Oatcakes

Gosh, I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover how easy it is to make oatcakes... They are one of the few British / Scottish foods I love and have missed - so much so I've been known to buy a few packets in Orkney and cart them all the way back to Boston. It honestly never occurred to me that I could make them! Nor that they are pretty much vegan and gluten free, without any adjustments. And super simple: they're basically just oats and a bit of fat! I referred to these two recipes.

(makes about 20 small ones)

200g oats (use gluten-free oats if making gluten free)
1/2 tsp sea salt, crushed in a pestle and mortar
1/2 tsp black peppercorns, crushed in a pestle and mortar
50 ml olive oil*
1-2 tbsp boiling water

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F. Grind about half the oats in a blender or food processor, then put in a bowl with the rest of the oats, salt and pepper. Mix, make a well in the middle and add the oil. Combine until the dough sticks together in a ball, adding boiling water until this happens - don't add so much water to make it sticky, but use enough that it binds together well. Let rest for ~30 min.

Roll out the dough to about 5 mm thick, and cut rounds of the size you desire, using a cutter or the top of a glass (used smaller, transparent water glass). Sprinkle a baking tray with flour (use GF flour if making GF), arrange the oatcakes on it, and bake in the oven for about 20 min. Take out, carefully turn over the oatcakes and bake for another 5-10 min. They should not really colour, and they will harden a bit but will finish hardening out of the oven. When done, transfer to a wire rack to cool.

*another (perhaps more traditional) oil or fat could be used instead


I took some to a picnic at ECO and they were good. I thought they'd be dippable, so took them with hummus, but they weren't really: too crumbly. Think I was a little cautious with the hot water - should have used a little more, think that'd have helped stick them together. They were good though. Was kind of funny: most people brought some version of chips and dips. Mostly tortillas - with salsa, with black bean... Realised oatcakes are pretty much like Scottish tortillas.

Chocolate cherry coconut

My Mum used to make this sometimes - it's from the WI Book of Biscuits. I have that book now, with her annotations in places. I don't make stuff out of it that often, but it's ace - all the recipes are minimal and pictureless and simple and they work. I've made this every once in while since I was about 12 (although this is the first time I attempted a vegan version).

I love glace cherries even though I know they are wrong - I like to think of them as cherries with all the cherry removed and replaced with sugar. Yum. Coconut, cherry and dark chocolate is an amazing combination.

I veganised the recipe slightly by replacing the egg, but otherwise the recipe was vegan (and gluten-free) already.

5 oz / 150 g chocolate
2 oz / 50 g margarine
4 oz / 100 g sugar
1 egg (I replaced with ~2 tbsp soy yoghurt and ~2 tsp cornstarch - other egg replacements should also work)
2 oz / 50 g glace cherries
4 oz / 100 g desiccated coconut

Line a Swiss roll tin (flat-based tin with straight sides) with tinfoil (if you only have large tins you can make a false wall with the foil). Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (small bowl set over almost-boiling water), then spread it out over the foil evenly and leave to cool.

Once the chocolate has set, heat the oven to 170C / 335F. In a medium bowl, cream the margarine and sugar together. Beat in the egg (or soy yoghurt+cornstarch). Chop the cherries and fold them in, along with the coconut. Spread over the chocolate and bake for 15-20 min. Let cool in the tin and when cool cut into slices.


The version with egg is (unsurprisingly) a bit fluffier on top, but either way this is amazing - like a Bounty bar made with good ingredients, and with cherries in it!

Flourless oat and seed bread

This was one of those recipes that cropped up one too many times. Eventually I could no longer resist and bought some psyllium seed husk, despite the fact I am supposed to be only using things up in the pantry these days. It is a sort of a gluten-free bread, but with no flour at all - it is packed with seeds and oats and the binding is purely by chia, flax and psyllium seed husk.

I made this shortly before leaving for Scotland (ten days ago), and froze some slices. I remembered it on the journey home and looked forward to its deliciousness all the rest of the way.

The first time I saw this recipe was here (thanks to LB), and the deciding time, the one that precipitated me making it at last (and the one I followed), was here.

2 1/4 cups (235g) oats (GF oats if you want it to be properly gluten free)
1 cup (160g) sunflower seeds
1/2 cup (65g) pumpkin seeds
3/4 cup (90g) almonds, roughly chopped
3/4 cup (120g) flax seeds
1/3 cup (25g) psyllium seed husks (I bought from Trader Joe's)
3 tbsp (25g) chia seeds
2 tsp (12g) sea salt
2 tbsp (40g) maple syrup
1/4 cup (55g) olive oil
2 1/2 cups (600g) water

Oil a loaf tin. If you like, toast the almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the oil, maple syrup and water and mix well with your hands. Transfer to the oiled loaf tin and put in the fridge for somewhere between two and 24 hours (overnight might be convenient).

Take the loaf tin out of the fridge and let come to room temp. Heat the oven to 400F / 200C. Bake for about an hour, then take out and let cool a bit before tipping out onto a cooling rack and allowing to cool completely (at least two hours).


This reminds me of a seedy soda bread I used to make - dense and full of crunch and delicious toasty seeds. Basically, if you like toasted seeds, you'll like this. Toasts well (including from the freezer); good with hummus or avocado. I pretty much decided that toasting seeds is unnecessary faff. Lots of substitutions possible - the flax, chia and psyllium have to stay but the sunflower and pumpkin seeds could be mixed with other seeds, the almonds switched for hazelnuts or other nuts, dried fruit would probably be interesting, honey or brown sugar instead of maple, coconut or other oil instead of olive...

Chocolate and cinnamon biscuits (gluten free)

First community garden workday tomorrow. Some gluten-free baking in order. Tried a new recipe. This one.

(makes ~22)

2 tsp demerara sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup / 130g brown sugar
1 cup / 100g fine brown rice flour (used 125g TJ's GF flour mix instead of brown rice flour and cornstarch)
1/4 cup / 25g cornstarch
1/2 cup / 60g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup / 60ml fake milk
1/3 cup / 80ml veg oil (used grapeseed)
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g chocolate, chopped

Heat oven to 180C / 350F. Grease and/or line a baking tray with baking paper.

Mix demerara sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix brown sugar, rice flour, cornstarch, cocoa, bicarb, 1 tsp cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl with a fork. Make a well in the middle and put in fake milk, oil and vanilla. Mix to a firm dough. Add the chopped chocolate and mix.

Take small lumps of dough (~2 tsp), roll into balls and flatten slightly, then place on the prepared baking tray, leaving a little space for spreading. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-demerara sugar mixture, then put in the oven and bake for 10-12 min. Let cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a rack to finish cooling.


I wasn't sure about these at first: think they improved after sitting in a box overnight. Pleasant, soft texture; held together pretty well for GF; very chocolate-y / cocoa-y; all disappeared @ lunchtime so I guess that was a good sign.

Okara cornbread (gluten free)

After my tofu making escapade, I had about two cups of okara going begging. Last time I had okara I scramble-fried it but I didn't love it like that. I think its vocation is as a filler - it has a pleasant texture and mild taste - would be good in burgers and that kind of thing. This time I tried baking, veganising this cornbread recipe.

1 1/3 cups cornmeal
1 1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2/3 tsp salt
1 1/3 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1 1/3 cups fake milk (used dried soymilk)
1 1/3 tbsp molasses
2/3 tbsp veg oil
2 cups okara

Heat the oven to 425F. Grease a loaf tin and line the base. Mix the cornmeal, bicarb and salt in a bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl beat together the linseed mixture, fake milk, molasses and oil. Add the okara to the wet mixture and mix well. Transfer the wet to the dry and mix til just combined (use your hands if you like). Put the mixture in the tin and bake for ~45 min, til firm in the middle.


This remains kind of squishy, but is surprisingly savoury and moreish. Good with green tofu spread and mashed chickpeas. Think the same mixture would have worked quite well shaped into patties and baked on a greased tray.

Orange, almond, cardamom, honey and polenta cake (gluten free)

It's my cake baking time of year again - both my lab cake making duty (for N, who is leaving this week, so probably the last time I will make one for him), and then S's birthday in a few weeks. Winter birthdays have their disadvantages but the enjoyment of time spent indoors baking on cold days is not one of them! N suggested nuts or fruit, so I decided to use both and make this.

This is a cake I haven't made for ages. My sister T used to make it, and I used to love it. I begged her for the recipe years ago, promptly lost, misplaced or forgot it. It took me a while to track down the source on the internet, but I am pretty sure I found it - Nigel Slater, here. I considered not adapting it, but couldn't help myself (/ had no butter and eggs in the house), so here is a veganised version. It is actually also gluten free.

For the cake:
220g refined coconut oil (or margarine)
220g sugar (for prettiness try and get golden caster)
100g slivered almonds (for prettiness use ones without skin)
200g ground almonds (for prettiness try and get blanched ones)
3 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 9 tbsp boiling water (for prettiness use golden flax)
150g polenta (optional for vegan version - add 1/4 tsp xanthan gum and 1/4 tsp turmeric to the polenta)
1 level tsp baking powder
finely grated zest and juice of a large orange
12 green cardamom pods

For the syrup:
Juice of 2 lemons
juice of 2 oranges
4 tbsp honey

For decoration:
1 whole orange, peeled neatly with a sharp knife and then sliced thinly

Line the base of the cake tin with a piece of baking parchment. Set the oven at 180C/360F.

Beat the coconut oil and sugar together til light and fluffy. Grind the slivered almonds in a blender til finely chopped, then add them, together with the ground almonds, to the cake mixture. Stir in the linseed-water mixture. Mix the polenta and baking powder, then fold into the cake mix, together with the grated orange zest and juice. Extract the black cardamom seeds (discard the green outer shells), grind them to a fine powder, then add to the cake mixture.

Transfer the cake mixture to the lined tin and smooth the top level. Bake for 30 minutes, turn down the heat to 160C/320F for a further 25 -30 minutes or until the cake is firm.

To make the syrup, squeeze the lemon and orange juice into a small saucepan, bring to the boil and dissolve in the honey. Keep the liquid boiling until it has formed a thin syrup (4-5 min). Spike holes into the top of the cake (still warm and in its tin) with a skewer (or thin knitting needle) then spoon over the hot citrus syrup.

Leave to almost cool, then lift out of the tin*. I decorated by arranging thinly sliced orange (1 whole large orange sliced into cross sections as neat and thin as I could manage with a sharp knife) on top.


*this was fairly unsuccessful - I had to leave paper and tin base stuck on for decorating and serving


This comes out dense and sticky and delicious. I suspect a little fat came out the base and burned on the bottom of the oven - prob a good idea to put it on a baking tray. Perhaps the cake could use a touch less coconut oil - could help with the sticking of the base as well as any leakage. Lining the sides and base with a continuous sheet of paper (or base+long strips) should also help with both sticking and leakage.

Green tomato cake (+gluten-free option)

I had just about dealt with all the green tomatoes from my roof when I was gifted a pile more from ECO (thanks to D, K and A!). I actually still had lots of unrealised green tomato ideas, and ended up going with green tomato cake for these toms - a new one in my repertoire of weirdo vegetable cakes...

4 cups chopped green tomatoes (chop fairly fine)
1 tbsp salt
1/3 cup veg oil
1 1/3 cups sugar (used mixture of white and brown)
2 eggs (or 2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water)
2 cups plain flour (or 2 cups TJ's GF flour mix plus 1/4 tsp xanthan gum)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Put the green tomatoes in a bowl with ~1 tbsp salt. Mix and let sit for ~ 10 min, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients and start on the cake. Heat the oven to 350F. Beat the vegetable oil and sugar together in a bowl with a fork. Add the eggs (or linseed mixture) and beat until reasonably well combined and aerated. Mix the flour, xanthan gum if using, 1/4 tsp salt, spices and bicarb in a separate bowl with a fork. Add the raisins and walnuts to the dry stuff and mix. Add the wet to dry and mix until just combined. Rinse and drain (try to get most of the liquid out) the green tomatoes and then fold into the cake mixture. Grease a loaf tin and line the base. Dollop the cake mixture into the tin. Bake for 45-60 min until a skewer comes out clean (exact cooking time will depend on shape of tin used). Let cool in the tin for at least half an hour before lifting out.


This was really, surprisingly good. The green toms are hardly noticeable - visually only if you look for them, and taste-wise hardly at all. So it is basically a moist, spiced cake rich with walnuts and raisins. The GF version was a little bit crumbly when sliced but really just a little bit - quite acceptable in this type of cake (made with eggs; rose beautifully). We took it for D's birthday party, and it went down well (especially with A).

Muesli muffins

I have had to come in to work before 6 am a few times lately. It doesn't make sense to eat my usual muesli breakfast in the wee, dark hours somehow. I just had a brainwave though: what if I transform the muesli into easily-portable muffin form?! It would make a great, practical breakfast for those days and for any other days when I have to have breakfast (or a snack) on the go. My basic muesli bowl contains oats, linseeds, sunflower seeds, flaked almonds, raisins, almond milk, blueberries, banana, a little cinnamon and a splash of maple syrup - I would hardly have to add anything (perhaps some raising agent; perhaps some oil but sunflower oil would effectively be covered already)...

(makes 10)

1 cup oat flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar*
1/4 cup flaked almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup raisins
2 tbsp toasted linseeds
1 banana, mashed roughly with a fork
2 1/2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup frozen blueberries

Heat oven to 380F and prepare a muffin tin. Mix oat flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, flaked almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins and toasted linseeds in a medium mixing bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl, mash the banana, then add linseed-water mixture, maple syrup, almond milk, brown sugar and oil and beat together with a fork. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until just combined, adding the blueberries in the final strokes. Dollop into prepared muffin cups and bake for ~25 min.

*consider leaving out brown sugar and increasing maple syrup


I made these exactly as above and they were dreamy. Exactly as I wanted. Seriously - perhaps one of the best recipes I have ever made up. They held together and rose excellently and were packed with deliciousness. I took them to the woods with D, K and A and we tested them, and they were good. Might reduce the sunflower seeds to 1/8 cup but apart from that wouldn't change a thing.

Edit: Also, I ate one before aerials one night and it gave me loads of energy. I think it was the muffin anyway, it might just have been adrenaline or who knows what. Will repeat the experiment.

Gluten-free bread

I went to the woods today with A, D and K. We planned to have a picnic in the woods. I wanted to take something straightforward to eat, considered making these cookies again since everyone liked them and I wanted K to try them. But fancied something savoury. I realised I had never made a yeasted GF bread - I have made some excellent accidentally GF breads, but never one that was intended to take the place of a regular bread, to be sliced and toasted and so forth. I decided to try this recipe as a first pass (note, I had eggs from A's CSA needing used so the egginess was fine this time).

(makes one loaf in large loaf tin)

2 tsp dried yeast
pinch of raw sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) fake milk
3/4 cup (185ml) water
2/3 cup (115g) brown rice flour (subbed TJ's GF flour mix for brown rice flour and potato starch)
1/2 cup (85g) potato starch (subbed TJ's GF flour mix for brown rice flour and potato starch)
1/3 cup (60g) cornmeal
1/2 cup (62g) millet flour (ground millet seeds in spice grinder)
1/2 cup (56g) ground almonds
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp fine desert salt
2 eggs, beaten lightly
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

In a small bowl combine yeast and sugar. Add warm water to the fake milk so that it reaches body temperature. Pour the milk mixture over the yeast/sugar and mix to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes to ferment.

Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well with a fork. When the yeast starts to bubble, add it to the dry ingredients along with the remaining ingredients and mix to form a smooth batter. It will not become kneadable (more like cornbread batter), but will thicken slightly after you have mixed it for a few minutes. Pour into a greased loaf tin with a lined base, scatter the top with sesame seeds and set aside to prove.

Once the dough has nearly risen to the top of the pan (around an hour) turn your oven to 220C/425F. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown, then turn the oven down to 180C/350F and cook for a further 20-25 minutes or until done (should sound hollow when turned out and tapped). Cool on a wire rack. Slice when cold and store in the fridge.


I had trouble turning it out of the pan - would recommend lining the base. It bakes up well, with a nice crust. Slightly sweet - I might leave out or reduce the honey as the cornmeal is sweet on its own. Quite moist - perhaps it was slightly under (could also explain difficulty turning it out?). Pretty satisfactory though, and I always enjoy mucking around with different flours. I sliced it and took it to the woods along with some lentil dip and muesli muffins. Also ate some with this amazing Speculoos-cocoa vegan (but not GF) spread I found on a foray to TJs - too pretty to eat for about 5 sec (above), then too good to leave alone.

Zwetschgendatschi (Bavarian yeasted plum cake)

As soon as S saw the plums I harvested the other day, he said 'Zwetschgendatschi'. And I said '?' - the word is quite a tongue twister, and I knew plums as Pflaume and quetsch as squeeze... But then he sent me this recipe, and it seemed like a perfect use for the plums. Apparently these plums are the type of plum you most often see in Germany, and in the South they are called Zwetschgen. Some friends are having a nostalgia-themed equinox party tonight, and this seemed an appropriate thing to take along: my family had plum trees in the garden when I was growing up, so the process of harvesting, preparing and eating plums is nostalgic for me, while this particular yeast-doughed plum cake is quite nostalgic for S as he hasn't eaten it since he was living in Germany more than ten years ago.

I did a little research and found that Zwetschgendatschi comes with a few variables - the dough can be yeasted or can be more like a pastry or tart dough; the base can be flavoured with lemon rind or the topping with cinnamon; a streusel or crumble topping can be added on top of the plum layer. I consulted S and he favoured keeping things yeasted and simple: the only flavours in this version besides the mildly bready base are plum, toasted almond and brown sugar. I pretty much followed the recipe he sent me.

Classic version
(makes one baking tray's worth: mine was 34 cm x 23 cm and technically a roasting tin)

300 g plain flour (plus a bit more for dusting)
2 tsp active dry yeast
50 g sugar
100 ml lukewarm almond milk
50 g fake butter (at room temperature)
1 medium egg (at room temperature) - or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2.5 tbsp boiling water
a pinch of salt
~700 g Zwetschgen (damson or prune plums)
~2 tbsp demerara sugar
50-75 g flaked almonds

Put the flour in a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Put the yeast in the well, sprinkle some sugar over it and pour enough lukewarm milk in to cover the yeast. Stir briefly, then cover the bowl with a tea towel and put in a warm place for 15-20 min, until the yeast starts to bubble.

Add the rest of the milk and sugar, butter, egg and salt. Knead until the dough forms a smooth ball, then continue to knead for ~5 min (?). If it is too sticky sprinkle with flour, but try not to add too much flour. Cover the bowl again and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour, until doubled in size.

Meanwhile prepare the plums: Cut in half lengthwise, remove the stone and then cut each half lengthwise again to make quarters. Set aside.

Heat the oven to 355F (180C). Line the baking tray with paper (or brush with oil). Roll the dough out on a clean, floured work surface until it is about the size or the baking tray, then carefully transfer it to the baking tray and pull into shape.

Arrange the plum quarters in overlapping rows, cut side up. Sprinkle evenly with demerara sugar and flaked almonds (use as much or as little as you like, to your taste). Put in the oven and bake for 25-30 min, checking after 20 min to make sure it is not too dark underneath. Remove and let cool in the tray before cutting into squares.


Gluten-free vegan experimental version
(makes 4 mini tart-sized ones in a muffin tin)

50 g TJ's gluten-free flour mix
25 g ground almonds
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking powder
tiny pinch salt
12.5 g sugar
12.5 g fake butter
25 ml almond milk
1/4 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3/4 tbsp boiling water
3 plums, quartered as above
~ 2 tsp demerara sugar
1-2 tbsp flaked almonds

Heat oven to 355F. Mix flour, ground almonds, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Make a well and add butter, milk and linseed mixture. Mix with a fork and then with your hands until it comes together into a pliable dough. Line muffin cups and press the dough into the bases / up the sides. Arrange the plum quarters on each (I found three quarters per cup fitted), sprinkle with demerara sugar and flaked almonds, and bake for 20-25 min.


Both were great. The classic one was awesome in its lack of intense sweetness (I could perhaps have been a bit more generous with the sugar but I liked it like this). S said it was authentic! And we both liked it - the bready part was slightly sweet and nicely risen, and the juices from the plum soaked in slightly to the bread base and to the almonds, making for a delicious thing somewhere inbetween a sweet bread and a cake - think typically German in the not-too-sweetness, the extensive use of fruit / nuts and simple flavours. The plum flavour really sung out because of that - the almonds and bread just served to complement their gorgeousness. The GF base was not as fluffy but stuck together well and the taste effect was similar. And they were cute in their little paper cases.

Note: this reminds me of Mum's apple cake that I attempted to make here. Perhaps another go at that is in order: I have some apples...

Spicy cocoa and almond cookies (gluten-free)

It was A's birthday last week and I wanted to do something for it. But he didn't want. Quite emphatically. However, he was excited about going to volunteer at Drumlin Farm (where our friend D works) on Saturday, so I decided to try to make his day there as awesome as possible. Obviously a birthday needs sweet treats. Cake wouldn't have been practical, but I was daydreaming about cocoa-spiced cookies. A doesn't eat gluten so they needed to be gluten-free, but I had some eggs left he'd given me from his farmshare so an egg was do-able. I browsed over at this blog to see if there was anything that would save me making up a recipe (my time was short!), and found exactly what I was looking for, so followed that recipe.

We ate these on our lunchbreak at the farm, along with some peaches from a neighbouring farm and a whole yellow watermelon that was so ripe it had split during harvest that morning. The cookies were good: everyone seemed to like them. They were also very quick and easy to make - I threw them together in half an hour before going out on Friday evening, leaving them to cool til I got back (nb my almonds were pre-toasted). It felt good to give something back, both to the farm by volunteering and to D and A via cookies - all of them have given me a lot!

(made 11 big ones - would make more if smaller)

1/2 cup (55g) ground almonds
1/2 cup (60g) rice flour (brown or white)
1/4 cup (25g) cornstarch
1/2 cup (55g) cocoa powder
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (50g) demerara sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder / cayenne
1/2 cup (65g) lightly toasted almonds, roughly chopped
1/2 cup ( 60g) chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup (60ml) veg oil (used safflower)
1 egg (or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2 1/2 tbsp boiling water)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1-2 tbsp fake milk

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Line a oven tray with baking paper or grease with oil. Put dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well together with a fork. Add chopped almonds and chocolate and mix. In a separate, small bowl mix together the oil, egg and vanilla. Add wet to dry and mix to form a soft dough, adding 1-2 tbsp of fake milk until a moist (but not wet) consistency is obtained. Roll 2 tbsp of mixture into a ball, flatten and place on oven tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 12-15 min until just cooked. These cookies do not flatten out much more once cooked. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool on the tray.


Big thumbs up from everyone: gorgeous balance of sweet, spicy, bitter, crunch and squish - not too dry or too crumbly. Note, I want to try out making cookies with roasted cocoa as described here - didn't have time to experiment this time but another batch soon!

Elderflower, honey and cornmeal biscuits (gluten-free)

I found elderflowers the other day for the first time in ages, and made elderflower cordial. A lot of flowers were falling off the heads I collected, so I saved and dried the fallen ones (spread them on a baking sheet in the oven with it switched off (it has a pilot light so is always warm) for about 24 hours). Then I stashed them until yesterday, when I had the oven on to make bread and felt like doing some experimental baking as well. These are inspired by this recipe. I used all the elderflowers I'd dried (started out with two baking trays spread with fresh flowers, ended up with 3/8 loosely-packed cup dried flowers).
 
(Makes ~12 medium sized biscuits)

30g icing sugar
2 tsp honey
20g grapeseed oil
20g olive oil
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 1 1/2 tbsp boiling water
75g fine cornmeal
25g cornstarch
Pinch of salt
3/8 cup dried elderflowers*

Heat oven to 360F. Beat sugar, honey and oils together in a mixing bowl. Add linseed mixture and beat some more, so it goes thick. Add elderflowers, cornmeal, cornstarch and salt and mix until combined. Flatten to about 1cm thick, use a cutter to cut flower or circle shapes, then transfer to baking sheets and bake for about 10 min, until they are golden. Let cool on the tray for 10 min then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

*I think this would also work with dried chamomile (or maybe calendula) - I have been meaning to test this out as I have some of each at home.


The batter was a bit greasy and soft, and I wondered if I should have used less oil. But they baked up lovely: the honey and elderflower come together in a wonderful, delicate, slightly flowery sweetness. And the cornmeal adds crunch; with the biscuits coming out beautifully yellow, flecked with brown from the linseed mixture (use golden linseed if you want to avoid this). I didn't bother lining or greasing the baking sheets and they came off just fine. I made flower shapes because I have an accidentally, ridiculously big selection of cutters (came in a bargain pack with something I wanted), and I couldn't resist the kitsch. But round ones would also be fine. Remember that because this is a GF dough there is absolutely nothing to worry about regarding handling the dough - re-roll and re-cut as much as you need to.

Baking with jam: chocolate-mulberry buns and mulberry-thyme (GF) biscuits

After the mulberry harvest I did a couple of weeks ago, I ended up with more mulberry jam than I could possibly use (some that I made myself, and some that came to me as my share from the larger quantity the others jammed). I decided this was an opportunity for baking with jam: jam tarts were a childhood favourite, and I used to make a jammy gingerbread to use up odds and ends of abandoned jam when clearing out the fridge in shared houses. I was thinking of making jam tarts, but then I remembered a recipe for thumbprint cookies I saw recently, and decided they might be a less faffy equivalent (++I have some beautiful thyme growing on my roof that I am not using enough). Also, they were gluten-free, so I could share them with A. I came across Nigella's choc-cherry cupcake recipe while thinking about jam baking, so decided to test-veganise that as well.

Mulberry, rose and thyme biscuits
(makes ~12)

100g olive oil
1/4 cup / 50g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tsp chopped, fresh thyme leaves
1 cup TJs GF flour mix
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup almond meal
approx 1/4 cup (60ml) mulberry jam, mixed with rosewater (1/2-1 tsp) and honey to taste*

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Grease 1 large baking tray. Mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder and almond meal in a medium bowl with a fork. Beat oil, sugar, vanilla and thyme in a separate bowl. Add wet to dry, and mix / knead until well combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough between your hands to make flattened balls, then make an indentation in each with your thumb and place on the prepared baking tray. Fill each with some of the jam mixture and bake for 10-12 min, or until slightly golden. Leave to cool on the tray.

*Added sweetness will depend on the jam used: traditionally-made jam like the stuff I make is plenty sweet already and needs no extra sweetening. But if the jam has been made with less reduction of the fruit and less sugar / more added pectin it may be less sweet (like the one made by the LUrC crew) and, in my opinion, need a little more sugar.

Chocolate-mulberry muffins
(makes 12)

6 tbsp / 90 ml refined coconut oil (liquid state)
4 oz dark chocolate (broken into pieces)
1 ¼ cups mulberry jam
1/2 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin. Heat the coconut oil in a medium pan. When hot, turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Leave for a moment, then stir with a wooden spoon until smooth and melted. Add the jam, sugar, salt, linseed mixture and vinegar. Mix, then stir in the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Fill the muffin cups and bake for 25 min. Cool in the tin for 10 min before removing and leaving to cool on a rack.


These were both experiments. I thought the choc-jam muffins were the successes at first: they rose surprisingly well, with a good consistency. While I thought the biscuits were disasters: many of them split while baking, and the dough was very crumbly (might need to add more oil or some milk?). But people seemed to love the taste of the biscuits despite their appearance (I fed some to S, and took some to a brunch - where en route they got even more bashed up riding around on the potholes aka streets of Greater Boston on the back of my bike), while the muffins were fine but not as well-received.

Vegan 'Brazilian' 'cheese' bread

Brazil is pretty high on my list of places I want to visit. But I'd never even heard of Brazilian 'Pão de Queijo' (cheese bread) until I went to our friends' (C+J who we made spaetzle with) place for brunch on Sunday and found another friend, B, who frequently travels to Brazil for work, putting these in the oven. They are little, golden, savoury bread-buns, made using tapioca (cassava) flour - so they are accidentally gluten-free and have a wonderful sticky-gooey, almost mochi-like crumb inside a crusty exterior.

Obviously the real thing is full of cheese, and also eggs. But I felt like a vegan version should be attainable, and was even more convinced when I did an internet search and found that the breads are sometimes made with potato as well as the tapioca flour - I have had a recent run of success with putting mashed potato in baked goods - Kartoffelbrot in particular is a firm household favourite. I found a vegan recipe already in existence here, and it looked good, pleasingly simple and similar to what I had in mind, so I pretty much followed it... although obviously I couldn't resist throwing a few extra things in the mix (and yes, I did just happen to have potatoes, tapioca flour and nutritional yeast lying around at home: our pantry is getting a little out of control but I kinda love it).

(makes approx 17 small bread-buns)

(total time approx 1 hour, halved if you have mashed potatoes made already and you do small buns)

2 1/2 cups tapioca flour (glutinous rice flour also works)
2 cups mashed potato (or yucca)
~1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup veg oil
1 tbsp baking powder
2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

Heat the oven to 350F. Mix the tapioca, salt and nutritional yeast / chilli / sesame seeds (if using) together in a medium bowl. Heat the water and oil in a small pan. When the water has boiled, add it to the bowl, stirring rapidly. It's OK if it doesn't all come together. Add the mashed potato and mix/knead until a smooth dough forms. Add the baking powder and continue mixing until it is well incorporated. Oil your hands and shape the dough into small balls. Place them on a baking sheet and bake until golden: 30-40 min (depending on size). Delicious warm, still good the next day, freezing possible if they are not all eaten straight away (unlikely).


The vegan ones are just as good as the non-veg variety: really savoury and crusty and I absolutely love the salty, gooey interior. These did come out quite gooey - I like it, but perhaps adding a little xanthan gum would give a more defined crumb? Or maybe a little less water? Or more mash?

Note: I made this a second time, and used ~1 3/4 cups of tapioca flour (all I had left) plus ~3/4 cup glutinous rice flour. I also used more like 2 1/4 cups of mashed potato. They came out even better than the first time - less gluey in the middle, more of a consistent crumb. Obviously I changed a couple of things so not a well controlled experiment, but my suspicion is that the extra potato did it.

Another note: I tried the real deal from a Brazilian bakery at the weekend; these are really, really close. I would never be able to guess which were the veg ones and which were nonveg.

Gluten-free baking

Photo by Alvin

My friends A and K asked me to teach them what I knew about GF baking. I was unsure at first: unconvinced that I knew any more about it than they did. But they persuaded me that even what little I knew would be helpful to them, and I figured it would be fun whatever happened - I like hanging out and drinking tea and cooking, and they are good company. So we got together for a day of GF baking.

I think the main thing I have figured out about GF baking is that you often need a combination of flours - something like glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour or cornstarch or potato starch to stick it together, and then a combination to give good texture: rice flour alone is light but tastes dusty, gram flour is heavy and its taste is overpowering (although lends a pleasant eggy flavour when used in small quantities), oat flour I like, others such as quinoa or millet flour are different again, and some combination (varied depending on the taste you are looking for / what goes with the other stuff in the mix) is what will make it good. Getting a good rise is doubly challenging when doing vegan+GF (no eggs, no gluten).

I thought of three things:

1) Oat-sunflower-raisin biscuits
(I knew these would work (and they did), also thought they were interesting because of the lack of flour / most of the fat coming from the nut/seed butter)

2) Savoury corn muffins
Wanted to do a basic muffin type thing. A mentioned he got coarse cornmeal from his CSA and this idea suggested itself - though it would be nice to do something simple and savoury as most of the GF things I have baked are sweet... I also recently noticed that Trader Joe's started doing a GF flour blend (brown rice flour, potato starch, white rice flour and something else), so thought it would be fun to try something with that. This is based on my favourite basic cornbread recipe, made in a muffin form and with lots of additions.

2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with ~5 tbsp boiling water
1 TJ’s GF flour mix (see above)
½ tsp xanthan gum
1 cup cornmeal
4 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp paprika (note, spice combination is very flexible; adding dried chili or finely chopped fresh chili would also be good)
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
2 tbsp honey (or sugar)
1 cup fake milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
¼ cup oil (used grapeseed, any oil would work here really - even stronger flavoured ones - as these are savoury)
Handful sweetcorn kernels, defrosted
~4 spring onions, cleaned, trimmed and chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat oven to 425F*. Prepare muffin cups by lining with paper cases. Mix flour, cornmeal, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, dry spices and seeds (and sugar if using) in a bowl. Add vinegar to the milk, then mix this with the linseed mixture, oil and honey (if using). Add the sweetcorn, coriander and spring onions to the dry ingredients and toss. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just combined. Bake for 20-25 min.

These came out well: pleasant, savoury, corny taste, with a robust texture from the cornmeal and a slight sweetness from the kernels. Quite dense, but held together well and rose enough to give a nice shape. *Could perhaps try a slightly lower temperature next time: they browned up on top quite quickly (not a problem really).


3) Little nutty cakes (an educational semi-disaster)
I'd seen these a while ago, and thought they sounded interesting: liked the nuts and the olive oil. But noticed the reliance on eggs and thought maybe they'd be too difficult to adapt. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to try anyway - I think partly because I got into the idea of mixing nut flour and buckwheat flour.

3 tbsp linseed mixed with 7.5 tbsp boiling water (or 3 eggs)
1 cup (200g) sugar
2/3 cup (90g / 3 ¼ oz) ground almonds (or hazelnuts)
1 ½ cups flour – sub ¾ cup oat flour plus ¾ cup buckwheat flour plus ½ tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp (200 ml) mixture of extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oil
About ¼ cup (25g) mixed chopped untoasted nuts for sprinkling (used hazelnuts)

Heat oven to 400F. Prepare muffin tins. Beat linseed (or eggs) and sugar together with a whisk, a lot – til doubled in volume. Mix ground nuts, flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add olive oil to the linseed-sugar mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fill muffin cups halfway. Sprinkle mixed chopped nuts on top. Bake for 15 min / until springy (might take a bit longer without muffin tins).

These kind of rose up massively and spilled out of the muffin cups across the surface of the tin, leaving a sunken middle - ended up looking a bit like little bird's nests. But they actually tasted delicious: the top parts were all crispy and like a nutty meringue or something, the middle/bottom was squishier but also lovely and nutty, with a hint of grassiness from the olive oil (although quite well stuck to the paper liners). Could have been fun as Easter nests with Greek yoghurt and fresh fruit (grapes to look like eggs?) in the hollows.

My guess as to what went wrong: they rose due to the baking powder and the air from the beating, but lacked enough of anything (no gluten, no eggs) to hold them up and give structure, so sank right back down again. I forgot to add the xanthan gum, so that was probably part of it, but I feel like that might not have been enough anyway. Perhaps adding some cornstarch or glutinous rice flour would have helped (or using eggs instead of linseed, if that's an option). I also found them a bit too oily and a bit too sweet (reminded me a bit of these) - try dialling down the sugar and oil if making again. And, I wondered how the mixture would have fared in a cookie form: perhaps they would have turned out as delicious, nutty, meringue-like things like the top parts tasted like...

Hamantaschen (vegan and gluten-free)

L-R: normal dough with prune-poppyseed filling, GF dough with apricot-almond filling, GF dough with spiced fig-cocoa filling

Before I came to the US I knew little about Jewish culture. Then we moved into a historically Jewish neighbourhood (our nearest shops are a Jewish bakery and a Jewish butchery; most of the businesses around here close on Saturdays). And I discovered that really quite many of the people I'd befriended here are Jewish. However much they do or don't practice the rest of the year, they've done a good job of educating me about important festivals (and the food involved). My friend A in particular (my partner in baking for awesome cakes) has invited us for her version of Passover and Rosh Hashanah celebrations every year, and also fed me my first Hamantaschen.

Ever since I tried Hamantaschen I wanted to make them, and to make them vegan (and GF so my friends A+H can eat them). They are basically a free-standing jam tart, folded into a triangular shape, with some sort of fruity or seedy filling in the middle. They are traditionally eaten for Purim.  Loosely, Purim: is 'like the Jewish Halloween' ie people get dressed up; you're supposed to get so drunk you forget the difference between good and evil (or something like that); Haman is a villain involved somewhere; Hamantaschen are supposed to represent Haman's hat (?). Purim is always around this time of year, although it varies and this year it was actually late February, when I was very much distracted by Pancake Day and S's birthday, so I didn't get around to Hamantaschen until I was reminded by this post - it seemed like exactly the recipe I had been dreaming of. I decided to follow the recipe to ensure success for some, and make a series of deviations for others.

Normal dough
(makes 20-25 - taken from this recipe)
1/3 cup coconut oil (solid state)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 7/8 cups flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Gluten-free dough
(makes 20-25)
1/3 cup coconut oil (solid state)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
1 3/4 tsp vanilla essence
1/8 tsp almond essence
1/2 cup almond meal
3/4 cup gluten-free oat flour
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp chickpea flour
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum

Prune and poppyseed filling*:
4 oz dried prunes, chopped
1/8 cup poppyseeds
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp rum
1 tbsp orange juice
water

Apricot and almond filling*:
4 oz dried apricots, chopped
1/8 cup almonds, finely chopped
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp rum
water

Spiced fig and cocoa filling*:
(inspired by the delicious Fichi Girotti (stuffed fig sweetmeats) we ate in the town of Amelia in Italy)
4 oz dried figs, chopped
1/8 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp mahlab
2 tbsp candied orange peel
1/2 tsp orange zest
1/8 tsp almond essence
1 tbsp rum
water

* Each filling recipe given here makes enough to fill approx 1/3 of the total from the combined GF + normal dough quantities above. Other alternative fillings are any kind of jam, thick stewed fruit, nutella, anything you like really.

To make dough, beat the coconut oil and sugar together in a mixing bowl with a fork until well combined (will still be a bit crumbly). Warm the milk to about hand hot and add it to the bowl gradually, beating to incorporate. Add in the essence(s) and zest (if using). Separately, mix together the flour(s), cornstarch, baking powder and salt (and xanthan gum if using) with a fork. Add about half of the flour mix to the oil mix and beat until combined. Then add the rest of the flour and mix until a stiff dough is formed. It will still be a little soft. Wrap the ball(s) (make two if doing a double quantity of either dough) in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 30-60 min.

In the meantime, make the filling(s). Put the dried fruit in a small pan with the nuts or seeds, sugar and any dried spices. Measure the liquid ingredients into a measuring cup and make the quantity of liquid up to 1/4 cup by adding water, then add the liquid to the pan. Cover and simmer until the dried fruit are soft and squishy. Add more water if it seems to be getting too thick - it should end up like a thick jam.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two or more baking sheets with baking paper. Flour a clean surface, then take a ball of dough out of the fridge, remove clingfilm and roll out to about 3mm thick. Cut into circles about 3 inches diameter (I used a Coke glass). Put a tsp of filling in the centre of a dough circle, then fold up three sides to create a shape like a tricorn hat, pinching the corners together tightly. Repeat for all the circles, moving the completed tricorns to the baking sheet when done. Gather the excess dough and roll out again to make more circles and continue with the process until all the tricorns are filled. Bake the biscuits for 18-20 minutes, checking and rotating the sheets after 10 min. The bases will colour golden, but the tops will remain quite pale. Cool on a wire rack.


My favourites of all these variants were the GF dough with apricot filling - if you were going to make one kind of dough and one kind of filling that's what I would recommend. The GF dough held its shape much better than the normal one - I think mainly because it puffed up less. Half to two thirds of the normal dough ones came undone at the corners while cooking, and where I'd used a runnier filling especially they ended up as circular cookies covered in jam. In those cases, plenty of jam slid off onto the baking sheet and I was very glad I'd lined the sheets with paper - would have been a huge pain to clean otherwise.

All in all, I thought these were great (they took me a while to make, but that would be much reduced if you stuck to one kind of dough and one kind of filling). And all the ones I took to a seed swap this morning disappeared (a particular hit with one little girl), so they seemed to be a success. There's loads of scope for varying the recipe (even more than I did already) - was thinking a savoury version might make a great canape. I love the cleverness of the simple folding - you can make an open tart without needing any kind of a baking mold.

Buckwheat-coconut-blueberry pancakes

I woke up this morning and this pancake idea kept me awake: S really deserved a fancy Saturday morning breakfast - last night I was feeling a bit crappy and he went out to get Yoma (= one of our favourite food places) takeaway to try and sort me out.

This is another experiment with buckwheat: buckwheat flour crepes are obviously a classic, but I got into the idea of a thick, lumpy pancake full of whole buckwheat groats and other exciting, tasty bits and pieces.

(makes 5-6 medium size, thick pancakes)

1 banana, mashed with a fork
2 tsp coconut oil
3 tbsp plain flour*
3 tbsp wholewheat flour*
1 1/2 tbsp chickpea (gram) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cooked buckwheat groats
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded dried coconut
1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup water
pinch salt
1/2 cup frozen blueberries

coconut oil for cooking
maple syrup to serve

Mash the banana and coconut oil together in a bowl with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients except the blueberries and mix together until well combined, adding a little more or less water until you get a good (American-style) pancake consistency (ie fairly thick). Add the blueberries, mix lightly and let sit for 5 min.

Heat some (~1 tsp) coconut oil in a frying pan. Add a big spoonful of pancake batter and spread it out to make a ~8mm thick pancake about 10cm across. Cook on the first side until it starts to look done at the edges, lift the edge to check it is brown underneath, then flip and cook on the other side until browned. Serve with maple syrup on the side.


I really liked these, and they went down well with S too: the buckwheat / coconut / cinnamon / blueberry go great together, and the texture is really sound (quite a dense kind of a pancake, but with so much texture that's fine). You only need a little maple syrup, but it really brings it all together.

*I like the idea of making these gluten free by subbing the plain and wholewheat flours with GF oat flour - I didn't feel like grinding the oat flour, otherwise I would have made them that way.

Raspberry-almond buns (gluten-free)

Seb made me a birthday cake with lemon cake and raspberry icing. He woke me up with cake and candles. He did an awesome job. Not to mention the day of presents and greetings and surprise friend-mob of a house show and whole room of lovely people singing 'Happy Birthday' to me with yet another cake+candles...

There was some icing left over. I wanted to use it up, got a copy of 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World' for my birthday (exciting: I look at her blog often but didn't have any of their books), and am having a GF person over for dinner tomorrow night so decided it would be a good idea to test out the GF vanilla cupcake recipe and top it with the leftover raspberry icing. Of course I didn't have the exact right combination of GF flours so didn't exactly follow the recipe, but nevertheless they came out quite well.

(made 11, could have filled a bit less full to make 12)

1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup veg oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence
1/4 cup tapioca flour (used glutinous rice flour)
2 tbsp ground linseed
1/3 cup corn flour or almond flour (used corn masa flour)
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour (used ragi flour = millet flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F and line muffin tin. Mix milk, oil, sugar and essences in a large bowl. Add tapioca flour and linseed and mix thoroughly. Add corn flour, rice flour, quinoa flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt and mix thoroughly (don't worry about overmixing). Fill cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before icing.


Gosh, these look like they should be for a little girl's birthday party or something. The buns rose quite nicely and also taste pretty good: the predominant flavour is almond - it would appear that almond essence is pretty powerful stuff. S assures me the colour of the icing is entirely from raspberry, which is awesome... He doesn't remember what recipe he used but I suspect it may have been this one.

Icing:
1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
1/2 cup margarine, softened
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2-3 tbsp raspberry jam
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cornstarch

Heat 3 tbsp raspberry jam in a pan. Mix cornstarch with a bit of water and add to the raspberry jam. Stir until it become clear and thick. Push the sauce through a sieve to remove the raspberry seeds. Beat the softened coconut oil and margarine together to a fluffy mixture. Add the icing sugar alternated with the raspberry sauce and vanilla. Beat to a smooth and even consistency. (note: S had evidently had trouble softening the coconut oil as it is Winter and so I warmed the icing a little and beat it some more to make it smoother and more evenly coloured, which worked well).


I decorated them with flaked almonds, basil flowers and red sugar crystals.


These taste most strongly of almond.  Quite nice texture.  Alvin liked them.  They froze well (apart from the flowers, obv).

Sesame star mince pies (gluten-free)

I made these two years ago, but did not make them completely gluten free (used plain flour instead of the gram/rice mix). I really liked the pastry though - much more interesting than normal pastry. This time I went the whole hog and they are fully GF. The source of the recipe has now truly disappeared into the ether, but I found it somewhere on the internet back then.

(these quantities make 12, when bases cut using Coke glass and baked in regular-sized bun tin)

50g ground almonds
60g cooked chickpeas, mashed to a stiff paste
100g gluten-free plain flour (or 50g gram flour, 50g rice flour)
2 tbsp sesame seeds
40g margarine (or cold-pressed plain sesame or safflower oil)
water, to bind
1 400g jar of mincemeat

Combine seeds, ground almonds, flour and ground chickpeas. Rub in fat and mix with a fork. Add a little water to combine. Rest in the fridge 30min.

Heat oven to 400F / 200C. Roll out the pastry to about 2 mm thick and cut into rounds for pie bases (deep fill used tall plastic measure beaker / normal size used Coke glass). Put bases into bun / muffin tin. Fill with mincemeat or a mixture of mincemeat and cooked apple. Cut out stars (I freehanded) and put them on the tops. Bake for 20-35 min, til lightly browned and crisp. Leave to cool before trying to remove from trays.


The mincemeat I made 2 years ago was still in good nick, so that's what I used for these. I did see mincemeat in Stop n Shop the other day though, for future reference. The pastry was perhaps relatively brittle due to the use of GF flours, but it rolled out OK. I'm wondering if the gram flour was a mistake: it does have quite a pungent taste. Truth will be in the eating - they are cooling right now.

They are good! The pastry is nice and crunchy and robust, and delicious in combination with the mincemeat. The gram taste has baked out. The pastry isn't like regular mince pie pastry, but I think it's better.

Only thing is, the combo of the GF pastry (which cracks quite easily) and the runnier than normal mincemeat (because I used booze instead of fat to preserve it) means the liquid has seeped through the bottoms of a few of the pies and they were kind of welded onto the pans... still came off, but a couple lost a small part of the base. I guess I could have taken more care cutting them out and getting them into the tins...


Note: these freeze (baked) very well: can basically eat them straight from the freezer.

Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

There is a wonderful array of German Christmas biscuits out there: we've been eating our way through lebkuchen and chocolate covered lebkuchen herzen from Lidl and from Trader Joe's already. Then there's Pfeffernusse, Vanillekipferle... so many beautiful things. They really know that they are doing when it comes to Christmas, those Germans. S's favourite are Zimtsterne, so I wanted to make some. I've never made these before, but I've been feeling like doing some Christmas baking, especially since visiting the Christmas market in Edinburgh.

I got this recipe from my colleague Nik, who is German and a consummate baking pro. It appears deceptively simple: just almonds, cinnamon, egg whites and sugar - they're delicious and it's quite fiddly to make and ice all the little stars.

3 egg whites
250 g icing sugar
400 g ground almonds (plus more flour or ground almonds for dusting)
2 tsp cinnamon

Beat the egg whites to shiny peaks, then fold in the icing sugar a tablespoon or so at a time. Set aside ~80g to use as icing.

Mix the cinnamon and almonds, then fold into the remaining sugar mixture.

Dust your surface with flour or ground almonds, then roll out the mass until ~1 cm thick. Cut out star shapes and transfer them to baking trays.

Thinly (1-2 mm) spread the icing set aside earlier onto the biscuits. You should not be able to see through the icing.

Allow cookies to dry over night uncovered at room temperature.

Bake at 325F / 160C for 8 minutes on medium rack. Allow to cool. They should keep for several weeks in a container.

I thought these were lovely.  I was too chicken to take some in to Nik for testing, but S liked them. I took advantage of their long keeping time and sent some to each of my stepsisters back in the UK.


Now I am trying to think of something to do with the three egg yolks - custard is one option; egg yolk ravioli is another, more exciting option...