GF Gingerbread Circles

Christmas was the time of year that I used to enjoy a delicious Gingerbread Reindeer so this year I was quite upset that I was no longer able to partake in this delicious Christmas treat.  This motivated me into actually trying to convert my first biscuit recipe.

I was quite nervous about baking gingerbread because the recipe called for a hefty 2 ½ cups of flour. 

I started with the creaming of butter and sugar together and then adding the egg yolk and golden syrup.

Next came one of the parts I was most worried about, the adding of the flour and spices - as GF flour is notorious for being very crumbly.  I was surprised to find out that it held together in dough form really well!  I also added another half a tbs or so of ginger for a more gingery kick.   (This picture was before kneading it - straight out of the mixing bowl - hence why it looks crumbly here)

The dough then had to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes as it is easier to work with ie. roll out, when colder.

This next stage was the second part that was a scary prospect, trying to roll out the dough.  I was very afraid of it crumbling apart instead of rolling out nicely.

Fortunately it worked out perfectly and, having no cookie cutters in the house, I was able to cut circles with a small Tupperware Snack container

I only rolled out one half of the batch of dough as I figured it was better to try them first, these are the cookies I got out of half of the dough.

Baking......

My cookies didn't seem to 'brown' up much but I wasn't too worried.  I put them on originally for 8 minutes as I had read in the comments below the recipe that I should lessen the time if I want a more softer/chewy gingerbread.  Unfortunately because I had not rolled out the first cookies as thin as others, this ended up with a variance in degrees of cooking.  I ended up with some softer yet crumblier thicker cookies and some really nice thinner ones.  I would recommend sticking with the 4 mm thickness described in the recipe.  My first few cookies were about 5 mm and these were the ones that were crumbly.

I also lost a cookie in the move from oven to cooling rack because I tried to get them straight off the tray after pulling them out of the oven and one of the thicker cookies just broke apart.  I panicked then, thinking they were fail cookies but after leaving them on the baking paper for another minute they hardened up a bit and they all stayed together.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the turnout!  I was skeptical and very pleasantly surprised.  I have another half batch in the fridge which I might bake up tomorrow.  I don't think I will bother decorating these ones as they are only for us and they will be gone pretty quickly I think :)

Recipe link - http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9761/gingerbread+men#null

Delicious Biscuit!

Mmm....new favourite snack food! Such a light and tasty biscuit with a yummy lemon lime zingy taste.

Trial and error Part 2

So, after again being slack I am back to review a few more products. Am trying blogging from my phone so will see how it goes. I think photos will probably show up down the bottom of the post rather than in the middle . Will see how it goes :-)

I used to make Shepherds Pie using a packet mix for the flavour. Turns out that wasn't really necessary as making one from scratch was just as easy and even more delicious!

Second thing I tried was McDonalds.  I ordered a cheeseburger 'grill style' ie. without the bun. It was not that crash hot. It may have been because it was not fresh bread (defrosted from freezer) but I haven't been game to try it again.

I did, however, discover Grilld and wow, what an amazing GF burger. This is one if my new favourite foods!

Another new fantastic discovery is the Gluten Free Bakery which is located at Narangba. Luckily the Healthy Life stores stock their products meaning I can have a.delicious pie or Neenish Tart almost any time I want :-)

I am currently waiting for my first GF Pineapple Upside Down cake to finish baking. First time substituting GF flour for regular flour. Will blog an update later on :-)

Trial and Error....

Haven't blogged in a while so this will be a combined blog of a few things I have tried over the past few weeks, some successful, others not so successful.

When shoppng the other day, I came across a Shake n Pour GF pancake mix in a bottle.  I was amazed and excited.  Here is a visual of how the story went.
Pancake Mix

 Pancake 1

 Pancake 2

Overall....I would give them a 1/10.  They were horrible and crumbly, tasted gross and really hard to cook!  We had a bite each and then gave up.  Although, I am not blaming this on the GF side of the product but more probably because of the egg free and dairy free component, as you generally need those to keep a mixture together!

So, my next attempt at pancakes will be with a GF plain flour substitute in a regular pancake recipe, 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 1 egg and 1 (or more) tablespoons of sugar.  Will do an update next weekend on that one!

I have also tried a packet cake mix, which we are absolutely in LOVE with.

This is the outcome of the cake Andrew made last week.  So delicious and moist, definitely my favourite thing we have baked so far! The brand is Bascos and its just a packet mix that is as simple as any other.

We also found out that our butcher up the road has mostly gluten-free products, including BBQ RIBS! Oh my....when we found this out we were in heaven and bought them straight away for tea that night.

This week I am making Potato and Leek soup with GF stock, and a GF Shepherds pie.  Keep an eye out for updates on how those go :)

To be a Tim Tam, or not to be a Tim Tam....that is the question

So whilst waiting to figure out what we are going to have for tea when I pick up my partner from the pub tonight, I was feeling a bit peckish and went to the cupboard to see what GF snacks I had picked up this week.

I came across.....

So I am actually blogging as I am about to sample, so lets see how they go...

They look very similar to regular Tim Tams...

Smell very similar to regular Tim Tams...

And whilst they don't actually taste much like a real Tim Tam....they aren't actually half bad!  I guess because its a bit weird because they look so much similar to a biscuit that I loved that the bar was set pretty high, but honestly, I still wouldn't have known they were GF on doing a blind trial.  I probably would have classified them as 'homebrand' but nonetheless, I am not overly disappointed.  They are better than the other chocolate bisuits I had tried and I think its the nice creamy centre that gives it a bit of a different level of taste compared to the just biscuit-type chocolate biscuits I tried previously.

All in all.....I think a 7/10 is appropriate for this biscuit :)

First failure

So....we had our first failure! Which was surprising as it was quite a well-known non-GF brand.

We were going to have Alfredo chicken with GF penne for tea tonight using the following brand:

We were disappointed to find that inside the penne became all gluggy and resembled snot, which put us off eating it.  I will definitely try the San Remo brand of GF pasta again and perhaps go for something like spaghetti or spirals, that doesn't have a cavity that glugginess can hide in.

This meal ended up going from GF for both of us, to nonGF using regular pasta so that Andrew could eat it and have it for lunch tomorrow.

I on the other hand enjoyed a lovely baked potato :)

Mmmm....nuggets!

So Sunday is grocery shopping day and I managed to stock up on some new (hopefully yummy) gluten-free goodies.

Today for lunch I tried these gluten-free chicken nuggets

I was quite surprised to find they were delicious! The chicken meat appeared to be mostly if not all breast meat, it was tender and tasty.  The crumbing also was nice.  Had a different texture to normal nugget crumbing and if eaten without sauce had a slightly potato taste, but dip in some sauce and you probably wouldn't realise that they were gluten-free.

All in all, I was quite happy with my purchase, although at $8.99 for a box, its definitely a sometimes food.