Coconut Macaroons

I had a bag of unsweetened coconut lurking in the back of my cupboard, and in the spirit of trying to use up ingredients but also wanting something really simple to bake because I cannot deal with recipes that use up dozens of dishes these days, I made some macaroons. I was surprised by how much I liked them; they are slightly crisp on the outside and pleasantly chewy inside.

Macaroons: very simple to make, and gluten-free/dairy-free without adaptation.

Macaroons (with unsweetened coconut)

Adapted from this recipe

As always, if you need to be gluten-free, make sure to check your ingredient labels before baking.

3 egg whites

2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut

½ cup plus 1 TBS granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp sea salt (optional)

Yields about 12 cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix all the ingredients together, until all the coconut is incorporated and the dough is slightly sticky (you may need to use a little more or less coconut depending on how big your egg whites are).

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper (or use a lot of cooking spray instead of the paper, but I like parchment paper because it makes clean up really easy). Using your hands or a spoon, form the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on the baking sheet. Flatten them slightly.

Bake at 350 F for 16-20 minutes, until the macaroons are slightly brown (I live at 7000+ feet, you may need to adjust your cooking time. 18 minutes was perfect for these cookies at my altitude).

 Mixing all the ingredients together.

It will take a few minutes of stirring, but eventually all the ingredients will come together to form a dough. 

Unbaked macaroons. 

Baked macaroons! You can see that I had a small ring of caramelized sugar/egg white around the macaroons. I think this could be prevented by adding a little more coconut and/or by putting the cookies on the middle over rack; I forgot to rearrange my oven racks and used the bottom one.

Almond Shortbread

It is Christmas in a few days, and therefore I wanted some delicious cookies. The best cookie ever in my opinion is a delicious butter shortbread cookie. We used to buy Walker's shortbread a couple of times each winter as a special treat; at the time six dollars seemed like an exorbitant price for a box of cookies (but is pretty typical for GF cookies). Much of the beauty of shortbread is in its simplicity: just flour, butter, sugar, and a little vanilla and salt. When I tried to de-glutenize (I have decided that this should be a word) my original shortbread recipe, I got a hideous melted mess. I tried again, with a recipe adapted from this, and had success. In time for Christmas.

Almond Shortbread

Dry ingredients

½ c sorghum flour (66 g)

¼ c almond meal (30 g)

¼ c cornstarch (33 g)

¼ c brown rice flour (33 g)

¼ tsp sea salt (use 1/8 tsp if your butter is salted)

1/8 tsp xanthan gum

1/8 tsp baking powder

½ cup butter (1 stick)

1/3 cup granulated sugar (70 g)

½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. In a separate, larger bowl, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla together with an electric mixer (or use a stand mixer). Don't overmix the butter and sugar. Add the flour mixture to the bowl about ½ cup at a time, blending well with the mixer each time. Eventually, you will end up with a crumbly mixture of dough.

Crumbly dough.

You can combine the dough together, roll it out then chill it, and use cookie cutters, but I thought a roll of cookies would be easier. To do this, I piled the dough-crumbs on a piece of parchment paper, and used the paper to help roll all of the crumbs together in a cohesive lump. Squish the dough into a fairly-even log shape.  

Squish the crumbs together using the parchment paper.

Log of dough.

Once you are happy with the shape, wrap it up and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes Edit 7/14/12: chill at least 30 minutes to avoid a melted cookie mess. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into ¼ inch rounds. Carefully lay these on a baking sheet lines with a silpat or parchment paper.

Pierce the cookies with a fork several times, this will allow steam to escape, which makes for a crisper shortbread. Edit 7/14/12: Chill the cookie sheet and cookies for another 15-30 minutes, this will help prevent spreading cookies.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Err on the side of an oven that is too cool rather than too hot if you have an unreliable oven like I do; if the oven is too hot, these melt and spread and fall apart into crumbs.  

This was a very tasty cookie that reminds me a lot of Walker's shortbread that I used to love.

Gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookies

Food intolerances are a pain in the ass.

There, I said it.

Since my last post, my full food allergies/intolerance tests came back, and the list is a lot longer than gluten. Dairy is no longer allowed. The exception, for now, is butter. My doctor says it is ok because it is 99% fat, and most of my issues are with the proteins and sugars in milk. But there is a chance that I am so sensitive to it that I may need to cut that out of my diet as well. I have hopes that I will be allowed small amounts of dairy after it has been eliminated from my diet for a while, but there is no guarantee of that.

I also am not supposed to have asparagus, amaranth, pineapple, or bananas, as my body makes antibodies against them. No amaranth is fine by me, as most GF products don't use it. No asparagus is also fine, as I do not like how it tastes. I am sad about the bananas; they are convenient breakfast food and I love banana bread. However for reasons highlighted in this article, I had already been limiting my consumption of them. I am sad about pineapple, but we didn't eat it that often anyway, as we try to eat our produce in season.

I am able to look on the bright side about a lot of these new food intolerances, but I will be honest with my readers and say that I am taking the no-dairy pretty hard. Unlike traditional glutenous products like bread, there is no good substitute for cheese. True, there are some almond and soy products that look fairly promising, but I just ate some decent almond “cheddar” with my lunch that, after looking at the packaging, turns out contains casein. Casein is one of the proteins in milk, and it is bad for me. There is so much more potential for cross contamination now, and a product that says “non-dairy” or “lactose-free” is not neccesarily dairy-free.

About half of the times I have gone out to eat in the last few months (which is increasingly difficult) I have had to send back my order because there is cheese or bread crumbs on it, when I asked for no cheese, or said “no gluten”. Which, look, I used to work in food service and I know that it can be hard to keep track of customizations to orders, but this is literally playing with my life. I have had to miss several days of work due to accidental cross-contamination now. Also, many people were sympathetic with me about going gluten-free, but suddenly when you add “dairy-free” to that list, a number of people reacted drastically. “I could never do that!” or “I would miss cheese/bread/bananas (etc) too much” or my personal favorite “well what CAN you eat?” I know that people generally aren't well educated about allergies/intolerances until they have to deal with it themselves (and I am guilty of this as well) but I just feel so different from people now. I hate that when I go out to eat in groups, we have to eat in places that won't make me sick; that I have to change the group agenda.

Well, that was a longer rant then I expected.

There is a lot to be happy about, though. First off, why wouldn't I be glad to stop eating the things that were making me sick? I do have more energy now, there is no way I could have worked an 8 hour day even a few months ago. The Man and I still have now idea how I was able to finish school when I had maybe four hours of energy on a good day. And there are a lot of places that make GF and DF foods now. I live in an area that is actually very good about trying to accommodate dietary needs. Also, there is still so much food that I can eat, and I try to do so happily. And, I can make my own baked goods when I am sad that there is something I can't have.

On the subject of making my own baked goods, I made some cookies! At my internship, I am due to make a presentation soon. In the lab I am working in, people always bring snacks to the meeting when they are speaking. Most people bring cookies, usually storebought. Well, I don't want to buy something I can't eat, nor do I want to spend the money on one of the brands that I can (GF baked goods are 2-3 times the cost of glutenous baked goods). And sometimes you just want to eat homemade cookies! So here is a recipe I am am experimenting with, that I hope people will enjoy.

This is adapted from Roben Ryberg's book “You Won't Believe It's Gluten-Free!”

I went ahead and made this recipe vegan too, in order to accommodate more dietary needs.

Some of the ingredients are measured in grams. This is because it is much more precise, and very useful in gluten-free cooking. This post explains why.

Also, please make sure that all of your products are gluten-free before you buy them. I have had a lot of unpleasant surprises when I neglected to read labels even on things that should be GF, such as vanilla. Bob's Red Mill has a great line of GF flours, Thai Kitchen makes GF products, and there are several brands of baking powder and cornstarch that clearly list “gluten-free” on their packaging.

Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 Tbs ground flax seed
2 Tbs nearly-boiling water
¾ cup coconut solids*
¼ cup coconut water *
115 grams (1/2 cup packed) brown sugar
80 grams (2/3 cup)cornstarch
50 grams (1/3 cup)GF flour mix**
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 ¼ xanthan gum
1 cup of chocolate chips

Make a “flax egg” in a large bowl by whisking the water with the flax seed until it forms a paste. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Add the coconut solids and water, and the sugar to the same bowl. Cream together until smooth.

Add the other ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, and mix together. Add the chocolate chips.

You can see how sticky the dough is.

Optional: Leave dough in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours. This allows the liquid to absorb into the flours better, and makes the dough easier to handle.

Preheat oven to 375. Scoop 1-2 Tbs of dough with a spoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat (if you have neither, then grease the cookie sheet very well). Because these do not spread out when baking as normal dough would, flatten the balls to ¼ inch thick. This is easiest when done with a spatula that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on how crisp you like your cookies.

So how were these? I enjoyed them quite a bit, but they aren't quite right yet. They are very soft and fluffy, almost like a little pancake! This was improved by baking for 11 minutes instead of nine, and by flattening the cookies more. The flax made them taste a bit more “whole grain” then I wanted in my dessert (normally I love whole grain!) Also they could be a little sweeter. Next time, I will probably use butter or margarine and an egg instead of coconut milk and flax seed. However, they are very good if you want a soft, gluten-free, vegan cookie.

Edit to add: these had a much more cookie-like texture the next day.

* I put a can of coconut milk in the fridge, which allowed the solids to float to the top, and the coconut water to settle. I suspect that pouring a cup of coconut milk straight in this recipe would not work, as the extra fat is needed to replace the butter.

** I made up a master mix of all-purpose GF flour from white and brown-rice flour, teff, almond meal, oat flour, and sorghum. I love it for most of my baking. There are articles on how to come up with your own mix here and here.

Shortbread success!

When I wrote about yesterday's shortbread fail, I wasn't lying when I said I was still craving some. Seriously, shortbread cookies are made of win. They are like, the perfect stereotypical English snack to have with tea. Granted, I'm American so that doesn't mean much, but they're still really tasty.

Repost of yesterday's recipe:

1 cup of flour
1 stick of butter, room temp
1/2 cup of sugar (I used brown)
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

I rarely have painted nails, but when I do, they're usually black :D

So, blend everything together, the mixture will look like this after 4 or so minutes of blending.

See how it looks compacted together? after 6 or 8 minutes of blending, the dough sticks together like this and it is done. Stick it in the fridge for a while if you plan on rolling the dough.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface, and knead it until it stick together....


like this!

Roll about a quarter inch thick. You will have to flour the rolling pin, and the dough really likes to fall apart. But you are stronger then the dough!

I used a plastic cup as a cookie cutter. It worked better then my real cookie cutter did!

You will probably have to use a spatula to get the cookies off of the counter.

Poke the cookies with a fork, it helps release the steam. Also, my cookie sheet is permanently burned from yesterday's mess. It was a wedding present too :(


I baked them at 425 for 4 minutes, and they were still a little crisp, so maybe they should be baked at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

And the shortbread cookies were a perfect snack with a peach and with some Earl Gray tea. Soo good.

shortbread fail

*sigh*

This was supposed to be delicious shortbread cookies. I am seriously craving shortbread still, and I ate the middle out of the least-burnt cookie and it was delicious, so I know that I made up a good recipe. So I might be making this again tomorrow, and actually remember to press start on the timer, dagnabit.

I used the last of my real vanilla extract on these, too :(

Recipe:

1 cup of flour
1 stick of butter, room temp
1/2 cup of sugar (I used brown)
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, and blend together with a pastry blender until the mixture sticks together (this took me like, 5-8 minutes). Chill the dough, roll out on a flour-covered surface, and cut out shapes. Bake in a 425 degree oven, probably for 9 minutes but I don't know, since I forgot to set the timer :/

brown-butter chocolate chip cookies

So why am I showing you cookies in a paper bowl that are overexposed?

Because my camera is a point-and-shoot, and because I didn't have paper plates. Also, my husband and I are moving, and all of the dishes are packed. But I wanted to give my landlady some cookies! So there.

Anyways, they may look like innocuous chocolate chip cookies, but they have a secret. (also, I almost always manage to burn cookies, so they are a victory!)

The secret is brown butter. It makes these cookies nutty and taste slightly caramelized, and more interesting.

So... here is my recipe for them. It is inspired by the recipe on the back of the Nestle's Tollhouse chips bag, but I made plenty of changes.

Brown-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 2 dozen

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter (note: it has to be butter for this recipe, as margarine cannot be browned)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
12 oz dark chocolate chips (I actually used 6 oz, but 12 would have been ideal)

Combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside.

Brown the stick of butter in a small saucepan. (If you have never done this, here is a tutorial)

Meanwhile, mix sugars and vanilla in a larger bowl. Once the butter has cooled slightly, whisk it into the sugars. Add the egg after the sugar/butter mixture has cooled even more, or you could poach your egg!

Gradually incorporate flour by whisking until smooth. Add chocolate chips, and then chill the dough for a half hour in the fridge.

Meanwhile, chill your baking sheet in the freezer, this helps keep the edges of the cookies from getting crisped.

preheat oven to 375 F

scoop walnut-sized balls onto the sheet. (if you are paranoid about burning like I am, you can chill the dough on the sheet for another 15 minutes)

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Enjoy!