Here we are, here we go

I found a book years ago that put me on this path. I will have to find it now, but is was something along the lines of "control your food supply". Luckily I grew up canning food with my mother and grandmother so the seed was already planted, so to speak. I started doing other things to achieve a sustainable lifestyle, baking my own bread, growing more of my own food, raising chickens etc.

Most recently I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which is Gluten Intolerance. This translates to no food with wheat, barley, rye and for the most part oats. It gets complicated to buy processed foods at the store or eat at restaurants. Life has given me some hurdles recently that put road bumps in my journey of food control, but after the diagnosis it hit home that now more then ever I need to control my food before it controls me.

There are so many things people can do, even in an urban environment, to achieve control of your food supply, from top to bottom. Do a little or go all the way, I promise all of it will be fulfilling and you will have a better connection with the foods you eat.

The topics near and dear to me, that will be discussed are - local, sustainable agriculture, vermicomposting, composting, growing food, edible gardening (gardens can be pretty), preserving the harvest, baking and cooking Gluten Free foods that taste like food, farmers markets, CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture)......I am sure I will add to this list over time.


Saturday, December 22, 2007

Gluten Free Christmas Cookies

Well here it is, my first Christmas since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I finally have located a flour substitute that I was confident enough with to attempt to convert the family Christmas cookie recipes. Gluten Free baking can be a challenge, even with a gluten free recipe but trying to convert regular recipes to gluten free is an act of faith. Don't expect failure but be ready for that possibility. I was lucky and succeeded fairly well. After you have been doing this long enough you will start to get a sense of which recipes are more likely to convert with success. My two resounding successes were Chocolate Crinkles and My grandmothers Oatmeal Rice Krispie Coconut Cookies.

The Oatmeal/Rice/Coconut ones were the bigger challenge. I had to make some tweaks along the way. The dough was very crumbly but held when pressed together. I just added more butter which helped. The second tray was better then the first and the third was better then the second, see that means I was learning.




The best part about these is these cookies were the first time since diagnosis that I have had oats. Recently Bob's Red Mill started selling Gluten Free oats, which means they are grown and handled in dedicated fields, so no chance of wheat contaminating the harvest. I have had these oats on my shelf for over a month, I was too chicken to try them. I kept saying I was saving them, well I was, I was saving them for these cookies. They were my favorite growing up.

They really needed to be pressed together because the mix was so crumbly, but they held together fine once baked. The ladies in my Celiac cookie exchange said "Oh my your cookies were actually chewy, they were so good" Best feed back ever. It is true a chewy gluten free cookie is something to get excited about.

Here is a photo that shows about the size of the "pucks" that I made, this size seemed to work best. You don't really want to make balls, they don't spread much so if you place balls on the sheets you will end up with mounds that aren't quite cooked in the middle. Mini hockey pucks is the way to go.



Here is the recipe, as determined by me. This is from one of my grandmothers recipe cards, she was infamous for not putting enough info on the cards, just an ingredients list. I determined that 350 degree oven for 14-16 minutes worked best, but you may change that after your first tray. Cook one sheet of cookies, eat one, adjust if necessary. If in doubt eat two, in the name of science of course.

1 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine substitute
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (cup for cup substitute, or you will need to add Xanthum gum, 1 tsp per cup of flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups oats
2 cups Rice Crispies (gluten free brand, since regular are NOT GF)
2 cups coconut.

Mix softened shortening and butter with eggs, vanilla and sugar, until creamed. In seperate bowl mix flours, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix flour into butter/sugar mixture. Stir in oats, rice crispies and coconut.

Press into "hockey pucks" and bake.

NOTES: I am thinking the sugar in this recipe could be cut down. They seemed too sweet to me, but maybe I am just getting older. I would start by reducing both the brown and white by a 1/2 each. This is what I am going to try with my next batch. Also the original recipe only called for 1 cup shortening, but I had to add more because the mixture was too dry and crumbly, so I added the 1/2 cup butter.

Now the Chocolate Crinkles, these too can be an effort, but very worth it. Hey Christmas only comes once a year.




For these I made the standard Chocolate Crinkles recipe with no substitutions other then a good cup for cup substitute that already had the Xanthum gum added (Better Batter Gluten Free Flour). Worked wonderful, these turned out very gooey yummy.

Enjoy
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