Chocolate Chip Cookies - changing the recipe!

Hi, everybody!

Today I want to tell you something which could be very useful to you and can make your work in the kitchen much easier: don't be afraid to change my recipes. Or any recipes. 

If you don't have an ingredient or you don't have it in the amount that it is prescribed in the recipe, fell free and use your imagination to replace it with another suitable one, or to reduce the amount of one ingredient and increase the amount of another. Play with the ingredients and try to be creative. Preparing food could be a funny activity, especially if you avoid boring and repeating recipes.  

For example, today I wanted to prepare Chocolate Chip Cookies, one of my old recipes and very loved by my kids. But I realized that I don't have enough walnuts, my recipe requires 500 grams (17.6 oz). So, I used only what i had, like half of the amount (250 grams = 8.8 oz).

Now, the question is how to fill the missing quantity. So, I added 100 grams more gluten free flour, and 30 grams Raw Almonds Flakes. And I reduces the butter quantity a little bit (from 200 to 170 grams), because I dont need the same moisture. 

Now the recipe looks like this:

- walnuts - grinded (soaked before; see here how) 250 grams (8.8 oz)
- all purpose gluten free flour 350 grams (12.3 oz)
- cane sugar 200 grams (7 oz)
- raw almonds flakes 30 grams (1 oz)
- ghee butter 170 grams - melted (6 oz)
- 2 free range eggs
- dark chocolate chips 100 grams (3.5 oz)

The way you prepare the recipe and cook the cookies is the same as for Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the recipe that I have done the most times in my life. Sometimes even every week, for months :). My kids just adore this cookies with chocolate chips. Plus, these kind of cookies are very suitable like school snack. 

Ingredients:

- walnuts - grinded (soaked before; see here how) 500 grams (17.6 oz)
- all purpose gluten free flour 250 grams (8.8 oz)
- cane sugar 200 grams (7 oz)
- ghee butter 200 grams - melted (7 oz)
- 4 organic pasture eggs
- dark chocolate chips 100 grams (3.5 oz)

Mix all the ingredients together in a blender. Keep for at least one hour in the fridge. Shape by hand flat biscuits (any size you wish) and cook them in a preheated oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Let them cool before eating.

Lemon Muffins

Muffins:
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup coconut oil (or butter) at room temperature
2 eggs if there are big; otherwise 3 small
1 cup cane sugar
finally grated zest from one lemon
2 cups all purpose gluten free flour
1 teaspoon aluminium free baking powder

Syrup:
finally grated zest from one lemon
juice of 2 lemons
honey (same quantity as the lemon juice)

If you are not on a dairy free diet, you can replace the coconut milk with: goat milk/ sheep yogurt/ Mascarpone Cheese/ whipped cream. 

I made these cupcakes with coconut milk, but also with sheep yogurt. When I don't have coconut milk and I have to use dairy products, I usually choose goat or sheep products. I avoid as much as possible the cow ones. And the same you can do with the coconut oil, just use butter, or ghee butter, if you don't have coconut oil. 

Baking: 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius in the preheated over.

After cooling, stab the folk couple of times in the middle of the muffin and pour 3 teaspoons of syrup, in each muffin.

For a few muffins, I tried to add some black chocolate chips on top of it. There were good, but not as good as the ones with honey and lemon syrup.

Keep the muffins in the refrigerator. The taste is better!

Doughnuts

Not any doughnuts, but gluten and dairy free ones. What about that? If you have gluten and dairy intolerance, try my recipe. If you don't, try the same recipe and replace what is written with purple in parenthesis. 

- 1 cup almond milk (1 cup whole caw milk)

- 2 eggs

- 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose gluten free flour (3 cups wheat flour)

- 1/2 teaspoon yeast

- 1 teaspoon cane sugar

- 1 teaspoon of olive oil

- finally grated zest from half of lemon

- 300 grams (10 oz) xylitol

Warm the milk at 35-40 degrees Celsius (or let's say at the temperature of your skin). Dissolve the yeast in one tablespoon of milk and add the sugar. Then pour after the rest of the milk. Beat with a folk the eggs, pout over the milk. Add the olive oil and the grated zest. Add the whole gluten free flour and stir. 

Keep this dough in a warm place for 30 minutes. 

Take with your hand or with a tablespoon small pieces of dough, and fry them in hot oil in an enameled cast iron pan.

Powder with your favorite sweetener.  I used xylitol. 

Apple Strudel - Sugar Free

Gluten Free Cookies From Mix

This is for the moments when you decide to be a lazy mommy and cook something which doesn't bother you too much. Get a gluten free mix and follow the instructions. In may case, 2 eggs and 160 grams melted butter over the mix, 20 minutes in preheated oven at 170 degrees Celsius and the cookies are ready to eat!  

Lemon Pie

Base (pie crust):

- 2 cups gluten free flour
- 1 cup cane sugar
- 200 grams melted butter
- 1 egg
- 1/4 tsp Himalaya pink salt

Mix all together and keep the dough in refrigerator for at least 3 hours (better for 12 hours).

Filling (lemon curd):

- 1 cup cane sugar
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup raw goat milk
- finally grated zest from one lemon
- freshly squeezed lemon juice form one lemon (about 4-5 tbsp)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup gluten free four

Here in the first picture is the dough pressed in the tray in the shape of a tart crust. In the second picture, you can see that we pour the filing over the crust.

1 hour in preheated oven, at 180 degrees Celsius.

Serve it cold.

Homemade Biscuits

Do you like that kind of crunchy, crispy, butter flavored biscuits for tea? That taste delicious, crack very easy and smell like roasted nuts?

Well, here you have the original recipe and more! A gluten free version, with walnuts. The recipe is very healthy and very easy to make it. 

Ingredients:

- walnuts - grinded (soaked before; see here how) 300 grams (10.6 oz)
- unsalted butter 200 grams - melted(7 oz)
- all purpose gluten free flour 150 grams (5.3 oz)
- cane sugar 100 grams (3.5 oz)

Mix all the ingredients. Keep for at least 15 minutes in the fridge. Shape by hand small flat biscuits and cook them in a preheated oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Try to eat them cold :)

Coconut Cookies Recipe

I should call this recipe "Easy Cookies Recipe", because this is definitely the most easy recipe in the world. And I should make another blog category called "Easy recipes", starting with it. But I just don't want to have a "bushy" blog, so I will try to keep things simple. 

Ingredients:

- coconut flakes dehydrated 200 grams (7 oz)
- unrefined cane sugar Demerara Bullington's 150 grams (5.3 oz)
- gluten free flour 2 tablespoons all purpose
- 4 organic free range eggs
- butter 70 grams (2.5 oz) (next time I want to try with coconut oil; then it will be also a dairy free recipe)

All you have to do is to mix all the ingredients in a bowl, even with a folk, you don't need a blender. Fewer thinks to wash, much better! If you have time, keep the dough in refrigerator for 15 minutes, and then shape by hands the cookies and lay them down on a parchment baking paper in a tray.

Cook the coconut cookies in the preheated oven, at maximum 160 degrees Celsius, for no more that 20 minutes. The eggs there are the only ingredient that should be done. Pay attention not to burn this coconut cookies, because the coconut flakes get roasted very easy. By the way, this is a gluten free recipe.

Quinoa Cookies

My kids say that this quinoa cookies are the best cookies in the world! So, believe my little picky eaters and try this recipe for your kids too!

This cookies are gluten free. I use quinoa, which is a pseudocereal, a gluten free grain. 

Ingredients in the picture below:

- quinoa bio 200 grams (7 oz) (soaked and boiled before, as I will explain later)

- dates 15 pieces (soaked before for at least 2 hours and half)

- 2 organic free range eggs 

- butter 100 grams (3.5 oz) (melted before)

- coconut flakes dehydrated 2 tablespoons 

- dark chocolate chips 70 grams (2.5 oz)

- vanilla extract 1 tablespoon 

First step, you have to soak quinoa for 2 hours and half. Read about why and how I soak nuts, seeds or grains, in my article here. As you can see below, you take 1 cup of bio quinoa and soak it in water with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, for 2:30 hours. The amount of water is 2 cups. 

Then boil it wth another 2 more cups of water, for 15 minutes. You will get in the end, 3 cups of quinoa soaked and boiled. You keep just 1 cup for our cookies, and place the rest of it in a glass container in refrigerator, for using it later for other dishes (it's very good for adding over salads, or like breakfast with fruits and honey).

Mix in a big bowl all the ingredients: quinoa, soaked dates (take off the cores), eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract. 

Mix the ingredients with a blender and add 2 spoons of dehydrated coconut flakes, to thick the mixture. Add in the end the dark chocolate chips and stir with a folk. Put one by one a teaspoon with dough on a parchment cooking paper. 

Cook the quinoa cookies in the preheated oven, at 160 degrees Celsius, for 20 minutes. There is no need for more time of cooking, because the quinoa is already boiled. The eggs are the only ones which need to be cook, and 20 minutes are enough. Be carefully, not to burn them!

Healthy Cupcakes

My cupcakes are ideal for a school snack. Try to find another idea to pack them, because the way I did it in a plastic bag, it's not a very good one, because it can be cracked very easy. If you put it just like this in the school bag, and the kids throw it up into the ear and catch it, like my kid usually do with the school bag, the cupcakes will become only crumbs. And your kid will eat someone else 's snack, or worst, he will eat some junk food from the school buffet. 

The ingredients for the recipe:

- one cup and half of all purpose gluten free flour
- half cup of xylitol (or another healthy sweetener)
- one cup of melted butter
- 3 eggs
- one teaspoon aluminium free baking powder
- one teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder unsweetened

Just mix all the ingredients (except cocoa powder) in a blender. Take 1/3 of the mixture and add the cocoa powder.

Pour the white mixture in each empty cupcake paper cup. Immediately pour over the first mixture, a bit of the brown mixture.

Place the cupcakes in the preheated oven, at no more that 150 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

Cherry Cake

This is another idea for school lunch box.

The ingredients:

- 5 eggs free range pastured

- butter, melted 200 grams (7 oz)

- gluten free four 300 grams (10.5 oz)

- xylitol (or organic cane sugar) 100 grams (3.5 oz)

- cherries 400 grams (14 oz) fresh or frozen

As you can imagine, you have to beat the white eggs separately and then add the xylitol/sugar in it. Separately also mix the melted butter with yolks. And then pour over the white eggs. At the end, add the flour.

Pour in the tray, and garnish with the cherries. Keep it in the oven at maximum 170 degrees Celsius, for 30 minutes.

Wonka Chocolate

I know it sounds crazy, but these days I am reading this book: Charlie and The Chocolate Factory :)) And of course, all I am thinking of all day long, is Willy Wonka's chocolate!... So, today I decided to make another chocolate recipe, more simple than the first one. The latest is not dairy free, but is a much more healthier chocolate cream, than most of the chocolate creams you can find in supermarkets. 

I uses only 3 ingredients, as you can see in the picture below: 

Belgian dark chocolate chips 250 grams (8.8 oz)

Coconut Cream (I know it's written "coconut milk" on the package in the picture below, but it's more like a cream, it has a thick texture) 250 grams (8.8 oz)

Belgian milk chocolate chips 250 grams (8.8 oz)

For chocolate chips, milk or dark, I use a Belgian brand named Callebaut.

The preparation is very simple, you have here the fourth steps: 

1. melt both chocolate chips together in bain-marie 

2. add the coconut cream and stir

3. wait to melt all the chips until the cream would became like in the picture

4. pour the chocolate cream in a glass jar; you can pour it in different shapes, like candy shapes, but then keep it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, to cool down. 

Chocolate Chip Cake

This recipe is sugar free and gluten free.

Ingredients:

Coconut cream 250 grams (8.8 oz)

3-4 very well ripe bananas

Sesame flour 2 tablespoons

Gluten free flour 4 tablespoons

5 organic pasture eggs

Mascarpone cheese 250 grams (8.8 oz)

Unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tablespoon

Baking powder 1 teaspoon

Dark Chocolate Chips 250 grams (8.8 oz)

This chocolate chip cake can be also a suitable snack for school small break, in a nice plastic casserole.

Tiramisu

This is not a simple recipe. And is not a gluten and dairy free one. I tried to make it free of gluten and dairy, but it just doesn't work. So, try this recipe only if you don't have high intolerance and you want to fool around and go wild once in your lifetime! As for a celebration!

For the recipes which contain gluten, I recommend you to take Gluten Digest Enzymes. For the dairy ones, you can take Dairy Digest Complete. Of course, you can choose other brands of enzymes. I recommend Now Foods" because I used it for many years and I trust it. 

Ingredients:

10 organic pastured egg yolks

5 tablespoons organic sugar cane

500 grams mascarpone cheese

500 grams whipped cream

1 kilo ladyfinger cookies

2 tablespoons organic almonds extract

750 grams strong brewed decaf coffee, cold room temperature; if the kids are too small, you could replace the decaf coffe with fresh orange juice or other fresh juices like wild berries juice... or any other red fruits, for a nice color... even carrot juice

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder (for garnishing)

Prepare the brewed coffee, 1 or 2 hours before making the tiramisu 

and place it in the fridge, to cool down.

Mix the yolks with organic sugar cane.

Pour the mixture over the mascarpone cheese and stir gentle.

Prepare the whipped cream as the instructions on the package.

Mix together very gentle both mixtures.

Take one by one the ladyfinger cookies, dip it in the cold coffee,
but keep it no more then 2 seconds in coffee, otherwise it will soften to much.
And lay them down in a glass tray, like I did in the picture below. 

After the first layer of ladyfinger cookies, put over half of the quantity of cream mixture.
Then again another layer of ladyfingers dipped in coffee. 

And on top, the rest of the mixture.

Keep it in the fridge for one day. 

Take if off when you want to eat it, and powder over the cocoa powder.

Coconut Pancakes

I'm telling you, I make this recipe almost every week. It's a very easy one. First, you have to crack a coconut. You can see how to do it at home, quickly and easy, in "Tips and Tricks", just click here. Drink the inside water if you like it, before cut the flesh into small pieces. 

If you don't, just pour it in your blender together with the pieces of coconut flesh, and mix it together with some free range eggs and gluten free flour, until you get a cream like texture. Even if you add the coconut water into the blender or not, add also at least one glass of water. Otherwise the mixture will be too thick. I usually put 4 or 5 eggs for a one coconut, depending of the size of the eggs. And one big full tablespoon of gluten free flour, for each egg. 

So, the ingredients are:

- the pulp of one coconut

- 2 glasses of water

- 4 or 5 free range eggs

- 4 tablespoons of gluten free flour

Here you have the recipe for coconut cream, if you want to make it separately, and use it already made, for the pancakes.

This is how the pancakes look like.

You can eat them like you can see my suggestions in the first collage picture: home made chocolate cream and fresh strawberries; if it's winter time you can serve it with frozen blueberries and fresh mango. Fresh berries of course, if it's summer time. Or just with organic honey.

From all of them, my favorite is the one from the picture below: frozen blueberries, fresh tangerine, organic honey and cinnamon. It's so delicious that you will fell it like a piece of heaven!

Homemade Ice Cream Recipe

Here we have: honey, canned coconut cream, one well ripe avocado and some bananas.

Stir them well together. Add some frozen raspberries and continue to stir.

Try to use glass recipients for freezing the ice cream, just to avoid the phthalates from plastic to get into your ice cream.

If you want to serve it into a nice glass bowl, you can add frozen raspberry on top.