Ginger spiced gluten-free and vegan Christmas cookies

Yay it's Christmas already! I love everything about Christmas - it just makes me feel all energetic and happy. And since I was feeling Christmassy, I decided to bake. After a lot of pondering I thought of making something healthy and something which everyone could enjoy this festive season, so I attempted these lovely gluten-free and vegan ginger spiced cookies. 

I added some cranberries in keeping with the theme of Christmas,  but you can add anything you like - chocolate, candied ginger or other dried fruits.

Ingredients

2 cups ground almonds

2 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp pure smooth almond butter

2 tbsp apple sauce

Handful of dried cranberries (optional)

1 & 1/2 tbsp of pure coconut oil

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 C

In a bowl, add all the ingredients together and combine to form a soft dough. If you are planning to cut into shapes, leave out the cranberries while mixing the dough and put them on the shape later to stop them from breaking. 

Flatten the dough on a clean surface to about 1 cm thickness and cut into desired shapes. Alternatively just make small balls of the dough and flatten them. 

Place the shapes on a lined baking tray and bake for 12 - 15 minutes until they just start to brown.

Decorate the cookies as you like.

Wish you all a wonderful Christmas!

Roasted chicken and vegetables

It is almost the end of the year - time to look back on this year's resolutions and make new ones. One thing that I am very proud of, this year, is that I have started eating much, much healthier. I have actually started loving vegetables and pretty much include them in every single meal! Definitely deserve a pat on the back for that ;)

One of my favourite ways of preparing vegetables is roasting them - season a bit and just pop them in the oven. Result - tasty yummy veg! Today for lunch we had roasted chicken and vegetables and believe it or not, the vegetables were my favourite part of the dish :)

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

1 Onion, halved and thickly sliced

2 Parsnips, diced

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 Potato, diced

1 small yellow pepper, sliced

Olive Oil

4-6 cloves of garlic

150 ml chicken stock (I used a stock cube)

Salt and Pepper

Dried parsley for garnishing

For the chicken

4 skinless chicken thighs

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp chilli powder (optional)

Salt to taste

Method

Make slashes in the chicken thighs and marinate them in the spices with a teaspoon of oil. Season with salt and keep aside for an hour (Overnight would be great, but not necessary)

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

In a baking dish, add the onion, garlic, tomatoes, parsnips and potatoes (the yellow pepper will go in later). Add a teaspoon of oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss the vegetables and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes remove the vegetables from the oven, toss them lightly and place the chicken thighs on them. Pour over the stock and bake again for 15-20 minutes.

Add the yellow peppers to the baking dish and increase the temperature of the oven to 220 C and bake further for about 20 minutes until the chicken is lightly brown and done.

Garnish with some dried parsley. 

* Don't eat chicken? Try Salmon with roasted vegetables....my absolute favourite! :)

Peach and almond puff pastry tarts

As the holiday season approaches, it's time to take out the baking gear and get into the festive mood. I don't bake as often as I would like to but I think that probably makes it more exciting when a random attempt turns out to be a success. Today was one such attempt :)

Ingredients

Sheet of rolled out puff pastry (I have used half a sheet)

400 gm tin of peaches (in juice)

50 gms ground almonds

1 egg

1 tbsp butter and some more for greasing

2 tbsp sugar

Sugar for dusting (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C. 

Cut the pastry into 4 portions and lay on a lined baking tray. Brush each portion lightly with some butter.

In a bowl, mix the almonds, egg, butter and sugar to form a paste. Spread this paste on the pastry portions, leaving a border. Bake in the oven for 5-8 minutes or until the pastry starts to rise.

Remove the tray from the oven. Drain the peaches and arrange them over the almond paste. Bake again for 8-10 minutes or until the pastry has risen from the side and is golden. 

Remove and keep aside to cool for a few minutes. Dust some icing sugar. Serve warm.

* Since I have used tinned peaches which were already ripe, I have baked the pastry separately first, before adding the peaches and baking again.

Meringue with raspberry and chocolate

I am not sure if this post qualifies as a recipe post but I simply couldn't not share it. I made this a few days ago, shared a photo on Facebook and instagram and got quite a response. So thought it definitely deserved a post. All the ingredients - raspberries, chocolate sauce and meringues - were store bought, although I would love to try my hands at meringues some day.

Ingredients

Meringue nests 

Raspberries - I used frozen raspberries, thawed as per the instructions on the pack

Icing sugar (optional)

Chocolate sauce - I used Sweet Freedom - Choc Shot

Method

Place the raspberries on the meringue nest. Sprinkle with some icing sugar, if the raspberries are too tart. Drizzle some chocolate sauce.

Serve. Bite. Enjoy!