Dairy-free,spelt gingerbread cookies

I loooove gingerbread! A few years back, I started making Martha Stewart's recipe which calls for some ground black pepper. Wow, that pepper really made those cookies pop!

Fast forward a few years and the naturopath's advice to avoid dairy and wheat... Boohoo! Well, I knew a girl with a wheat allergy in high school, and she ate a lot of spelt products so that was one of the first grains I turned to for baked goods.

Through an internet search, I came across this blog, which had a great-sounding recipe. I accidentally added the sugar to the dry mix rather than the melted butter/molasses, which resulted in some sugar crystals in the cookies but hey, that's not the end of the world.



Compared to regular GBC (gingerbread cookies) made with wheat flour, these ones came out lighter and a bit puffier. I guess with baked goods, spelt will never yield the same results as flour. I'm not sure if you could poke a hole in the top of these and hang them on your tree, but they are excellent to nibble on while decorating your tree!

Puffy man and snowman

I modified the amount of spices, and ended up adding about 3 tbsp of spelt flour to the dough because it was quite soft.

Spelt Gingerbread Cookies
Adapted from Rackle's Ramblings
Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached organic whole grain spelt flour, sifted (plus more for rolling)
1/4 - 1/2 cup finely chopped (minced) crystallized ginger (optional) I omitted this
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-2 tbsp ground ginger (I used 2 tsp)
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon (I used 1 tsp)
1 tsp ground cardamon (omitted)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground coriander (omitted)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup unsalted organic butter (I used Earth Balance)
1/3 cup Sucanat (organic fair-trade evaporated cane juice) (I used yellow cane sugar)
1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
1 large organic/free range egg, beaten

Method:

In a sauce pan over very low heat, melt butter (or butter substitute) and add molasses, then sugar, stirring until dissolved. Turn off heat and let cool a few minutes, then add beaten egg.

In mixing bowl combine flour, spices, salt and baking soda. Gradually add liquid ingredients to flour mixture, stirring each time until flour is completely absorbed. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir, it should be ready to be kneaded by hand. If dough sticks to hands, add small amounts (1 tbsp at a time) of flour until dough no longer sticks and is firm but pliable and shiny. Shape into a round, wrap in plastic or cover in a bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill at least 4 hours.

Place oven racks in the middle and pre-heat oven to 350.

On a floured surface, roll out dough using floured rolling pin. I just put the same piece of cling wrap the dough was wrapped in over the dough and rolled over it with an unfloured rolling pin.
to 1/8" thickness.

Once you cut as many cookies as possible using your cookie cutters, pull away the excess dough and place dough shapes on baking trays lined with parchment (not wax) paper. Place trays on rack positioned in middle of oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on size of cookies.

Cool on wire racks. These cookies get crunchier the more they cool so be patient!

Orange Coconut Chocolate Bites

This one's for my sister. No dairy, no wheat, no nuts for her so this is what came to mind: zesty orange, balanced with rich coconut, coated in dark, dairy-free chocolate.

I forgot to toast the coconut. My sister she preferred it to be chewy but I think she was just trying to be nice.

I pressed these into a mini-cupcake tin lined with paper cupcake liners so my sister could easily eat them on the go. I think they would make great mounds or even rounds if you don't have mini-cupcake tins or liners.

Ingredients:

Zest of 1 orange
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
100g good quality dark chocolate

Mix together the orange zest and coconut. In a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt dark chocolate.

When the chocolate is about 2/3 melted, remove from heat. Stir in the coconut and orange zest.

Spoon the mixture into mini-cupcake liners, or on top of parchment paper in mounds.

Dry for about 1 hour.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

I read about these fantastic-looking treats on a chat forum and followed a link that took me to this blog. Giver's Log has a lot of beautiful, wonderful gift ideas. I'm really excited to give these hot chocolate sticks to people for the winter holidays. My mom and sister were really impressed with how they turned out.

I used old-fashioned hard plastic ice cube trays and had a hard time getting the chocolate out of them. If you twist the tray too soon, the chocolate will crack, and let's just say 2 of my chocolate cubes had to be sacrificed to the "greater good". I'll bet those new-fangled silicone ones would be much easier, plus they come in very fun shapes. Giver's Log featured ones made in a long stick mold which would be perfect!

I packaged mine in cellophane bags and filled the bag with abotu 10 mini marshmallows.

Be sure to use decent quality chocolate. I used Swiss dark chocolate, Belgian milk chocolate, and a very good white chocolate (Green & Black's).

I crushed some candy-canes to a peppermint hot chocolate, chopped up some candied ginger for a slightly spicy hot chocolate, and of course left some plain for the purists.



Here's what you'll need!
(I ended up with 12 cubes)

Heat proof glass bowl (like pyrex)
Medium sized saucepan that the bowl can sit on
Wooden stir sticks or spoons if you can find them.

Ingredients:

300g of good quality chocolate
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
50g of good quality chocolate for dipping the cubes in (optional)
toppings, like crushed candy cane, chopped candied ginger, spices, etc. (optional)

Method

1. Chop chocolate into meltable pieces. Simmer a couple of inches of water in a pan and place glass bowl over the top to make a double boiler. Be sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water beneath it. Be sure to check the waterto make sure it stays at a simmer. Dump chocolate into the clean, dry bowl and stir as the chocolate melts.
2. Once the chocolate is 2/3 melted, with just some pieces of the chocolate unmelted, remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring until chocolate is fully melted.
3. Add cocoa, sugar, and salt and continue to stir until combined.
4. Lift the bowl off the pan and use a towel to dry off any drips of water. Using 2 spoons, spoon the chocolate into the ice cube tray (about 2 spoonfuls per cube)
   
5. Tap the ice cube tray on the counter to make sure all the chocolate settles into the mold. Add a stir stick and you’re done. The stir stick should stay upright without any trouble.

Let the chocolate cool at room temperature for 3 or more hours. Resist the urge to poke or twist the ice tray!

To remove, wiggle the stir stick slightly and give a gentle tug. If it really seems stuck, jab a sharp paring knife between the chocolate and the mold wall.

I had air bubbles in some of mine so I melted white chocolate to dip the cubes in for a snow-topped look. You can place these in a tall mug, stick down (of course) for the the topping to dry.

To enjoy, stir 1 stick of chocolate in a cup of very hot milk.

Giver's Log attached lovely tags to the stir sticks. Great idea!

Crumbly Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

I'm probably missing some not-so-secret ingredient, but every time I make wheat-free cookies, they end up very crumbly. Like, every time I even touch them, they turn to 50% crumbs and 50% actual cookie. Well, if it's eating crumbly wheat-free cookies or no cookie at all, I can handle some crumbling. If you're lucky enough to be able to eat ice cream, the caramelized sugar, toasty oats and coconut crumbs would taste heavenly sprinkled on top of vanilla ice cream. Oh, how I miss dairy sometimes!

Crunchy, chewy, toasty bits...

My mother-in-law, J, sent me the recipe for these very fragrant, chewy but crispy cookies. I don't know where she got the recipe from, but I think it's from an Australian cookbook. J had mentioned that the first time she baked them, she didn't bake them for long enough and so she put them back in the oven the next day, and they were fine.

My problem was getting them off the cookie sheet. I greased the sheet, but did not flour it. Lesson learned. I'd be interested in making these into squares of some sort in the future... Maybe adding some more nuts and/or dried fruit?

The edges get nice and caramelized

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies
Yield: approx 2 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup shredded coconut (I used unsweetened, unsulfered coconut)
125g (4oz) butter (I used 1/4 cup vegan shortening and 1/4 cup coconut oil)
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I chopped some blanched, sliced almonds)

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add beaten eggs and vanilla, beat well.
Stir in oats, nuts and toasted coconut.
Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture on to lightly greased and floured oven trays;
allow room for spreading. Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes; cool on trays.

I baked them at 350 C for 10 minutes, then lowered the temp to 325 C, rotated the pans and
baked for another 5 mins.  That was probably not the best idea; I should have baked them
at 300 C for about 15-20 mins.  Lesson for next time...

Healthier than your average Crispy Rice Square

How can something that doesn't taste that sweet have so much sugar in it? Well, OK I don't know if Rice Krispies have soooo much sugar in them, but it's still very high on the list, along with glucose-fructose syrup... then add those marshmallows!! Yikes!

The high sugar content in marshmallows wasn't the only reason I chose an alternate recipe. I wanted to make a recipe without eggs or dairy. My sister can't have eggs, and neither of us can have dairy. I don't have any vegan friends, but I'll be prepared if I ever do :-).

This recipe still uses sugar, but you can definitely control what kind of sugar you use. I found evaporated coconut sap at a health food store (lower GI than regular sugar) and brown rice syrup. I also used unsweetened peanut butter rather than margarine, but if you're feeling schmancy, you could definitely use almond or some other glamorous nut butter.
The syrup, sap, and PB become like gooey caramel in this treat.


For cereal, I used organic brown puffed rice cereal. I also subbed 2 cups oats in place of 2 cups cereal for extra fiber and some chew.

Vegan Peanut Butter Puffed Rice and Oat Squares
(let's see you come up with a better name!)

5 cups puffed brown rice cereal
2 cups slow cooking oats
1 cup brown rice syrup
1 cup evaporated coconut sap (you could use brown sugar or cane sugar instead)
1 cup smooth peanut butter

Preheat oven to 300 C and toast oats until lightly toasted (I had mine in there for about 7 minutes but this might depend on your oven).
Pour rice syrup and coconut sap in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat, and stir in the peanut butter. Mix well to ensure that PB is really mixed in with the syrup.
Place toasted oats in a large bowl and combine with puffed rice cereal.
Pour PB syrup mixture over the oats and cereal and use a large rubber spatula to combine. The syrup gets very sticky as it cools but the oil from the PB does help to keep it from getting too sticky.
Spread mixture out in a greased 9 in x 13 in (think lasagna pan) and cool.
Cut into squares and enjoy!

Green Tea Shortbread

It was my sister's bridal shower the other day, and as favours for all the guests, we decided to bake cookies. G baked some lovely chewy ginger cookies, and I yoinked a Martha Stewart Matcha Shortbread recipe. You'll notice these cookies are in a strange shape and it wouldn't surprise me if you've never seen such a shape. G said they looked like dog treats! Actually, they are supposed to be shaped like a section of a Japanese pine tree. I will have you know, G, the Japanese pine lives a really long time (don't ask me for a specific age, but I do know some of these trees have been around for centuries) and when you try to pluck a needle off of a pine tree, you'll always end up with 2 needles stuck together. So there.



I changed up Martha's recipe a bit by using 1 tbsp Japanese matcha powder, and 1 tbsp Japanese green tea leaves. These cookies are buttery and delicious. I used salted butter as well so omitted the extra salt that her recipe calls for. The saltiness of the butter and the slight bitterness of the green tea goes together very well. In a weird way, the bitterness almost brings out the sweetness of the cookie, too. Maybe that's the key to marriage. You've got to get through the bitterness to taste the sweetness, and then you become an old salt.


Martha Stewart's matcha Shoretbread Cookies:

Makes 3 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 2 tablespoons Chinese green-tea powder (I used 1 tbsp Japanese Matcha powder and 1 tbsp Japanese green tea leaves)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt (I omitted this)
  
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (I used salted butter)
  
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, or granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Sift flour, tea powder, and salt into a small bowl; set aside. Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream on medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar; continue to beat until very light in color and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add flour mixture; combine on low, scraping sides of bowl with a spatula if necessary, until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together when squeezed with fingers.
2. Place a piece of parchment on a clean surface; dust with flour. Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness; chill in refrigerator or freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Cut chilled dough with 2-inch leaf cutters. Using a wide spatula, transfer to baking sheets. Chill until firm. Gather scraps together, re-roll, chill, and cut shapes. Bake until firm and barely starting to color, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cool completely on wire rack; store in an airtight container for up to 3 to 4 weeks.

Lemon Coconut Macaroons

These came out soooo light and chewy with the richness of coconut and refreshing zest of lemon. I actually got the recipe for these from www.mimi54.wordpress.com, but subbed 3/4 cup of the almond flour for shredded unsweetened coconut. I also accidentally added 1 cup of sugar rather than 3/4 cup, with 1/4 of the cup for rolling the cookies in. I personally don't think these cookies need to be rolled in suagr and next time I make them, I'll only use 3/4 cup of sugar. Also, it was mentioned in www.mimi54.wordpress.com that the dough can be refrigerated to firm it up a bit before rolling it into little balls. This might be a good idea as I did end up with a lot of sugar/almond/coconut on my hands.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup ground almonds
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350.

In a med bowl combine almond flour, lemon zest, and coconut. The lemon zest tends to stick together so use a spatula to break them up.

In a large bowl, combine egg and sugar. Add almond flour mix to bowl and stir well to ensure it is evenly blended. If you've got time, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate so the dough will be easier to roll.

Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll into a ball. Place on greased or parchment paper-lined pans, 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes. These macaroons are not supposed to "brown" in the oven. They should stay a light pale color, so check on them after 8 mins.

Cool on pans, then veeeeery gently peel off.
Makes about 2 dozen.

French and Parisian Macaroons

I have just been informed that macaroons do not call for wheat flour or dairy in their recipes! I was also informed that our fave gal Martha has 2 recipes on her website. I might need some time to get all the materials together (like almond flour) but here are the recipes in case you're interested. It helps me to have these at my fingertips.
So a big thank you to Lisa for opening my eyes to the possibility of eating macaroons! (My mother-in-law also thanks you, as she has a dairy allegy)

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/french-macaroons

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/parisian-macaroons?autonomy_kw=macaroons&rsc=header_1