Magic Peanut Butter Kisses

So... I have celiac disease. My life has been blissfully more comfortable since giving up the gluten (and the withdrawals were awful!) and I've had to relearn everything about baking. I'm still learning. But these cookies were a pretty good success for a night at home on New Year's Eve, reminiscent of the very non vegan peanut butter kiss cookies with the Hershey candy. This recipe closely follows Elana's Pantry's peanut butter cookie recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup creamy peanut butter
Pinch salt, if unsalted PB
1/4 cup agave
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp molasses
4 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp vanilla (I used Cook's cookie vanilla)

About 1/4 cup sugar for coating uncooked cookies (I used half turbinado and half vanilla sugar).
About 24 bite sized pieces of chocolate.

*I used Bob's Red Mill blanched almond flour. In the past I had some random almond meal (from Trader Joe's?), and it was ground almonds with the skins on them, which made for kind of a gritty, bitter final product in everything I made. Blanched almonds have their skins removed, so the resulting flour is softer, sweeter, and a little more flexible in baked goods, I'm finding. I'm really impressed. I just wish it was cheaper.

Directions:

Mix ingredients well (I used a stand mixer for about 2 minutes), adding a little more almond flour if too sticky to handle. Scoop tablespoonfuls into sugar and roll to coat. Flatten slightly on parchment covered cookie sheets, and bake at 350f for 8-10 minutes, until browned. Press chocolate chunk into each cookie and allow to cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

gluten freedom and buckwheat pancakes

I have been away from public blogging for awhile now, not feeling so hot and focusing on my family. I did some soul searching, listening to my body, getting frustrated with doctors, having some tests, and ultimately determining I am unable to consume or use wheat products. Wheat exacerbates and creates many unpleasant symptoms for me, from allergies and asthma, to skin troubles and chronic anemia to debilitating fibromyalgia pain. It's only been a few weeks, but I'm already feeling better. Gluten freedom hasn't (and won't) fix all my symptoms, but it's helped tremendously, and I'm convinced this has gone on a long time (I believe wheat allergy played a role in my asthma, too, which started severely when I was 18 months old). I'm also convinced my fatness (and gender) contributed to doctors not catching this. Ask me about my anger at the medical community, sometime. Or don't. You probably shouldn't.

Anyhow, my lack of energy led to a complete disinterest in cooking and baking, and I'd only been making the bare minimum. I wasn't baking much because it was really starting to make me feel awful, and the energy expended and resulting pain wasn't worth the pleasure of a baked treat. I've gone away from fresh vegetables (except for simple salads), which is especially tragic now that we live in the bay area, where there's farmers markets nearly every day of the week somewhere nearby, and there are great stores that sell delicious produce, too. Now I've got to re-commit to healthy, fresh, delicious food.

Today I made buckwheat pancakes. I was searching for gluten-free vegan recipes online, and most recipes either use a pre-made flour mix, or only use rice flour. I like rice flour, but it seems too gritty to use without something to off-set that texture. My first attempt resembled concrete. Whoops! Then I decided to think simpler. These are not as flat as crepes, but they're definitely not big and fluffy pancakes. More baking powder (and/or a little apple cider vinegar) would probably help this. Maybe next time. I think they came out pretty well, though. They're high sugar for a pancake, I don't deny.

Buckwheat Pancakes

Ingredients
1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 cup almond (or other nondairy) milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp maple syrup (or agave)

Instructions
Preheat (I used cast iron) skillet over medium (or just below medium) heat. Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and dry in a large measuring cup or small bowl. Add wet to dry and mix really well with a fork. Go ahead and over-mix that bad boy, because it's the wheat gluten that makes pancakes tough. Over-mixing wheat-free flours actually develops the shorter non-wheat-gluten proteins and helps with binding and structure.

I used a quarter-cup measuring cup to scoop batter into the preheated oiled pan, making two at a time, two minutes per side. I used canola oil out of laziness, but coconut would have been a better choice in hindsight. Makes 10-12 dollar-sized pancakes. (I think I'll double it next time.)