Hazelnut and chocolate chip cookies

Spotted that the hazelnut packet said high in iron (though not as high as almonds when I check)...rather eat hazelnuts than pigeon, so into the shopping trolley they went.  There are no cookies of any description in the house and I am expecting guests tomorrow, so the first thing to do is make some cookies using whole hazelnuts for crunch and hazelnut flour, blitzing the hazelnuts in the blender.

100g flour (40%urid lentil, 40% tapioca, 20% corn)
65g butter
75g sugar
50g hazelnuts blitzed to flour
50g whole or lightly chopped hazelnuts
50g chocolate chips ( I used dark, soften flavour if wanted with milk or white chocolate)
c 1tbsp water with a couple of drops of vanilla essence

Cut butter in to flour, stir in sugar and blitzed hazelnuts, stir in chocolate chips and whole hazelnuts.  Add cold water/ vanilla mix a little at a time until you get a dough that holds together.  If you leave this to sit for at least fifteen minutes for the flour to absorb the water it makes it a little easier to handle.  If it is a bit too gooey you can firm it up with a bit more flour or by cooling in the fridge.

I made some of these into log shaped cookies, which keeps the hazelnuts whole.  I put the rest of the mix away in the fridge, and the next morning sliced the now very firm log of cookie dough into discs. Slicing the cookies cuts the hazelnuts, so you end up with a pretty cookie with little discs of hazelnut and chocolate.

Cook on ungreased baking sheet or baking parchment in a fan oven at about 170C.  Cooke for about ten minutes until they are tinged with brown.  Cook longer at a lower heat for a crisper cookie.

Made about ten cookies.

After I made these I looked up recipes on the Internet - they all said that the papery brown skin around the nut was bitter and needed removing before cooking (toast in oven and rub skin off, then separate nut from debris).  I also used bitter chocolate.  I like bitter flavours, but wondered if they would be too bitter for my guests, but even the nine year old thought they were scrummy.

Chocolate chip cookies - new flour mix

I am trying a new flour mix - not using tapioca or cornmeal.  This mix is urid lentil flour, buckwheat and brown rice.  The true test of its versatility will be if I can make good pastry, but to start with I have made pancakes (as we have these for breakfast every day) and cookies for a writing group my husband goes to.

I have started trying out recipes without tapioca as my step-daughter seems to be unable to tolerate tapioca (she isn't gf).  I know some people can't tolerate corn either, and many gf goods have both of these in.  So, here is an attempt to make a flour with ingredients I can grind at home if I want to, which increases my chances of getting a gf flour as often flours are milled in factories which handle wheat.

This recipe is made with a flour made from 150g urid, 75g buckwheat and 75g brown rice flour.  It produces quite a sticky batter so washing up takes a bit more effort.  It is best to rinse with cold water before the batter has had a chance to set.

Chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients
100g flour plus
1/2 tsp baking powder (whisk together)

100g sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
60g butter (room temp - I softened in a low microwave)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

100g chocolate chips (I used Callebaut Belgian 70.4% dark choc chips)

Method
Set oven to 175C


Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth and light.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until evenly mixed.  Stir in flour and baking powder mix.   The batter will be quite thick, too thick to drop off the spoon but too gooey to roll.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Place on baking sheets - I use silicon sheets or baking parchment to make sure nothing sticks.

I made small cookies with about a heaped teaspoon of mixture.  Leave some room for the cookies to spread as they cook.

This mixture made 26 cookies about 2.5 inches/6cm across when cooked.

Cook until just brown at the edges and golden on the top.

These cookies are light and crisp on the outside and soft and slightly chewy in the centre.  Tapioca in the mix would have given a chewy texture.  They held together very well, with no hint of powderiness.  I need to keep some for a few days to see if the rice in the mix produces a gritty texture as they age.

The contrast of the sweet cookie with the bitter chocolate chips makes a very interesting cookie.  If you want something for kids go for a sweeter chocolate chip.

Excellent cookies, easy to make, easy to eat.

tapioca-free baking, an unexpected challenge

An unexpected challenge today. My step-daughter suddenly told me that she always gets stomach ache every time she visits.  What was in my bread and cakes?  Well, the bread she ate this morning had my usual flour, so that was urid, tapioca and corn, and also had sweet potato and yeast and baking powder.  All of these are things she eats routinely except the tapioca.  I include tapioca in baked goods as it contributes to a smooth slightly chewy texture, and also, when pre-gelatinised, give excellent pre-baking elasticity, allowing doughs to be rolled super thin, and makes things more flexible after cooking too, as shown in the write up up the wraps.

I was rather startled by this, as she normally tucks into all my baked goods with gusto, sleeps well, and goes away declaring she feels refreshed from her visit.  I wasn't to worry about it, she said, she could just eat the other stuff.  I looked up on the internet and immediately found a stream of information from people who said the same thing, stomach ache not long after eating tapioca.  This was in addition to the information on how poisonous tapioca is if not prepared correctly.

Immediately I set about testing tapioca free recipes. I had to work with whatever I had in the house on an early Sunday morning.  Here are the first two, a cracker, with three variations, and a chocolate chip cookie.

Tapioca free flour mix
100g urid
50g buckwheat
50 cornmeal


Recipes
Crackers
50g flour
1/2 tsp olive oil
20 ml water  (add a little more if dough too dry)

Mix and knead together until smooth.
Roll out on floured board.

Add anything you like for flavouring.  The large crackers are the plain mix, the small scalloped ones have pepper in, and the other small ones are the pepper mix plus sunflower seeds.

Roll thin, place on baking sheet and cook at 180C until just tinged with brown.  Place on baking rack to cool.

These are crisp and very good.

Chocolate chip cookies
100g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
30g butter (I used a spreadable butter mix as hadn't any proper butter)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
40 g sugar
35g chocolate chips

Whisk flour and baking powder together.  Rub in butter to flour, add sugar and egg and vanilla, stir or squidge with hands to get an even quite stiff mix, then add chocolate chips.  Cook at 180C for about ten minutes until tinged with brown.  If you want them crisper turn the oven down and bake for longer.

I used dark chocolate chips, and that makes a cookie that is not very sweet. If you want a sweeter cookie increase the sugar and add milder chocolate chips.

These are crisp, not chewy as they would have been with the tapioca, but really very pleasant.

I was concerned that the buckwheat might give too much flavour, as I am not generally a fan of buckwheat except where I do specifically want the dark, dominant taste.  I included it because it does give a soft flexible crepe, as used in Brittany.  In this mix it doesn't dominate the flavour.