Gluten-Free Gingerbreads!

I took my grandmother's old gingerbread recipe and changed it to gluten-free and less sugary.  The kids love cutting out the shapes (if you don't mind bit of mess!).  The smell is so Christmassy!  

Gingerbreads

Makes around 25-30

100g of organic butter (or use coconut oil for dairy-free)

100ml of organic maple syrup

500g of gluten-free flour – I used about 200g of buckwheat, 300g almond flour. 

1 tsp of baking soda

Pinch of ground black pepper

Spices: I used 1 tablespoon of koek & speculaas mix (Albert Heijn).  You can also make your own mix: 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground clove, ½ tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp ground cardamom

  1. Put butter / coconut oil, spices and maple syrup in a pan.  Stir and bring to boil only for a few seconds. Take off heat and let it cool.
  2. Mix baking soda and flour.  Add this in with butter mix and mix until the dough is solid.  If you need, add little more flour.    
  3. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.
  4. Take a piece at a time and soften it with your hands on a floured surface.  Roll dough out around 5mm thickness and cut out shapes.  Use more flour on the surface or rolling pin if dough’s getting sticky. 
  5. Bake gingerbreads at 200C for about 8-10min, until slightly browned.  
  6. Let gingerbreads cool down.
  7. For icing: I used 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, 1 tablespoon of almond flour and 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter and blended all together. Decorate with raisins and cranberries. 
Gingerbreads

Christmas baking 

Dinner Time

After a busy working day, dinner has to be prepared pretty quickly to feed the hungry kids and avoid any meltdowns.  I have never been one to spend hours in the kitchen so our household dinners are usually simple and easy to make.  Tonight's dinner was made out of whatever I found in the fridge; sweetcorn, eggs, coriander and spinach. Spinach is not a huge favourite with my girls but these pancakes were a huge hit!   

Sweetcorn & Spinach Pancakes

  • 1 can of sweetcorn (around 400g)
  • 2 eggs
  • 120g buckwheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • small handful of coriander
  • big handful of spinach (washed, chopped)
  • 1 onion
  • Pinch of salt & pepper
sweetcorn pancakes.jpg

Method:

1.  Place all the ingredients in a medium size bowl and blend until combined.  You can also use food processor to do this. 

2. Put little oil or butter in the frying pan and when hot, drop 2 tablespoons of batter into it.  Fry for a few minutes until golden and flip over.  If using oil, put the pancakes on top of a tea towel to get rid of excess oil.

3. Carrot & orange salad: grate 1 carrot and peel and cut orange into small pieces. 

You could also add cheese or shredded courgette into the pancake batter.