Friday 14 December 2012

Gluten and Dairy Free Snickerdoodles

I discovered these delicious cookies while on holiday in Canada last year, then again at Mrs Fields. They are heavenly, like a doughnut cookie. Mmmmm. I have been meaning to try out a gluten free version for a while now and last night I finally did it! They had to be dairy free as well and they turned out quite well :)

My recipe is based on Sweet Anna's - you can find it here. I had to modify it a bit as I had no plain flour and needed them to be gf/df. So here it is with the modifications:

Ingredients
1 cup Nuttelex (or other dairy free butter substitute)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups self-raising gluten free flour (I used Orgran brand)
1tsp cinnamon
 
To coat cookies:
1/4 cup sugar
1tbs cinnamon

Directions
  • Preheat the oven to 200ÂșC.  Line trays with baking paper
  • Cream together the butter and sugar (just the first lot of 1 1/2 cups) with electric mixer until it's light and fluffy - it will start to go white quite quickly
  • Add the eggs one at a time and mix well
  • Add the vanilla
  • Sift the flour and cinnamon (just the 1 teaspoon) together into the butter mix and mix well (still with the electric mixer)
Now for the fun part :)
  • In a small bowl, mix together the cookie coating
  • Roll a small amount of dough into a ball and place on the tray, leaving some space. The cookies will spread, but maybe not as much as the non-gf version.
  • Bake for 10 minutes, take out of the oven, but leave the cookies in the tray for 5 minutes. Then place on a rack to cool.

  • Try not to eat too many at one time! These actually tasted better the next day, though it is hard to resist fresh-baked cookies.

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Crocheted Doily Rug

It has now been over a year since I started on my crochet craze and I haven't got sick of it. Just the opposite in fact, I am loving crocheting and I am always looking out for new and different things to try. I am so happy with my waxed Irish linen line - so far I have just made rings and bracelets, but who knows what will come next?!?

Mint, Pale Blue and Natural Crocheted Waxed Irish Linen Bracelet
Mint, Sky Blue and Cream waxed Irish linen bracelet
Swallow and Blossom Crocheted Blue Waxed Irish Linen Ring
Swallow and Blossom Crocheted Ring using waxed Irish linen
While checking out crochet magazines and patterns I came across crocheted rugs and loved them. Then of course thought that I had to try them....so, based on this doily pattern

Spiderweb Crocheted Pink Doily/Placemat
Spiderweb doily - made from this vintage pattern

I made this



It needed to be laid out a little better, but as soon as I put it on the floor, the curious one came over to check it out. She seemed to quite like it! I made a mistake with this one, which I didn't realise until I had finished it. I was really upset, but then figured it was my first attempt and now I love it! My husband said it would also make a great Christmas tree skirt. I used a Panda chunky wool for this and I have some in pink - I can't wait to try another one!