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Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

March 23, 2009 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

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Pete A (so designated to distinguish him from Pete D, Pete V, Pete L and my Pete) is “allergic” to wheat.  At least that’s how Small Man describes it – what he actually has is coeliacs disease, which means his body can’t process gluten in any form. I’ve made it my quest to find him gluten-free treats which pass muster, with a particular focus on those that will satisfy his chocoholic tendencies (Pete is the proud and occasionally indulgent sire of the Boy Wonder, should anyone wish to join the dots).

Over the last few years, I’ve tried everything from tricky recipes which were no more than cream, butter and chocolate, held together by happy thoughts and fairy dust, to dead simple ones which are almost foolproof.  This is definitely one of the latter!

Edit: I’ve just realised that if you choose your chocolate chips carefully (read the label – most dark chocolate doesn’t contain any dairy), this recipe can be lactose-free as well as gluten-free.

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

(based on a recipe from Bon Appetit, September 1999)

  • 1 cup chunky unsalted peanut butter (note: if you’re in Australia, the best one I’ve found is the Sanitarium 100% Natural Chunky Peanut Butter – give it a good stir before you start)
  • 1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup of dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350F) or 160C (320F) with fan and line a large baking tray with parchment paper (Bake).  I have a 90cm oven – if yours is smaller, you might need two baking trays.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the peanut butter, sugar, egg, bicarb soda (sifted) and vanilla extract, and stir well to combine.  Mix in the chocolate chips. (You don’t need a mixer for any of this – just stir it all together with a large spoon).

3. Using a small greased icecream scoop, or a tablespoon, place generous balls of dough onto the baking tray(s), leaving a gap of about 5cm (2″) between each.

4. Bake the cookies until they puff up but are still soft to touch in the centre, about 10 – 12 minutes.  These cookies over-cook very easily, so watch them carefully and pull them out as soon as they’re golden brown (in my oven, that’s about 11 minutes).  I rotate them once during the baking time.  Don’t be put off by the fact they’re still soft when you pull them out, as they’ll harden as they cool.  Once the colour is right, they need to come straight out of the oven.

5. Allow to cool on tray(s) for five minutes, then transfer to racks and allow to cool completely.  If you’ve made these correctly, they’ll have a nice, loose crumb with melting chunks of chocolate sandwiched within them!

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Posted in Gluten Free, Recipes | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments »

Hot Chocolate

March 22, 2009 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

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Oh, to be fifteen again.  Yesterday I had this conversation with Timothy:

“Hey Celia, I’m glad you rang. I’ve just asked dad to take me to your house!”

“Have you, Tim?  That’s nice, why are you coming over?”

“Well, firstly because we’ve run out of hot chocolate, but also because I wanted to see you guys…”

It was delivered with so much charm and genuine affection that there was nothing I could do but get up early this morning to make him an extra-large batch (they’re on their way over now – the Boy Wonder can’t cope without his daily fix).

We’ve been making this recipe for years and Small Man has a mug every night before bed.  Inspired by an old Epicurious recipe, we make it with a mix of Belgian chocolate and Dutch cocoa, which is extravagant but oh-so-worth it. Because it includes finely ground chocolate rather than just cocoa, you’ll need to either heat the milk in a small saucepan and whisk the mix in, or buy a little whizzy gadget for a few dollars to ensure that it dissolves properly.  Trust me, it’s worth the extra effort!

Callebaut chocolate is our “house” brand and works particularly well because it comes in callet form, which makes the grinding process a lot easier. Whichever chocolate you choose to use, please hunt out the best you can afford – there isn’t a lot to this mix, so you really can taste every ingredient.

  • 2 cups white sugar (granulated)
  • ½ vanilla bean – scrape the seeds out (optional)
  • 12oz (340g) Callebaut 56% dark (semisweet) chocolate (sometimes I’ll use some 70% in this mix as well)
  • 4oz (115g) Callebaut milk chocolate
  • 1 cup Dutch process unsweetened cocoa powder (we use Callebaut, but apparently Droste is very good as well)

1. In the bowl of a really large food processor, grind the dark and milk chocolates until finely ground (do this by pulsing the processor in short bursts – you don’t want to melt the chocolate).

2. Add white sugar, cocoa powder and the scraped out vanilla seeds (if using) and process some more.  If your machine is too small, you can tip the chocolate into a large mixing bowl and stir the other ingredients in with a whisk.

The original recipe specified ¼ to 1/3 cup of mix to each cup of milk, but we use much less than that – about two heaped dessertspoons per cup.

Using the quantities above, you’ll end up with just over a kilo (about 21/4 lb) of hot chocolate mix.  It makes a fantastic Christmas present!

Posted in Food & Friends, Gluten Free, Recipes | Tagged , , | 9 Comments »

Birthday Girl

March 20, 2009 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

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Today is little T’s birthday and she’s four years old.  Her mum, Dan, is one of my best friends and a true kindred spirit.  They live in the US now but we talk all the time – a blessing of the modern age of Skype and cheap phone cards (why does it cost less to call international than it does to call interstate?).

Dan and I have nicknamed T the Theme Park Girl, because she lives life with unbridled enthusiasm, finding enormous delight in the minutiae that most people take for granted.  A walk home from kindy can take a loooong time, because it can involve stopping at every flower for a sniff, or turning over every pebble to see what the underside looks like, or practising dance steps to the rhythm of the boom-boom car that’s driving past.  Her sheer joy at new things is a treasure in itself and when she had her first ballet lesson – she was so happy that Dan thought she might actually float away.

A year ago, when they first moved to the States, Dan was bemoaning the lack of decent sandwich bread, so I taught her how to bake her own (over Skype, no less).  She in turn taught small girl, who produced a baby roll all by herself.  You can almost sense how proud she was in the photo.

Happy Birthday Princess!

Posted in Food & Friends |

Time

March 20, 2009 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

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Years ago, a friend gave me some life changing advice.  He said, “time is yours, Celia, and only you can manage it”.  I’d been working in a  very stressful job and was feeling overwhelmed by a looming deadline.  He was right, of course, we’re all given the same 24 hours a day and the process we call “living” is about figuring out what we’re going to do with those hours.

Lately, friends have been lamenting to me about their lack of time.  I know exactly how they feel –  I’ve had months, occasionally years, where life has been brutally busy and I’ve felt like it was impossible to come up for air.  What I’ve come to realize is this: you have to find time for yourself first.  Be it just half an hour a day, in between working and feeding the kids and cleaning the bathroom, you need to find some time to look after your own needs, do something you enjoy and feed your soul.  And you need to schedule it in to do every day, because if you don’t, time will just sift through your hands like sand.  It’s a bit like the advice they give you when you board a plane – fix your own oxygen mask first, before helping children –  because if you can’t breathe, you won’t be able to look after anyone else.  I plan for at least an hour a day where I can consciously do something which makes me happy, and actively try to enjoy and be aware of every minute of it.

I think sometimes as a species we lose perspective on why we’re here.  We rush around madly trying to jam as much as we possibly can into a 24 hour day and as a result forget to enjoy the time we’re given. I hope you all find some time today to do something that brings you joy. Remember, time is yours, and only you can manage it!

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
Gandalf  –  JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (1974).


Posted in Musings | 3 Comments »

Fruit Bread

March 19, 2009 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Clever Maureen, at the insistence of her son, discovered that Kevin Sherrie’s grain mix works brilliantly with dried fruit.  I made an overnight batch of sourdough and threw in a handful each of raisins and whole dried cranberries, as well as a couple of teaspoons of Herbie’s mixed spice (but didn’t add any sugar).  Because I used less leaven than I normally would, the end result was a chewy, substantial and totally addictive fruit bread, which Pete is wolfing down as I type (always a good measure of success!).

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Posted in Food & Friends, Recipes | Tagged , , , |

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