• Kitchen Fun •

Chocolate and Hazelnut Meringue Chocolate Cake (GF)

2011-03-13T18:16:00.004+01:00

I've done it again.
Between the last post and now, I've made quite a few good things. But blogging about it ... It never happened. Too busy, I guess, with going to school and everything. Perhaps I can pick up blogging when I've finished school. Perhaps.

Wait and see :-)

In the mean time:
This was the cake I made for my birthday:
a Chocolate and Hazelnut Meringue Chocolate Cake
Gluten-free ofcourse !

Ingredients for the cake:
• 140g good-quality butter
• 3/4c brown sugar
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 340g chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 T espresso or vanilla
• 1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 175°C.
Butter a springform pan of about 22cm (9 inch). Line with parchment paper.
Whip the butter and brown sugar until pale and smooth, about 3 minutes.
Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition.
Add the melted chocolate, espresso or vanilla and salt. Beat until combined.
In a clean mixer bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Fold the egg whites into chocolate mixture and pour batter into the springform pan. Bake the chocolate until it is crackling and slightly firm, 40 to 45 minutes. Or with the meringue: bake the cake for 25min, remove from the oven and go to the next step..

Ingredients for the meringue:
• 115g chocolate, chopped
• 115g hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and roughly chopped
• 1 T cornstarch
• 4 large egg whites
• 3/4c fine white sugar

Place the 4 egg whites in a clean mixer bowl, beat on high speed until frothy. With the mixer running, slowly add the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, about 8 minutes.
Combine the chopped chocolate, nuts and cornstarch. Fold the hazelnut mixture into the egg whites.

Spread meringue mixture on top of the cake and return to the oven.
Bake until the meringue is lightly browned and crisp: 25 to 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack and let stand 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen and release sides of the pan. Let cool before slicing and serving.

Tastes even better the next day !

Mixed Berries Pie (GF)

2011-01-23T17:36:00.001+01:00

I made this quite a while ago and I really should blog about it so that I remember the recipe. Yes, this "blog" is really more like an online recipe-book for myself :-)

Ingredients for the crust:
• 300g rice flour mix
• 150g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150g margarine/butter
• milk as necessary
• 1 t baking soda/baking powder

Put the flour mix into a large bowl and make a hollow in the middle. Put the sugar, egg, margarine and baking soda into the hollow. Knead well and pour in enough milk necessary to form a homogeneous, not too soft a mixture.
Roll out half of the pastry until it is the same size in diameter as the baking tin. Put the dough into a buttered and floured baking tin.

Ingredients for the filling:
• Mixed berries (I used frozen berries)
• Or any other kind of fruit you like
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 100g sugar

Toss the cherries with the cornstarch and sugar. Let sit for about 10 minutes, while you roll out the top crust for the pie.

Then assemble your pie. Fill the crust with the berries. Weave strips of crust into a lattice. I found that quite difficult because my gluten-free dough isn't really firm. You can also top the entire pie with dough and just cut a few slits.
Place the pie on a baking plate (not a rack, to catch any juice that might overflow), and bake about an hour. If the crust browns too much, cover with foil until the pie is finished cooking.

And enjoy !
I found this really messy to eat, but very tasty. A little bit of a tang from the berries, with a sweet crust. Yummie ! Must make this again :-)

Hello again + Oaxacan Cuisine

2010-11-24T16:06:00.019+01:00

Hello, How are You ?

Yes, I know. I've been quite absent here. Last post dates from June 15th, that's actually quite embarasing...

So, what's new?
I'm married now ! It was a really great day, and very hot too ! Hottest day of the year here in Belgium :-) We had fun, my dress was awesome, the food was G-O-O-D (and gluten-free for me, ofcourse).

We went to Sweden for our Honeymoon, that was great too. Everything was just so beautiful - oh, I want to go back, right now ! By the way, Sweden is a great country for everyone who eats gluten-free. I mean - I ate a hamburger ! Just like that ! (Actually, I ate two hamburgers :-P) In every store you could find something gluten-free, some stores actually had a large amount of stuff. Oh, I want to live there.

Summer ended quite quickly, and I went back to school. New school actually, new study, new people ... All very interesting, but very tiresome. I've been quite exhausted really. Lots of things to do, too. And I'll be glad when this year is over. But I'll make it :-) Oh, and I've got a new kitty cat! She's a lovely fuzzy white thing called Svea :-)

And now: A new recipe ! I wanted to participate to this month's "Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free". It's been so long since I entered. The theme for November was "Oaxacan Cuisine", hosted by Kajora of Spice Lovely. To tell you the truth, I had NO idea what Oaxacan cuisine was. Something Mexican, right? Some googling brought me to some sites and some recipes. I used this one but I altered it a bit.

Oaxacan Chicken Mole

Ingredients:
• 2 chicken breast halves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 can of skinned tomatoes
• 1 yellow paprika
• 20g black chocolate
• Salt and peper, chili powder, ground cumin, ground cinnamon and cloves to taste

Cut the chicken in bitesize pieces. Season. Cut the paprika in small pieces. Heat the olive oil, cook the chicken until brown. Stew the paprika till slightly soft. Add the tomatoes with their juices, along with the chocolate and spices. Cook until the sauce thickens up.
Serve with white rice or tortillas.
This really isn't a dish to take pictures of... But it tastes much better than it looks ! ;-)

GF Bread

2010-06-15T13:48:00.006+02:00

I've had trouble with bread lately. It just didn't work. It was hard, dry, too crunchy, it tasted funny, it fell apart, or whatever. So today I decided to just go back to an old recipe and try to get a somewhat decent bread. And guess what? It wasn't just decent, it was great ! I don't really know what made the difference. Perhaps the cider vinegar. Perhaps the corn flour. Perhaps the fact that I use a smaller baking tin now. Anyway, just look at it !

This doesn't look too bad, does it ?!

Regular Bread, gluten-free

• 350g GF Flour mix
• 150g corn flour
• mixed seeds
• 12g instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 30g butter
• 400ml milk
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 egg

Mix the dry ingrediënts. Add the cider vinegar and some of the milk. Mix well. Add the egg, mix again, then add the rest of the milk. Beat with a mixer for about 3 minutes until you have a smooth dough.
Pour the dough into a buttered bread form or cake tin and let it rise for 45min. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for 50min.

I found that it works better to use a slightly smaller bread form/tin. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but this bread is moist yet not sticky-moist. Just right, actually. I hope I can repeat this result !

Amaretti (GF)

2010-06-12T17:44:00.008+02:00

Amaretti - also known as macaroons - are naturally gluten and dairy-free cookies. This recipe is really easy too. So I had to try it out. Normally these cookies are small and domed-shaped, but mine came out rather thin. But they did taste really great - sweet, crispy and yet a bit chewy.

This is my entry for this month's "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten-free!" - Cream of the Crop: Dairy-Free Delights.

It is also my father's-day-gift to my father-in-law. Well, technically he's not my father-in-law just yet, but he will be in 20 days, so I think I can call him that ;-)

(YES ! Can you believe that, the wedding is only 20 days away. I mean, what happened to 100 days ?! I'm not freaking out yet, but it is quite a shock to realise how fast the last months went by. You know what? Monday June the 14th, we've been engaged for a year already...)

Amaretti Cookies

Ingredients:
• 100g ground almonds (I used 100g sliced almonds, grounded in the blender.)
• 100g white sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 egg white
• 4 drops almond extract
• 3 tablespoons Amaretto liquor

Ground your almonds in a food processor or blender. Add the sugar and the pinch of salt, pulse again until you get a well blended ground mixture. Stir in the egg white, almond extract and Amaretto liquor. Let it rest in the fridge for half an hour.
Form small heaps of the dough on a baking plate (lined with parchement paper). I used two teaspoons, that worked well for me.
Bake for about 15min in a preheated oven an 150°C (300°F)

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-04-25T11:00:00.011+02:00

I'm sorry. This recipe is not gluten-free.
Yes, I am sorry, I didn't even taste these myself ! They looked so good..

So, well, why bake not-gluten-free cupcakes ? They were a "Thank You"-gift and I wanted them to be vegan. I have never done vegan-baking before, and I thought vegan ànd gluten-free might be a bit too much. I wanted the cupcakes to be great, so I decided to make them with regular flour. My boyfriend tasted them and said they are fantastic. Chocolat-y and then an aftertaste of almond. And not a bit dry. He described it as eating "cupcake-ice cream" (because of the chocolate icing on top). The person for who I baked these liked them as well.

So my first attempt at baking vegan was a succes. I might try to make them gluten-free... I don't know, it might work :-)
These are very easy, so don't be afraid to try the recipe yourself ! The chocolate icing was a bit sticky, that's not really my thing - but they liked it.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:
• 240ml soy chocolate milk
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 160g flour
• 150g sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• shredded chocolate (optional, but it gives a deep chocolate flavour)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 80ml vegetable oil
• some vanilla extract
• some almond extract

Combine the soy milk and vinegar. Set aside to curdle. I left mine for 30min, but 10min should be enough.
Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, chocolate, baking powder and salt.
Add the oil and additional flavours to the curdled soy milk and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and combine.
Fill a cupcake tin or cupcake forms. Bake in a preheated oven at 175°C for about 20min.

Chocolate Fudge Icing

Ingredients:
• 8 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 tablespoons soy (chocolate) milk
• 1,5 tablespoons margarine
• 0,5 tablespoon light corn syrup (or another syrup)
• some vanilla extract

Mix the sugar, soy milk, margarine and syrup. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. Add the vanilla. Cool and beat until the mixture is of spreading consistency.

GF Easter Bread - Glutenvrije Klaaskoeken

2010-03-17T18:33:00.006+01:00

I named this 'Easter bread' because I don't know how to name it otherwise. It's supposed to be something like our Flemish "Klaaskoeken". It's slightly sweet, and it's mostly eaten for breakfast or as a snack in the afternoon. It tastes great with just butter, or with cheese. Or if you're really hungry: Cut it in half, butter it and put some pieces of chocolate in between. With a cup of hot (chocolate)milk. De-licous.

Next time I'll bake them more slowly, the crust should be more soft than crispy. I've already adjusted the recipe.

Easter Bread

Ingredients:
• 250g GF flour mix
• 1 t instant yeast
• 50g sugar
• pinch of salt
• some cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 40g butter, melted
• 200ml lukewarm milk
• I also added 50g ORGRAN "GF Gluten Substitute" but I don't know whether it made much difference.

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add the butter and the egg, and stir. Slowly add the milk, mix well. Beat it for a couple of minutes with an electric mixer if you can.
Form small rolls and let it rise for at least an hour.
Bake for 30min at 175°C - 200°C.

Rice Pie (GF)

2010-03-14T16:04:00.008+01:00

I should write more. Really, I should. Not that I have so much to say, and not because I think I'm thàt interesting. Not writing will not be such a loss to the world. But it's just - I actually liked writing things down. Telling 'the world' how my world spins. How my head spins.
These days, I just can't find the energy to do that. And I can't find words that fit to what my head says, most of the time. It spins too fast. I'm just so tired and there is so much I want to do... Anyway, on to the pie !

This recipe is really easy and quick. You can whip it up in about 5 minutes ! (Ofcourse it still has to bake 45min ... But still, quick and easy). And above all, it's delicious: a soft, moist, vanilla-y pie...
It was one of my favorite 'easy'-recipes before I went gluten-free, and as it needs only little flour, adjusting it was no real problem. I do add some extra vanilla extract now, because that makes the taste somewhat better. Yeah, I do still like this recipe :-)

Rice Pie

Ingredients
• 4 eggs
• 6 T sugar
• 2 packs vanilla sugar (8g each)
• 2 cans rice pudding (make sure it's gluten-free!)
• 7 T rice flour mix
• 3 T cornflour
• 7 T milk

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add some additional flavor (like vanilla or rum) if you want to. Pour in the rice pudding and stir until it's blended with the eggs. Add the flour and the milk, mix well.

Pour this batter in a buttered pie form. Bake at a preheated oven for about 45min at 175°C. Let the pie cool on a rack.

Enjoy !

Great GF Cake !

2010-02-14T17:11:00.005+01:00

It 's been quite a while since I 've posted a blog. I 've tried out several great recipes, but I forgot to make pictures and I have a real lack of energy, so I didn't feel like blogging. But this cake is so delicious, I had to write it down ! This blog is more like an online recipebook for myself anyways ;-)

Oh. And all my effords to eat gluten-free are paying off, apparently. I had a check-up at the hospital, and the doctor said that the celiac disease is under control. Which is great. (Too bad I don't feel better... Ah, well).

GF Vanilla Cake

• 4 eggs
• 200g sugar
• Vanilla
• 50g corn starch
• 150g rice flour mix
• 200g melted quality butter

Beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla until creamy, white and fluffy. Add the flours and butter, mix and beat again. Pour the batter in a cake form and bake for about 45min at 180°C.

It 's just a simple vanilla cake, but, oh, it 's so light and fluffy. Not a bit dry !

ps. Try this great cornbread recipe ! (I omitted the chiles) So very yummy.

Muffin Bread (GF)

2009-12-27T11:21:00.011+01:00

These soft, moist, small breads are really tasty, and something I would recommend to everyone ! They are based on the recipe for English Muffins from Hey, That Tastes Good! I've made something like these before, but this batch turned out even better ! A real hit. I'm going to bake these for New Year's Eve, to go with the soup, for the whole family. Perhaps some sunflower seeds would be tasty too... Yes, I think that would be nice :-) I hope they will turn out as fine as these did. Always hard to predict, gluten-free bread-baking ;-)

Furthermore, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year ! I hope 2009 was a fine year for everyone, and 2010 will be even better...

Now on to the recipe.

English Muffins

Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup buckweat flour
• 1/4 cup brown gluten-free bread mix (I used "Finax")
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 T sugar
• 2 t instant yeast
• 1 t olive oil
• 3/4 cup hot water

Blend the dry ingredients, then add the oil and water. Stir until blended, then beat about 2 minutes. Lightly oil your English muffin tins, sprinkle coarse cornmeal in the bottoms. Divide the batter between the tins. Let rise for about 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 190°C. Bake the muffins for 15 minutes.

Apple Pie (GF)

2009-12-20T12:33:00.006+01:00

It took me a while to blog about these. Lack of time, and still lack of energy. But this actually is really good ! Easy, fast, and tasty. A very good short-pastry crust. Delicious apple and cinnamon. Yes, succes !

Apple Pie

Ingredients:
• 150g rice flour mix
• 75g sugar
• 1 egg
• 75g margarine/butter
• milk as necessary
• 1 t baking soda/baking powder
• 2 apples, chopped in small pieces

Put the flour mix into a large bowl and make a hollow in the middle. Put the sugar, egg, margarine and baking soda into the hollow. Knead well and pour in enough milk necessary to form a homogeneous, not too soft a mixture.
Roll out the pastry until it is the same size in diameter as the baking tin. I used muffin tins, to make mini-pies. Put the dough into a buttered and floured baking tin.
Fill the tin with the apples, or filling of your choice. I also put a little cinnamon on top. Place strips of pastry on the top of the pie, in a grid-like form or just the whole top. Bake in a preheated oven at 175°C, for about 40min for a whole pie.

Coconut Rocks (GF)

2009-11-11T13:30:00.009+01:00

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)

2009-11-02T14:26:00.012+01:00

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)

2009-10-05T11:41:00.007+02:00

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)

2009-09-20T10:52:00.006+02:00

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

2009-08-28T11:41:00.011+02:00

"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

2009-08-27T12:53:00.006+02:00

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)

2009-08-17T13:16:00.005+02:00

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.

French Bread (GF)

2009-07-28T20:06:00.008+02:00

Goodness ! This bread is unbelievable ! Omygodomygodomygod ! I truly hope the next batch of these will turn out as well as these, they were yummy ! Soft, not dry, not sticky, very tasty, ... Succes !

French Bread

Ingredients
• 1 cup quinoa flour
• 1 1/2 cup potato starch
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 1 cup warm water

Combine the dry ingredients. Add the olive oil and egg whites and mix. Add the vinegar and the water. Mix for 2 minutes, adding some water if needed to make a soft dough.

Spoon the dough onto a baking form. You can brush the top with some beaten egg white. Place the baking forms in a cold oven on a middle rack. Turn the oven on to 220°C and bake for 30 – 35 minutes. Cool the loaves on a wire wrack before slicing.

Picknick (GF)

2009-07-27T10:15:00.013+02:00

This is my post for this month's "Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free!". This is a blogging event, started by Naomi Devlin. Each month has a different host and a different theme. July was hosted by Shirley of Gluten Free Easily, and she picked a quite original theme: Make me a happy camper.

Now I'm not really a camper - actually I don't think I have ever gone camping for real. But I do enjoy picknicks. This is the first summer I'm gluten-free and I found it a bit hard to think of little snacks to take with us on a picknick. But I managed. And we had fun :-)

I have to say I look forward to the round-up of this theme. You see, we'll probably go camping next year, and all tips and recipes are welcome, I'm a novice !

Now, what to take to a gluten-free picknick. Ofcourse, lots of vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, corn, ...) and fruit (apple, grapes, pineapple, ...) We also had - let's think - hard boiled eggs, small sausages, rice salad and salmon rolls.

These were a hit. Very easy, and tasty. Just bake some crêpes with buckwheat, spread them with cream cheese (like Philadelphia - I used a variety with herbs), and top with smoked salmon. Roll the crêpes up tightly, et voila.

Buckweat Crêpes

Ingredients:
• 200g buckwheat flour
• some salt (to taste)
• 2 eggs
• 350ml milk

Mix all the ingredients until you get a smooth dough. Bake thin crêpes and let them cool. Spread with toppings of your choice.

My boyfriend really liked the rice salad too. So I'd add a recipe for that too, but actually I just throw some things together...

Rice Salad

Ingredients:
• Cooked rice (I used whole grain rice)
• Paprika (I used yellow and red)
• Corn
• Asparagus
• Apple
• Fried egg
• Brie
• Herbs and dressing to taste

English Muffins (GF)

2009-07-24T13:34:00.008+02:00

Gluten-free bread isn't my thing. It really isn't. Oh, how I loved good old gluten-full bread ! How delicious that was... That's one of the hardest things for me, being gluten-free. Baking cookies, or cake, or whatever: not a problem, and most of the time just as delicious. Pasta, or pizza, more difficult, but I manage. But bread ... Oh, god, help me ! You see, I don't succeed in baking a good gluten-free bread. It just doesn't work out for me. Besides, even if I bake an acceptable bread, it won't be the same, it won't be as good, as regular, gluten-full bread.

Now, I needed something bread-like for lunch. And I had just bookmarked a post about English muffins. Yeah, I had to try that. And these actually are pretty good :-)

I based myself on a recipe of Heythattastesgood. You can find her recipe here.

English muffins

Ingredients:

• 125ml (1/2 cup) rice flour
• 62ml (1/4 cup) quinoa flour
• 125ml (1/2 cup) tapioca starch
• 62ml (1/4 cup) potato starch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 200ml hot water

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the oil and the hot water. Stir until blended. Then whisk or beat the mixture for about 2 minutes. Slightly oil your muffin tin and dust it with quinoa flour (or cornflour, or ...). Put the batter in the tins (I got 6 muffins out of it). Let them rise for about 20 minutes. Bake the muffins for 15min in a preheated oven at 200°C.

GF Chocolate Muffins

2009-07-12T17:36:00.007+02:00

I had a pack gluten-free flour that was reaching it's expiry date - a perfect excuse to bake ;-) My boyfriend wasn't really in the mood for waffles, so I had to think of something else. I decided to try a recipe for chocolate muffins.

These are quite good. Not as good as regular chocolate muffins, I have to admit. But, well, I can't eat the regular ones, and I can eat these. My boyfriend thinks they're yummy, so I guess they're quite alright :-)

Gluten-free Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients:
• 210g gluten-free flour mix
• some baking powder
• 40g cocoa powder
• a pinch of salt
• 150g brown sugar
• 2,5dl milk
• 60g butter (good quality)
• 120g coarsly chopped chocolate

Preheat the oven at 180°C.
Mix the flour with the baking powder, cocoa, sugar and salt. Make a hole in the middle. Melt the butter (I add the butter to the milk, and heat the milk). Pour the milk and butter in the hole. Stir the mixture. Add the chopped chocolate and mix it through the dough. Fill your muffin-forms with the dough and bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

Banana Ice Cream

2009-07-05T17:11:00.005+02:00

This recipe really takes no time at all - it's super easy, and very tasty. The banana flavor isn't too overwhelming either, it's just right.

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients:
• 150g ripe bananas
• 65g sugar
• some lemon juice (you can leave it out)
• 1 egg yolk
• 200ml cream (I used light)
OR 50ml cream + 150ml whole milk

Puree the bananas with the egg yolk, sugar and lemon juice. Mix the puree with the cream (don't beat it). Put it in your ice cream machine and let it work for 35min (or according to your machine's instructions). Put it back in the freezer for aprox. 30min.

That's it.

365-Days-Pie (GF)

2009-07-02T16:57:00.011+02:00

We are getting married next year ! Exciting, isn't it ?! D-Day is exactly one year away, so I baked a pie to celebrate that ;-)

It was a kind of "biscuit" filled with pudding, cream and strawberries. The cream didn't work out, because of the heat of the summer, but taste is all that matters. And it was good !

Biscuit

Ingredients:
• 4 eggs
• 100g sugar
• 50g gf flour mix
• 50g potato starch
• Additional: Lime juice, vanilla extract, rum extract, ...

Beat the eggs with the sugar "au bain marie" 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 flours and mix carefully. Pour the mixture in a buttered cake form and bake for 35min at 175°C.

Decorate to taste. I filled the cake with pudding and strawberries. To make this filling, you need to make some firm vanilla pudding, cut a bunch of strawberries in pieces, and beat some cream until firm. You combine and you've got a delicious pie-filling !

Homemade Ice Cream

2009-06-23T09:14:00.004+02:00

Seriously, Homemade Ice Cream is Good ! It's Great !

Okay, it was the first time I used our new (small) ice cream maker, and we were both wildly enthusiastic. I was making regular vanilla ice cream, but then I decided to throw in a little fudge/dulce de leche. So there was a little hint of caramel, and somehow that made the vanille flavor come out even better.

Vanilla Ice Cream with a hint of Dulche de Leche

Ingredients
• 125ml milk
• 125ml cream
• vanilla
• 3 egg yolks
• 45g sugar (I used 18g vanilla sugar and 27g regular white sugar)

Heat the milk with the cream and the vanilla until boiling, then let it cool. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and beat until thick and white. Add this to the milk/cream. Mix well. Put this mixture in your ice cream maker for about 35min. Let it freeze for about 30min before consuming.

Note: I have a small ice cream maker of about 1,1l. Use more if you have a larger one.

Chocolate Fudge Brownies - GF

2009-06-17T08:35:00.005+02:00

Last weekend I wanted to make fudge, as a present. Unfortunatly, the fudge turned out a bit too sticky. It was firm, but I couldn't cut it in pieces and take them of the baking sheet.

So I had to make something else with it.... After some pondering, it came to me: Fudge Brownies ! These turned out great. And they taste even better after a day (or two).

Fudge

Ingredients:
• 125g sugar
• 50ml coffee milk
• 75g firm butter
• 175ml cream
• 225g sugar
• a pinch of salt
• some vanilla

Heat the first batch of sugar until it melts. Don't forget to stir ! Heat it a little more, it needs to get a nice lightbrown color. Then add the coffee milk and the cream. Keep stirring. Finally add the butter, the rest of the sugar, the vanilla and the salt. Stir frequently and heat the mixture to aprox. 120°C, when it's thick and liquid. Cool down the mixture, whilst stirring - that way you create the fudge-structure. Pour out the mix on a plate (lined with baking paper). Put some baking paper on top of it too, to prevent the fudge from drying out. Let it cool completely.

Now, that didn't really work out for me. I scooped out the fudge I needed for the brownies, and warmed it up a little to make it liquid.

Chocolade Fudge Brownies

Ingredients:
• Fudge (I didn't measure it. I think it was about one cup)
• 115g firm butter
• 180g chocolate (I used dark)
• 3 eggs
• 120g sugar
• 40g tapioca starch
• 50g glutinous rice flour (= Sweet rice flour)
• 50g rice flour

Melt the butter. Add the chocolate pieces and stir constantly over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, stir in the sugar, then the flours.

Scrape half of the batter into a prepared pan. Drop half of the fudge over the brownie batter, and drag a knife through to swirl it slightly. Spread the remaining brownie batter over, then drop the remaining fudge over the top of the brownie batter. Use a knife to swirl it slightly.

Bake in a preheated over (175°C) for 35 to 45 minutes. The brownies are done when the center feels slightly firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting.

Chocolate Crinkles - GF

2009-05-22T18:55:00.007+02:00

Cookie-baking-time ! I used this recipe to make some chocolate cookies. They taste very good, you can't even tell they're gluten-free ! They are very sweet, so I might add less sugar next time I make them....

This is also my entry for Sugar High Friday this month: Sweet Without the Wheat. The challenge is to make a dessert without any wheat whatsoever. Great challenge for me, being coeliac ;-) Fact is, there are quite some desserts that are naturally gluten-free, for instance chocolate mousse, pudding, fudge, ... But I choose cookies this time.

Chocolate Crinkles

Ingredients:
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 115g dark chocolate
• 400g sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 250g rice flour mix
• 1/2 t xanthan gum
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 t baking powder

Melt chocolate, then mix with oil and sugar. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla, then add the rice flour mix, xanthan gum, salt and baking powder. Mix everything together, then stick the bowl in the fridge for a few hours.
Heat oven to 175°C. Form dough into small balls. Place them on a greased cookie sheet (about 3cm apart), and bake 10-12 minutes.

GF Quiche

2009-05-14T14:21:00.006+02:00

My boyfriend mentioned it had been quite a while since we had a quiche. Well, yeah, I know. But gluten-free dough is just ... not really a pleasure to make. But I decided to go through that "hell" , and to enjoy eating my GF quiche twice as much.

Gluten-Free Spinach-Ricotta Quiche

Ingredients for the crust:
• 60g quinoa flour
• 190g gluten-free flour mix
• 125g butter
• 75ml water
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt, herbs, ... (to taste)

Sieve the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the egg, the cubed butter and salt. Work the ingredients into a smooth dough. It will be very sticky, and as the butter gets soft it will be harder to make a dough, so try to mix it quickly. Put it in the fridge for about 1 hour. Cover your baking form with the dough. I found it hard to work with the dough as it is very sticky. I had to put my form+dough in the fridge to chill several times. When finished, poke some holes into it with a fork and pre-bake your crust for about 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200°C.

This dough isn't really "fun" to make, but believe me, the crust does taste good !

Use filling of your choice. My quiche was filled with a mixture of spinach (400g), ricotta (250g), 3 eggs, some muchrooms and herbs.

Oven Dried Tomatoes

2009-05-09T10:01:00.005+02:00

I'm in the mood for trying new things. Yesterday I decided to cut up a couple tomatoes, and make some "Sun-Dried Tomatoes" myself ! Which are, in fact, oven dried.

Oven Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:
• A couple tomatoes (I used 3)
• Some Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Slice the tomatoes. Discart most of the seeds. Sprinkle them with salt, pepper and olive oil - and some herbs if you like. Put the tomatoes - cut side up - on a baking plate. Let them oven-dry on the lowest heat, for 6 to 10 hours (to taste).

These were delicious on a piece of toasted GF bread with Philadelphia Pesto.

Les Croissants

2009-05-07T09:45:00.008+02:00

I made these for my boyfriend, so they are not glutenfree. Perhaps I should try a glutenfree version for myself, but I can survive without croissants, so there's no hurry :-) I just wanted to make him a treat, so I decided to try this. I had never made croissants before. According to my boyfriend they taste just like croissants from a bakkery, although I thought the texture would be a bit more dense or thick. (Rolling out the dough was difficult.) Also, I'm planning on making a surprise-breakfast for my parents on Mother's Day. I hope that works out.

Croissants

Ingredients:
• 1kg flour
• 17g salt
• 70g fresh yeast, or 23g instant yeast
• 420ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 60g sugar
• 60g butter
• 350g butter
• Makes about 30 croissants

Dissolve the yeast and the eggs in cold milk. Add 2/3 of the flour and mix. Add sugar, salt, 60g butter and the rest of the flour. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Knead the dough until it's elastic. Cover in plastic foil and let it rest for 10 minutes. Roll out the dough and make a large rectangle of 50 x 20 cm. Knead the rest of the butter with your hands until soft, and spread it over 2/3 of the width. Fold the 'dry' 1/3 to the middle, then fold the buttered 1/3 to the middle. Turn the 'packet' a quarter, roll out lightly, and form a new rectangle. Picture yourself 4 parts; fold both ends to the middle, then fold it like a book. Again turn it a quarter, roll out to a rectangle and fold it like you did the first time: 3 parts; fold one piece to the middle, then fold the other piece to the middle. Wrap the package in plastic foil and put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Roll out the dough to a rectangle of 2,5 mm thick. Cut bands of 20 cm. Make triangles with a base of 12 cm. Roll them up from base to top. Put the 'croissants' on a baking plate and let them rise for 60 minutes. Bake them in a preheated oven at 220°C, for about 10 - 15 minutes.

Strawberry Mozzarella Salad

2009-05-03T19:24:00.006+02:00

I wanted something light for lunch. Something different. So I had this traditional Mozzarella dish, "Insalata Caprese", but with strawberries. Yumm.

Mozzarella-Strawberry-Basil Salad

• Mozzarella - the high quality stuff
• Several strawberries - I think I used 6
• Fresh basil
• Olive oil

It couldn't be more easy. You just slice the mozzarella and strawberries. Then you compose the salad: Alternate slices of mozzarella with sliced strawberry. Sprinkle pieces of fresh basil over the salad. Add freshly ground peper to taste, and finally drizzle on some good olive oil. Serve straigh away.

Apple Candy

2009-04-22T10:44:00.008+02:00

Apples are quite cheap at the moment, so I thought I'd have some fun with them, do something special. I decided I wanted to try "Apple Jellies" - I followed the recipe from Lottie+Doof.

Apple Candy

Ingredients:
• 1300g Apples, cored and quartered
• 250ml Water
• 300g Sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon

In a large pot combine the apples and the water and cook over medium heat until soft. Pass the mixture through a food mill or sieve. Return the puree to the pot and stir in the sugar and lemon juice. Simmer over low heat, stirring often, for about 1 hour. [But ! I had to let the mixture simmer for more than 2 hours.] As the mixture cooks and reduces, it starts to thicken and bubble. Scrape the bottom of the pan while stirring to make sure nothing is sticking and burning. The puree is done when it holds a mounded shape.

Now lightly rub an 8-by-8-inch square baking pan with a flavorless vegetable oil. Line pan with parchment and lightly oil parchment.

Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan. Cool for several hours or overnight. When cooled completely, invert onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Remove the top layer of parchment paper. Leave to dry, uncovered, overnight. The paste should be firm enough to cut. If for some reason it is not, put the paste in a 65°C oven for an hour or more until firm. Let cool completely before cutting.

The paste can be stored whole, wrapped tightly in plastic. Or trim the edges and cut into pieces before wrapping. Store at room temperature or refrigerated for up to a year. Before serving toss the pieces in granulated sugar to serve.

I did all this, like the recipe states. And I have to admit the result isn't really jelly-like. It's actually more like firm apple sauce. That's why I've named it "Apple Candy", rather than "Apple Jellies"....

Belgian Waffles (GF)

2009-04-12T16:42:00.009+02:00

Not quite a snack for Easter, but I wanted to bake waffles for some time. Today I found time to do so, and yummy they were !

Belgian Waffles - GF

Ingredients:
• 300g rice flour mix

(I used 200g rice flour + 75g tapioca starch + 25g potato starch, but the more common mix is 200g rice flour + 35 tapioca starch + 65g potato starch)

• 75g white sugar
• 2 packs vanilla sugar (8g each)
• a pinch of salt
• 10g baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 75g good quality butter
• 300ml soured milk (add 2 teaspoons of vinegar)

Melt the butter. (You can melt it in the milk. That's how I do it, it's safer and easy.)
Mix the flour and the baking powder with the sugar, vanilla sugar and salt. Make a little hole in the middle, and add the eggs.
Slowly add the milk and melted butter. Keep stirring till you get a nice even dough, without lumps.
Let the dough rest for about 15 min. Warm your waffle iron in the mean time. Add some dough and let it bake for a couple of minutes (depends on your waffle iron. For me, 3 minutes is excellent).

Chickpea Farinata (GF)

2009-03-26T14:11:00.012+01:00

For lunch today, I found inspiration at Lucullian Delights to make a Chickpea Farinata with tomatoes and onions.

Chickpea Farinata with Tomato and Onion

Ingredients:
• 300 ml chickpea flour
• 350 ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• olive oil
• 1 tomato
• 1 very small onion
• herbs to taste

Whisk chickpea flour, salt and water for a couple of minutes until it is smooth. Leave it to rest for 30 minutes or more.
Chop tomato and onion finely and mix in a small bowl.
Pour olive oil in a oven-proof form of approximately 25x29 cm, then pour the chickpea batter into the form as well.
Sprinkle the tomato mix over the surface. Add the herbs. I used salt, pepper, paprika powder, some basil, oregano and thyme. Garlic would be nice too.
Then bake the farinata in a pre-heated oven at 225°C for 20 minutes.

It was very tasty, and perfect for this rainy day. Chickpea flour can have a very particular taste, but I found it quite subtle in this bread, and it worked really well.

Speculaas (Sugar High Friday #53)

2009-03-20T10:29:00.028+01:00

I got a message from Scrumptious, directing me to the next round of Sugar High Friday. For those who don't understand what I am talking about: Sugar High Friday is a blog event started by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess, with a new theme and host each month. It's all about desserts ! The theme this month is very original: The Test of Time - Desserts over a century old.

At first, I didn't have any inspiration. But then lightning struck me! Speculaas! It's a cookie, traditionaly baked for St Nicolas' Eve but nowadays available all year round, that is mostly eaten in Belgium and the Nederlands. It's very popular here. Wikipedia told me that speculaas is also known as "Dutch Windmill Cookies", if that rings a bell to you.

That traditional cookie must be over a century old. And a little research told me I was right. A baker from Hasselt (Belgium), Antonie Deplée, acquired a license for "Hasseltse Speculaas" on January 13th, 1870! He called it:

« une espèce de pain d'amandes connu sous le nom de spéculation » - A kind of almond 'bread' known under the name spéculation.

The cookies are thin, slightly browned and very crispy, but what makes them special, is the mixed spices that are used. It's a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom and white peper. Real speculaas have images or figures stamped on the front side. However, I have no such stamp, so my cookies are very plain.

I like speculaas very, very much. So you can imagine my relief when I found a relatively good recipe for a gluten-free version. It's not the same, but it tastes quite like it, and it's good and yummy too.

So, now on the recipe:
Gluten-free Speculaas

Ingrediënts:
• 100g buckweat flour
• 100g rice flour
• 100g good quality butter
• 125g brown sugar
• 8g vanilla sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp mixed speculaas spices

(to mix your own spices: 30g ground cinnamon, 10g ground cloves, 10g ground nutmeg, 5g ground white pepper, 5g ground anise seed, 5g ground coriander seed)

Simply mix all the ingrediënts and knead them into a ball. Put it away in the fridge for at least an hour.
Take a bit of the dough and form a small ball (rolling between your hands). Put the ball on a baking plate (covered with baking paper) and press it flat. You can also make figures, or basically anything you want.
Put the plate with the cookies in a preheated oven (175°C) and bake them for about 10min. They'll be soft when you take them out of the oven, but they'll get hard when they cool. So don't worry. Let the cookies cool until they are firm enough to handle. Put them on a cooling rack and let cool completely.

It's strange to bake these on the First Day of Spring, it's more of an "Autumn-cookie" :-)

Cornmeal Pancakes (Gluten-Free)

2009-03-15T16:00:00.008+01:00

I still have quite a lot of cornmeal left, so I decided to try some cornmeal pancakes (Next on my baking-list: cornbread :-P). I used this recipe as a base, but I altered it for sweet pancakes.
And O My God, Success ! This are by far the best pancakes I had since I'm eating gluten-free. I am so going to make these again, and try out different variations.

Gluten-Free Cornmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:
• 250g cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon salt (but I'll add less next time)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (GF)
• 10g vanilla sugar
• 190ml milk
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl: cornmeal, salt, baking powder and sugar. Add the milk and butter, and mix the batter until it's well combined. Add the egg and whisk.
Melt some butter in a saucepan. Pour some batter in the pan and bake on both sides, until ready. You can make the pancakes any size you want. The batter is quite firm, so you can even make figures if you like ;-)

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

2009-03-14T15:24:00.009+01:00

We got a bunch of eggs from my 'father-in-law'. And I've got a pack of cornmeal that I have to use, because it's about to expire. So I thought I'd bake something... I asked T. what he would like. Oh, a chocolate cake, you haven't baked that in a while. Well, indeed I haven't. In fact, I haven't baked one since I'm gluten-free. So it was decided: I had to try baking a gluten-free chocolate cake. I searched for a recipe, found too much delicious-looking-cakes and couldn't chose. In the end, I picked a recipe for a regular chocolate cake that I had marked a long time ago.

It's good. It's chocolate cake, yet gluten-free. But there's room for improvement; the cake still is a bit dry, and I like a chocolate cake that really tastes a lot like gooey chocolate... But hey, it's good and I can eat it, I'm not complaining :-)

Gluten-Free Dark Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
• 90g coarsly chopped dark chocolate
• 115g unsalted butter
• 90g dark brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon dark syrup
• 175g flour / I used 145g cornflour and 30g potato starch
• 25g cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (GF)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 large eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 90ml milk

Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Melt the chocolate, butter, sugar and syrup in a heavy pan (with a thick bottom) on low heat. Make sure you stir frequently. Let it cool slightly.
Sift the flours, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a pit in the middle, and pour the mixture into it. Mix it carefully. Then add the eggs, vanilla and milk. Mix it with a wooden spoon, until everything is combined well.
Pour the mixture in a buttered cake mould. Put it in the oven and bake it for 40 minutes or until ready. Make sure you check it frequently.
Let it cool before taking it out of the mould.

Extra note: The cake is still very good after 2 days (kept in the fridge). I find it still very tasty. Also, the cake isn't too heavy. I had a bit for breakfast, and my stomach wasn't upset, even though I normally don't eat such things in the morning.

Gluten Free Bread that tastes Okay

2009-02-27T10:31:00.019+01:00

I'm following a gluten-free diet since 30 september 2008, because I have coeliac disease. The last month has been hard. Suddenly realisation hit me: I am never - ever going to eat those things again. And those things are a lot of things. Before being diagnosted with coeliac disease, I ate pasta quite frequently, I enjoyed bread immensly and I loved a piece of pie. Now all those things are 'forbidden'. Ofcourse, gluten-free pasta excists. But it's expensive. And rather less tastefull, in my opinion. So I eat that less than before. I bake my own bread now, a process I would have enjoyed with regular bread. But gluten-free bread is just not that ... yummy. The texture isn't at all like regular bread, and it tastes different. On top of that, gluten-free flour is expensive, and the baking process is rather more difficult. I don't mean 'difficult', but you have to try a lot before you find something that actually works. Oh well, I shouldn't complain. But it's just hard sometimes... And I know I will be confronted with a lot of things I can't have. Man, I truly hope my children won't have coeliac disease ! That must be so hard for a child...

Back on topic.
I managed to bake a bread that, I think, is quite alright. I did use quite a lot of yeast in comparison with regular bread... But hey, if it works.

Gluten-Free Bread

Ingredients:
• 400g gluten-free flour mix (I use "Coelidiet")
• 50g corn flour
• 50g chickpea flour
• 2 t dry yeast
• 1 t salt (to taste)
• 50g sunflower seed
• 50g flaxseed
• 300ml milk, lukewarm
• 200ml water, lukewarm

Put the salt on the bottom of a large bowl. You have to be carefull that the salt doesn't come in direct contact with the yeast. Add the flour, seeds and yeast. Mix it a bit. Add the fluids, lukewarm, a bit at a time. Mix toroughly.
When you have added all the liquid, you have to 'knead' the dough. But it's not at all as kneading a regular bread ! You do not use your hands or the kneading tools on your mixer. No, you have to mix the dough with a whisk:

This way you can beat air into your dough. It really does make a difference, I believe ! If you have an electric one, use that. Try whisking it on high speed for 3 minutes, and then at a lower speed for about 2 more minutes.
Put the dough in a buttered bread or cake mould. Cover with a dry, clean cloth or plastic and put aside to rise. A warm place is recommended. It was quite cold here, so I put mine on the heater. Let it rise for 30min to 45min. Preheat your oven at 230°C.
Now, I sprayed my bread with some water when I put it in the oven and I baked it for about 5min on 250°C, to create a firm crust. That way your bread doesn't dry out as much. I baked it a further 30min on 230°C.

Et Voila.

Gluten free Oreo Cookies (Home made, ofcourse !)

2009-02-20T19:42:00.022+01:00

Today is my birthday, so I figured I could give myself a treat.

Inspired by this month's theme of "Sugar High Friday", which is "Copycat", chosen and hosted by Palachinka, I made Oreos. Since being gluten-free, I'm in the need of a good chocolate cookie, and this cookie certainly is !

I based myself on this recipe for gluten-free Oreos, but had to adapt it a bit, because I didn't have the right kind of flours...
So here goes my version:

Gluten Free Homemade Oreos

Ingredients:
• 115g butter, room temperature
• 200g sugar
• 1 egg
• 64g potato starch
• 34g buckwheat flour
• 64g rice flour
• 64g dark cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (GF)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 175°C.
Beat butter until creamy and smooth.
Add sugar. Cream together.
Add the egg. Beat together again.
In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients (the flours, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, and salt).
Add dry ingredients to sugar/egg/butter mixture. Mix together until the dough comes together. This takes a while, but don't worry, just keep mixing.
Cover a baking plate with baking paper.
Pinch the dough off in small bits (teaspoon size) and roll in to a ball. Place them on the parchment paper. Place another (small) piece of parchment paper on top of the ball and press with a flat-bottomed glass to aprox. 5mm thickness. Continue placing balls and flattening them but be sure that the flattened cookies have enough space between them.
Bake the cookies for 8 - 9 minutes. Allow to cool a couple minutes before sliding on to a cooling rack and cooling completely.
Cookies can be eaten as is, stored in an airtight container for up to 10 days or so. Or you can fill them. Which I didn't really do...

Actually I like my chocolate cookies as they are, without cream. But especially for Sugar High Friday, an event created by Jennifer, The Domestic Goddess, I made a couple with a sugary filling. It isn't as butter-y as the real Oreos, but hey, these are my cookies ;-)

Apple Cake (Gluten-free)

2008-11-02T11:20:00.011+01:00

I made an apple cake yesterday. It's not that special, just a basic cake recipe, with apples, but gluten- and lactose-free ! But still I want to share it with you :-) It tasted great, though I have to admit it falls apart more quickly than regular cake (but at least I can eat this version !)

Gluten free Apple Cake

Ingredients:
• 4 eggs
• 2 pack of Vanilla sugar
• 200g regular sugar (I used slightly less sugar)
• 200g corn meal
• 200g vegetable oil or butter
• about 3 apples (more or less, to taste)
• some Cinnamon

Mix the eggs with the sugar and vanilla sugar. Add half of the corn meal, mix well. Then add half of the oil. Mix well, and repeat. Add the apples and some cinnamon (to taste). Put the batter in a baking mould and put in a pre-heated oven at 150°C. Bake for about one hour. Let cool and remove from the form.

Cinnamon StarCookies with Chocolate.

2008-10-29T14:19:00.010+01:00

I baked cookies today !
Unfortunatly I have no idea whether they taste good or not - I can't eat them as they aren't gluten-free.
But the smell was delicious :-)

Chocolate stars with cinnamon

Ingredients:
- 180g butter, at room temperature
- 90g fine white sugar
- 230g regular white flour
- salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 40g rice flour or cornstarch
- 50g dark chocolate for decoration.

Mix the butter until creamy, then slowly add the sugar. Keep on stirring. Then sift through the flour, salt, cinnamon and cornstarch. Mix well. Knead the dough short and form a ball. The dough has to be somewhat elastic. Put it in the fridge till it is quite firm.

Roll out the dough (it should be aprox. 5mm) and cut out star-shaped pieces. Repeat till you have used up all the dough. Put them on baking plates and put away somewhere cool for about 15 minutes. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Bake the cookies in 12 minutes till they are firm and start to color. Leave them on the baking plate for a couple of minutes, then put on a rack to cool.

When they have cooled completely, melt the chocolate. Dip the points of the stars in the chocolate, put them on baking paper and let cool.

Gluten-free Bread

2008-10-06T16:11:00.015+02:00

My first attempt at baking a gluten-free bread:

- 500g gluten-free flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 11g dry yeast
- 350 ml water

It worked out quite well, I guess. It looks fine, it even tastes okay.
More than I could hope for ! (As I have heard that baking gluten-free bread isn't as easy as regular bread...)

For the moment, I am a bit sorry that me being coeliac limits my baking adventures so much (gluten-free flour costs quite a lot !), but on the other hand... it can be exciting too. We'll see what I'll make of it. And I'll manage :-)

No Knead Soda Bread

2008-09-15T15:13:00.007+02:00

Easy as Hell !

Ingredients:
• 350 g plain white flour (12 oz.)
• 100 g whole wheat flour (3,5 oz.)
• 1 teasp. salt
• 1 teasp. baking soda
• 350 ml buttermilk

Pre-Heat your oven at 230°C (446° F).
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Combine till well blended. The dough has to be smooth and soft, but not too sticky.
Form the dough into a ball, a round bread. Put it on a baking plate (greased, or with baking paper).
Bake it for 15 minutes, turn the oven back at 200°C (400° F) and bake for another 20 - 30 minutes. The bread has to sound "hollow" when you tap on the bottom.

- You can form little bread of this dough as well, and bake them for aprox. 20 minutes.

Belgian Waffels.

2008-08-31T17:32:00.012+02:00

I suddenly felt like baking waffles. So I did :-)
These are very easy, and very tasty ! Do give them a try...

Belgian Waffles

Ingredients:
• 5 dl milk
• 300 g plain flour (or gluten-free flour, which also works !)
• 100 g butter (good quality)
• 75 g white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 10 g baking powder
• 2 packs vanilla sugar (8 g each)
• a little salt

Melt the butter in a pan, but make sure it doesn't get 'brown'. You can melt it in the milk. That's how I did it, it 's safer and easy.
Mix the flour and the baking powder, make a little hole in the middle. Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, eggs and salt. Mix well.
Slowly add the milk and butter. Keep stirring till you get a nice even dough, without lumps.
Let the dough rest for about 15 min. Warm your waffle iron in the mean time. Add some dough and let it bake for a couple of minutes (depends on your iron and stuff. For me, 4 minutes was excellent).

Red Chocolate Cupcakes

2008-08-30T17:18:00.012+02:00

I wanted to try and make some Red Velvet kind of Chocolate Cupcakes. Unfortunatly, it didn't work out as well as I wanted to, because of the food colouring I used (the only kind I could get my hands on over here), and because of the melted chocolate (hence the batter was too dark to show its red color). But they do taste fine, so ... that 's the most important thing of a cupcake, isn 't it ? :-)
I kind of experimented with this recipe... It 's based on something I got from the internet.
(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamieanne/2465234474/)

Red Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:
• 125g butter, softened
• 200g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 300g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbs cocoa powder
• 1 cup milk
• 100g dark chocolate, melted
• Red food coloring (lots of it !)

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl and beat until light and creamy.
Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift over most of the flour, baking powder and cocoa and beat until combined.
Fold through the milk, the rest of the flour, and stir in the chocolate. Mix well.
Spoon the mixture into muffin tins lined with paper pattycases.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on wire racks.

CousCous.

2008-08-16T12:42:00.007+02:00

• 125 ml Bouillon (Herbs Or Vegetables)
• 2 Tablespoons Lemonjuice - If You Like That. You Can Leave it Out.
• 1 Yellow Paprika (Or Another Color, if You Like those Better)
• 75 g Couscous (Or Quinoa --> Gluten-free !)
• 1 Red Onion
• 100 g Feta
• 6 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 100 g Spinach
• Chilipowder (or Cayenne) and Garlic

Prepare the couscous with the bouillon: let the bouillon boil, and pour it over the couscous. Let it swell for about 6 minutes.
Make a dressing of the olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, chili powder, salt and pepper.
Shred the onion and add this to the dressing. Cut the paprika into small pieces. Add the paprika and spinach to the dressing. Mix well.
Scoop the couscous through the dressing and crumble the feta on top.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

2008-07-29T12:31:00.008+02:00

• 115 g whole wheat flour (4 ounces)
• 120 g all-purpose flour (4 1/4 ounces) 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
 • 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon 
• 115 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick, 4 ounces)
 • 100 g granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces) 
• 100 g dark brown sugar (3 1/2 ounces) 
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
 • 230 g buttermilk or yogurt (8 ounces) 
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped.

Aprox. 18 pieces.

Preheat the oven to 230 °C (450°F). Grease and flour a muffin tin and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and half of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining half a cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 200 °C (400°F), and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Eierkoeken (Eggcakes)

2008-07-26T19:11:00.007+02:00

Eggcakes are famous in Belgium and the Netherlands. They are a delicious Dutch breakfast cake, usually served spread with butter, or jam.

• 275 g Sugar
• 70 g Butter
• 2 dl Milk
• 1 Egg
• 500 g Flour
• 1 tps Baking Soda

Mix the sugar, butter, milk and egg together. Add the flour and baking soda. Knead short, until the dough is homogeneous.
Make a ball of the dough, cover it and put in the fridge for a least a night.
Take pieces of 50 or 60 g of dough, make little balls and flatten them slightly. Put on a oven plate (with baking paper). Cover them slightly with beaten egg (or water) and put some sugar (and cinnamon) on them.
Bake the eggcakes in the oven at 200 °C until they are golden brown.

Wentelteefjes

2008-07-24T17:52:00.006+02:00

also known as « Pain Perdu » or « French Toast »
This is very simple to make ánd delicious to eat.

• 2 Eggs
• 20 cl Milk
• 50 g Brown Sugar (1,7 ounces)
• Cinnamon, if you like that
• 8 Slices of (Old) Bread
• Butter

Beat the eggs with the milk and the sugar (and the optional cinnamon). Soak both sides of the slices of bread in the mixture. Bake them in a hot pan on both sides, until they are goldenbrown. Serve with some powdered sugar or extra cinnamon.

You can also serve it with some vanilla ice-cream !

Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate

2008-07-18T16:43:00.006+02:00

Ingredients:
• 125 g butter, unsalted (4,4 ounces)
• 175 g white sugar (6,2 ounces)
• 30 g vanilla suger (1 ounce)
• 125 g oatmeal (4,4 ounces)
• 1 egg
• 100 g self-raising flour (3,5 ounces)
• 50 g chocolate (1,8 ounce)
• Knife

For 20 cookies:
• Chop the chocolate coarsely.
• Soften the butter and mix it with the sugars. Add the oatmeal, flour and egg. Combine and knead to a soft dough. Finally knead the bits of chocolate throught the dough. Form a roll and let it harden in the fridge for half an hour.
• Preheat your oven on 160°C (320°F). Butter a plate or put baking paper on your ovenplate.
• Take the roll and cut it in disks. Put them on the ovenplate (about 5 cm apart). Bake for 25 minutes until they have a nice golden brown colour.