab, lots of recipes for cakes, cookies, bread and pastry. I can definitely recommend.

Hannah also has a Savoury version of this book called The Savoury gluten free baker.

You need

160g Gluten free self raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

180g ground almonds

180g caster sugar. I cut this down to 100g and found them sweet enough

2 teaspoons ground ginger

grated zest of 2 limes

125g butter

6 pieces of stem ginger in syrup finely chopped plus 3 tbsp of the ginger syrup

I started with the dry ingredients, then added the melted butter and syrup from the stem ginger.

I then stirred in the stem ginger finely chopped.

The oven needs to be preheated to 180c and you need 2 baking trays greased and lined.

The cookies tend to spread, so I left plenty of space around each one.

The cookies went in the oven for 12 mins then I left them on the trays to cool for a while.

Then moved to a wire rack.

I was very impressed with these cookies. Crunchy and chewy inside. Perfect!

So very easy to make.

Next I decided to take inspiration from The Gluten free Almond flour cookbook by Elana Amsterdam  to invent my own cookie.

A dark chocolate and cherry cookie

You need

100g gluten free self raising flour

110g almond flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g butter or coconut oil melted

100g agave nectar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

85g dark chocolate gluten free, Finely chopped

10g cocoa powder gluten free

handful of chopped glace cherries

I firstly mixed all the dry ingredients together

Then added the butter, agave and vanilla extract.

finely the chocolate finely chopped and the cherries.

pre heated oven at 180c .

I used a tablespoon to put the mixture on to the baking tray leaving plenty of space and flattening  slightly with the palm of  my hand. Then I popped them in the oven for 15 mins or until the cookies look dry on top and start to crack.

I left these on the baking sheets to cool before moving to the wire rack.

These cookies turned out  softer inside with a crunchy outside. I might try baking them for a little longer when I make them next time.

These biscuits are not overly sweet as I used dark chocolate.

Why not have a go at inventing your own cookie or biscuit. I’m very pleased with mine.

Happy Gluten free Baking!

Product review – Against the Grain Chocolate chip and Hazelnut cookies

Disclaimer – This is an unpaid review, I was sent this product to try and I have chosen to review them.

I am often disappointed by free from biscuits, sometimes they are crumbly, almost dry & dusty in texture. But not these gluten free, wheat and dairy free ones,  Against the grain cookies come in 5 varieties. The chocolate chip and hazelnut winning a gold taste award in 2009. This year they were shortlisted in the free from food awards.

I can see why!  They had a lovely crunch and the chips are dark chocolate ones which means the cookies don’t taste too sweet and have a subtle hazelnut flavour. These cookies make great dunkers too. They are also egg free.

The cookies are not overly large , but there are chunky and there are plenty of them,  9 in a beautifully presented box.  At £3.19 they seem a similar price to other free from organic biscuits. You can order these cookies online from Natures health box who have a big selection of gluten free cookies and biscuits as well as gluten free flour, pasta, crackers, cereal etc

Twitter – Natures health box