Coconut Rocks (GF)

I've got a strange feeling about these. They taste great, that's true. But when I baked them for the first time, last Sunday, I got a phone call from my father to tell me my Grandfather had just died...

I'm still quite shaken.
And it feels strange to bake these again... But I still had some coconut left, and my boyfriend really liked them. (So did I, truth to be told.) There's nothing wrong with these cookies, but I know that every time I bake or eat one, I will think of last Sunday. Of November 8th, 2009. Of my Grandfather.

That's not a bad thing, I guess...


Coconut Rocks (Coco Rochers)

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 140g shredded, unsweetened coconut
• 130g white sugar (or powdered sugar)

Preheat the oven at 180°C.
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar and beat again. Add the coconut and mix well.
Put small piles of dough on a baking plate. Bake them till golden brown, about 15min.

Cornbread Socca (GF)

Why do I wait so long before I blog about something I baked ?! This delicious cornbread socca was our Saterdaynight dinner about 3 weeks ago.
I was low on inspiration, so I threw something together based on this recipe. My boyfriend liked it too, it reminded him of Pizza, I guess ;-)

Cornbread Socca

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chickpea flour
• 1/4 cup cornflour
• 1 cup water
• Sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup sweet corn (I used canned)
• 1/2 chopped red onion
• 1/4 chopped red paprika
• Pepitas
• 2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• Herbs for sprinkling (Paprika powder, curry, salt, thyme, ...)

Mix together the chickpea flour, cornmeal and sesame seeds. I added some curry too. Add the water to the chickpea flour mix and mix well with a fork. A few lumps are OK. Let the batter sit in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.
Pour the olive oil in the bottom of a skilled and let it completely cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Place the pan in the middle of the oven and preheat to 250°C.
Carefully remove the pan from the oven. Make sure the oil is well distributed. Pour the batter in a steady stream in the middle of the pan. It should distribute itself across the pan. Sprinkle the corn, onion, paprika, pepitas and a light dusting of paprika over the top. Add the other herbs. Return the pan to the oven and bake 5-7 minutes, until the top has set and the sides start to pull away from the pan.
Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Using a spatula, release the socca from the pan.

Pumpkin Pie (GF)

It's October, and the weather is horrible. Yes, it is autumn ! I saw pumpkins in the grocery store, and I remembered I have never baked a pumpkin pie. Actually, I have never eaten a pumpkin pie. You see, it's not that well-known or popular around here. So I decided to just go for it, and bake a pie. And make soup, perhaps. And maybe even bake pumpkin bread, if I can find a decent gluten-free recipe. Oh yeah, I'm full of pumpkin now !

This will also be my entry to this months "Go Ahead Honey, it 's Gluten Free!" (a monthly blog event, originated by Naomi Devlin.) Our host for October is Heather of Life Gluten Free, and she chose "Pumpkin Treats!" as a theme.

So, my Pumpkin Pie. This is a crustless pie, based on this recipe from Karine, the Gluten-free Goddess.

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• About 400g pumpkin puree
• 350ml milk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 3/4c brown sugar
• 1/2c buckwheat flour
• 2 tablespoons tapioca starch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• some vanilla
• a pinch of salt
• spices according to taste. I used cinnamon, ginger and some cayenne. I would have added ground cloves as well, but I didn't have any, so I left it out. You can, of course, just use pumpkin pie spices.

Preheat the oven at 175°C.
Mix all the ingredients. Make sure everything is well blended. I used a regular mixer, but a blender or food processor would be handy, I guess.
Pour the batter in a buttered pie plate of about 22-26cm. Put it in a preheated oven and bake for about an hour until ready. The pie should be firm but soft (not wet).

Let it cool on a pie rack and enjoy !

Mine is nicely soft and spicy, with a slight bite. And boy, does it taste good on a rainy monday afternoon !

Pain d'Epices (GF)

This is a recipe for something like gingerbread. It's a very popular breakfast or afternoon snack in Belgium and the Netherlands. Over here we call it "Zoetekoeke". I loved it and I have missed it since going gluten-free. Yesterday, however, I decided to just try and make my own, gluten-free, zoetekoeke. And oh yes, it succeeded ! My boyfriend actually likes this one better than the original one :-)


Peperkoek / Pain d'Épices / Gingerbread

Ingredients:

• 250g gluten-free flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 teaspoons mixed speculaas spices (ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, ground white pepper, ground anise seed, ground coriander seed)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 225ml milk
• 100g brown sugar
• 50g liquid honey
• 1 egg yolk

Mix all the ingredients until it forms a sticky dough. Pour it in a buttered cake pan and bake in a pre-heated oven at 175°C for about 1 hour. Let the 'cake' cool completely before cutting it in pieces.

White Chocolate Ice Cream

"Go Ahead Honey, it 's Gluten Free!" is a monthly blog event, originated by Naomi Devlin of Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried. In this event, the host blogger of the month selects a theme. Tthis month, the theme is "Chill Out". So this means: no-cook dishes, or dishes served cold.

I already posted some no-cook/cold dishes last month, so I needed something else. And why, there is my ice-cream maker, looking pretty...

This recipe makes nice, creamy white chocolate ice cream, with a hint of almonds. I think it would be great with some dark chocolate sauce, or perhaps blueberry sauce, or chopped almonds, or strawberries, or ...

White Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients:
• 4 egg yolks
• 250ml milk
• 250ml heavy cream
• 75g sugar
• some almond extract (according to taste)
• 200g white chocolate

Chop the white chocolate into small pieces.
Make the custard base: pour the milk into a saucepan and bring the pan slowly up to boiling point. In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Pour the hot milk into the mixture of egg yolks and sugar whilst stirring. Then pour the mixture back into the pan and heat gently, stirring until the custard thickens. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the vanilla extract and the chopped chocolate pieces. Keep stirring until all the chocolate has melted. Leave to cool.
When fully cooled, stir in the cream.
Transfer the whole mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. About 5 minutes before the end of the freezing cycle, you can add some more chopped chocolate pieces.

Enjoy !

GF bread with grains and raisins

I tried another bread recipe, this time a slightly sweet bread with grains and raisins, to make it extra tasty. And hurrah, this bread turned out great. No other words for it, I love it. Had to keep myself from eating half of it :-P The taste of the grains and the raisins combine very well with cheese, by the way.

Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

• 500g gluten-free breadmix (I used Consenza with grains)
• 12g instant yeast
• 75g melted butter
• 150g - 200g raisins
• 4dl milk
• 70g sugar
• 8g vanilla sugar
• 1 egg

Wash the raisins and let them leak. Sift the flour and add the yeast. Make a well in the middle, add the sugars and the melted butter. Stir some flour into it en mix. Slowly add the milk, stir until combined. Add the egg and combine again. Add the raisins last, and mix them through the dough.

Pour the dough into a buttered bread form. Let it rise for 40min. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 40min or until ready.

Birthday Pie (GF)

Yesterday was my boyfriend's birthday ! The boy turned 23 :-) August is actually THE party-month in my family: 5 birthdays in 2 weeks, how about that ! We had a party for the three "kids": two of my nieces and my boy. There were 3 regular pies, and I baked one gluten-free pie for me.


I used about the same base as my "365-days-pie", but I made it in a larger quantity.

Biscuit Pie

Ingredients:
• 5 eggs
• 125g sugar
• 125g gf flour mix
• Additional: Lime juice, vanilla extract, rum extract, ...

Beat the eggs with the sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add an additional flavor if you want to. Beat some more until the mixture is thick, white and creamy. Add the flour and mix carefully. Pour the mixture in a buttered cake form and bake for 35min at 175°C.

Decorate to taste. I baked 2 biscuits, covered the first with cherries, put the second biscuit on top and covered the whole thing with beaten cream.