Monday, 25 March 2013

Super easy gluten free, vegan choc-hazelnut cookies



Baking was something I really missed when I first started my elimination diet. I have a sweet tooth and find baking very rewarding, so it is no surprise that I found alternatives to make allergen free baking possible. As they say, necessity is the mother of all invention and last year for Christmas, I wanted to make an allergen free plum pudding...to further complicate things my oven was only working on the grill setting, so I experimented with making a steam pudding with chick pea flour as it is used in Indian cuisine for both sweet and savoury preparations and lends well to steaming. Lo and behold, it turned out pretty good, in fact, few of my friends who tried it did not even realise that it was allergen free and made out of chick pea flour. Since then besan or chick pea flour has become my new best friend in the kitchen, and I have used it to make sauces, cakes, cookies, pancakes, flat breads etc... There is so much to share and so little time...but I will get there one recipe at a time :)

I have now introduced nuts into my diet and the combination of chick pea flour with almond meal results in some very scrumptious sweet treats ( at least that's how they taste to me - having been deprived of my regular sweet treats for months, it is possible that anything resembling a cake or cookie would taste divine to me... So if you are in the same boat and craving a sweet treat or want to prepare something special for a friend or loved one who has a food intolerance, give the following choc-hazelnut cookie recipe a go and make their day!

To make 14-15 small cookies, you will need the following:

1/4 cup besan/ chick pea flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup caster or superfine sugar
2 teaspoon pure cocoa powder
2 1/2 tablespoons oil ( I have used rice bran oil)
1 tablespoon almond milk
1/2 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
1/2  teaspoon baking soda
2 level teaspoons of egg replacer powder
Handful of hazelnuts
Few drops of vanilla extract

Mix together all the dry ingredients. Chop the hazelnuts and add them to the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla extract, oil and almond milk and bring the mixture together with a spatula.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper and spoon out small quantities of the cookie dough leaving enough gap to allow the cookies to spread when baking.  I use a teaspoon as a measure to ensure all the cookies are the same size. Place in a preheated 175 C fan forced oven and bake for 18- 20 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

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