I rarely post twice in a weekend, but having written some knitting content yesterday, I feel compelled to show you these cookies. I had a craving for peanut butter cookies yesterday, and these more than hit the spot. They are super delicious.
I followed almost exactly the recipe for Classic Peanut Butter Cookies from the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker. I made two substantive changes: I used gluten-free flour, and I added some ground almonds. (Plus, I left out the salt, and sprinkled sugar on top before baking). I used my standard GF flour mix, Dove’s Farm, in the self-raising variety (it is a mix of rice, potato, tapioca, maize, and buckwheat flours), but use your favorite all purpose GF flour mix. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of flour, and I used 2 cups of GF flour and 1/2 cup of ground almonds. I also suggest being choosy with your peanut butter. I used one made by a local small batch producer:
Here then is the recipe, slightly modified from the one in the cookbook. Be forewarned that this recipe is written using standard American measurement conventions.
Gluten-free Peanut Butter Cookies
Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Mix together in a small bowl and set aside:
2 cups gluten-free flour
½ cup ground almonds
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
In a larger bowl, beat together the following ingredients on medium speed until very fluffy and well blended:
¼ cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
2/3 cup peanut butter
12 Tblsp unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
Add and beat until well-combined:
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 ½ tsp vanilla
Stir the flour mixture into the peanut butter mixture until well-blended and smooth. Let the dough stand for 5 minutes to firm slightly. Pull off pieces and roll between your palms into generous 1-inch balls. Space about 2 inches apart on the sheets. Using the tines of a fork, form a crosshatch pattern and press each ball into a 1 ½ inch round. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are just tinged with brown at the edges, rotate the sheet half-way through baking for even browning. Remove the sheet to a rack and let stand until the cookies firm slightly. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool.
In my experience, gluten-free cookies often spread like crazy in the oven and turn into an unsightly mess; these behaved beautifully and produced a very classic cookie:
I hope you like them! I found them to be even better the second day. I have spent the morning knitting, watching great tennis, and eating peanut butter cookies. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.
I had a knitting post all worked out in my head for this weekend. Unfortunately, I have been either too busy, or too lazy, all weekend to write it. So, instead I will tell you about the amazing cheesecake I baked today. I found the recipe in an article in The Guardian this week, containing recipes from Nigel Slater’s new cookbook. Many of you will know that I have coeliac disease and maintain an entirely gluten-free diet. I was struck by this recipe, which has no crust, and is naturally gluten-free. Nigel writes about eating this Basque cheesecake in San Sebastián.
He writes:
“I chose a slice of cheesecake, its centre as soft as syllabub, its crust scorched. A cheesecake with no pastry or crumb crust to support its curds, no berries rippled through the deep, vanilla-scented custard. A cake that wobbled mousse-like on the fork. I was surprised not to miss the crunch of pounded crumbs. Not only was it not missed, the biscuit crumbs suddenly felt like an interference. Grit in the oyster. The smoky bitterness of the blackened crust was all the contrast I needed.”
Nigel Slater, The Guardian, Monday 20th September, 2021
It is fantastic! Here it is right out of the oven:
I highly recommend this recipe, whether you avoid gluten or not. It has a glorious texture and manages to be both amazingly rich and also meltingly light, at the same time.
I am reminded of a funny story about cheesecake. About 15 years ago or so, we were in New York in December with the girls. I had told them many times how much I had loved the cheesecake from the Carnegie Deli in my gluten-eating youth. We took them there on a cold, snowy afternoon and the girls and Doug all ordered a piece of cheesecake. I asked the waitress if they had anything that was gluten-free. She said to me “There is nothing gluten-free on offer here; you can’t eat anything in this restaurant.” I admit to be taken aback by this, which seemed rather rude, and simply ordered a coffee.
Some time later, while Doug and the girls were waxing euphoric over their cheesecake, I picked up a spoon and leaned across the table to take a tiny bite of Emma’s cake. Cheesecake normally has a gluten-free filling and it is the graham cracker crust that is problematic for coeliacs. I intended to sample a small bite of the filing. Before you could say “Boo!” the waitress ran over to the table and snatched the spoon from my hand and said “I told you that you can’t eat here!” In my nearly 30 years of eating gluten-free in cities all over the world, this stands out as one of the weirder experiences.
This is a lovely cake and I am sure to make it again. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I substituted half of the cream cheese with mascarpone (which has a higher fat content) and I used Creme fraiche instead of soured cream (which is difficult to find here). It is very easy to make, and it turned out perfectly the first time.
About ten years ago we spent a few glorious weeks in the Basque Country. We were staying with friends, who were Basque, and who knew all the best places to go and the best things to eat. We had a ball. One of the things I remember well from that trip, however, is sitting and watching everyone else eat. I am coeliac, and cannot eat gluten. I also don’t eat meat. (Fish yes, meat no.) Of course, there were lovely things to eat on that trip. I remember beautiful fresh fish, and salads, and lovely wine, and at one fantastic little farmstead B&B up in the hills we sat outside at breakfast and ate the best scrambled eggs we’ve ever had. (Doug has tried to re-create them many times. I think they must be eaten on a farm to be appreciated.)
I also remember stopping in a tiny town that was famous for its Iberico ham. (Iberico ham is a local specialty: the pigs are free-range and roam in forested areas, eating acorns. The meat is cured for 36 months. I am told that it is to ham what a Lamborghini is to my Vauxhaul.) We stopped in a little bar which served only four things: wine, bread, Iberico ham, and Gernika peppers, which are small green peppers that are fried and served sprinkled with coarse salt. Everyone else enjoyed the bread and Iberico ham, ordering extra platters, while I sat and ate fried peppers and drank wine. That night I was spectacularly ill. (The peppers, by the way, are amazing, but should be accompanied by other food, especially when drinking wine.)
I had a similar “watching others eat” experience when we would go out in Bilbao and eat pintxos (small finger foods served in bars). Pintxos and wine is a meal in and of itself, but even with a Basque native ordering for me and interacting with the chef, there were only a few things I could eat. Most pintxos are served on bread or are otherwise gluten-contaminated. I ate many portions of tortilla (a type of omelette cooked with eggs and potato) and consoled myself with good local wine.
So, when Doug and I went back to the Basque country earlier this month, I was a little bit concerned about food. What I learned is that ten years makes a huge difference!
Kelly in Donostia/San Sebastian.
We travelled around a bit on this trip, spending a few days in San Sebastian, and then travelling south to Rioja for a few days (where we stayed in the Marqués de Riscal, the magnificent Frank Gehry-designed hotel in Elciego) then over to Burgos, and then north to Santillana del Mar in Cantabria before heading back to Bilbao for the flight home. We ate in a few very high end restaurants, including the three Michelin star Akelarre in San Sebastian. (This is a fantastic restaurant with a glorious view. The hotel is amazing; if I were to win the lottery, I would stay there for three days – Akellare has three different tasting menus – and eat there every night.) They did not even blink over making the necessary substitutions so that my meal – all 11 courses – would be both gluten- and meat-free.
Of course, one would expect this in such a high end restaurant, but I found that most restaurants could accomodate me. One of the best meals we had was in a small neighbourhood bar in San Sebastian, called Kapela. We happened across this bar by happenstance one evening while exploring the area around our hotel. It is in a quiet, residential area across from a park, and the place was buzzing and filled with locals. One look and I immediately wanted to eat there. I told the lovely proprietess (that’s her on the webpage) that I could not eat gluten or meat, and we placed an order. She brought Doug a basket full of bread, brought us a bottle of local wine, and a plate full of anchovies (and another of Iberico ham, for Doug, of course). Just as I reached out to grab an anchovie and pop it in my mouth, she placed a steaming hot baguette in front of me. “Gluten-free”, she said. Oh my, heaven! I tore off hot pieces of bread, drizzled it with olive oil, plopped an anchovie on top (gorgeous, fresh anchovies – the best in the world), and ate like a king. She then brought me an Ensalda de Bacalao – this is traditionally Basque, a salad made from slices of warm potato, topped with roasted peppers, and then with freshly cooked Bacalao (cod). It may sound simple but this one was fantastic! The best I’ve ever had. In fact, I don’t think I ever had cod as fresh and perfectly cooked. (Later in the trip, Doug and I considered driving two hours back to San Sebastian just to eat here again. It was that good.)
We had another great meal in San Sebastian at Xarma, a funky kind of place with a bar upstairs and restaurant downstairs serving excellent modern interpretations of traditional foods. On their website they say “Fusion and evolution in our cooking. We put a piece of ourselves in every dish. History, tradition and the avent-garde.” We ordered a bunch of dishes for the table, and they carefully prepared a gluten-free version of each, which they presented beautifully. The chef himself came to the table to deliver freshly-baked gluten-free bread and to make sure that I was being well served. They do recommend that you call in advance and let them know you have dietary restrictions, which I would suggest generally for restaurants.
One of the things that really struck me in Donostia/San Sebastian (the Basque name for the city is Donostia, but it is more well-known outside of the Basque country as San Sebastian)was when Doug and I went into a grocery store to buy some fruit for our drive. We stopped at a large, local grocery store in a residential neighbourhood, and while there, I went to check out the gluten-free section. (As one does.) Wow! Their gluten-free section was three times the size of the one at my local Waitrose here in the UK. They had so much on offer. Much of it was by Schar, the German company that specialises in GF foods. If you don’t know it, you can trust it. Schar is a good brand and they have lots of variety.
A view of the Marques de Riscal hotel in Elciego.
We had excellent food at the Marques de Riscal – we ate in both of their restaurants (one of which has a Michelin star) and in their bar. The fancy restaurant served a 21 course taster menu, and they seamlessly made mine gluten- and meat-free. I ended up eating an awful lot of fish courses – because of the no meat thing, and well, 21 courses – but they were all delicious. (By the way, we found their second restaurant to be more relaxed – especially on the patio – and the food was excellent. The kitchen is the same though the menu is more traditional and less experimental.) For lunch in the bar I had a lovely salad with warm goat cheese. The entire experience at the Marques de Riscal was great – they have a beautiful spa, and the rooms are lovely. We especially enjoyed a really well-designed tour of the vineyard and wine production facilities. They have been producing wine since 1862.
Wine ageing in oak barrels in the cellar at Marques de Riscal.
The historical cellar, also called “The Cathedral”, was very impressive.
The historical cellar, called the botelleria historica, aka “The Cathedral”, at Marques de Riscal. It holds bottles from every vintage since the first harvest in 1862.
We had an excellent old vintage at dinner, but not this old.
Probably the most difficult experience in menus I had was in Burgos. For lunch, I had a tortilla (my old stand-by) as there was not much choice available. In the evening, we wanted to eat in our hotel, and were too tired that night to sit for a meal in the restaurant. In the bar, the menu was mostly pintxos – heavy on the bread and meat. I had a long chat with the bartender, going through each item on the menu only to be told “No, this one is served on bread; no, this one has meat.”. I found two things I could eat: cheese, and roasted peppers. Both of which I like but it didn’t sound like a meal. And then, almost on an afterthought, he said “Of course, we have gluten-free bread.” Problem solved! I ordered the cheese, which came baked – a beautiful, creamy, warm, locally-produced cheese – and the peppers. They brought me out a piping hot bag, with two small loaves of bread in it. I was served this identical bag of bread in two different restaurants in two different provinces while there, so this is clearly a thing. The restaurant keeps them in the freezer and pops them in the oven when needed, and serve them hot, still in the bag. One loaf was seeded, and the other had walnuts and apricots. They were good – especially when slathered with cheese and peppers!
The end of our trip, however, held a real find: the small medieval town of Santillana del Mar has a gluten-free restaurant! It is called Pasaje de los Nobles. It is a wonderful restaurant, which is always full (call in advance if you can). Note that this is not a restaurant which is great for a gluten-free restaurant, but rather a fantastic restaurant which also happens to be gluten-free. We ate there two days in a row, it was that good, and the experience of being able to eat everything on the menu was not to be missed. It has very traditional dishes as well as more modern dishes, and it is all beautifully cooked. The best thing we had there was the black rice with mussels and aioli, but the mango and langoustine ceviche and the tuna tartar were also excellent. I had a piece of Bacalao in green sauce which was delicate and lovely. The cheesecake was so good, it brought back memories of cheesecake from 30 years ago in my gluten eating days. (Actually, this one was probably better.) The pumpkin flan and lemon mousse were also great. I was so happy to have dessert choices!
One of the difficult things when travelling gluten-free is breakfast. We didn’t eat any breakfast while we were there, so I am afraid I have no insights to offer. We had lunch every day at 2pm and dinner at 10pm, and that suited us quite well. When you spend a few hours enjoying a late dinner, you aren’t hungry when you wake up! On our trip, we stayed in hotels with a range of price tags, from standard to luxury, and ate in a range of restaurants, from local bars to trendy eateries to Michelin-starred restaurants. I was able to find delicious, fresh, gluten-free meals everywhere I went. What a difference ten years has made!
For those of you asking where the knitting content is, here is a photo of me knitting in San Sebastian. Doug thought this permanent sculpture installation was called “Knitting the Wind”, so he insisted on getting a photo of me knitting in front of it. It turns out he translated it wrong; it is called “The comb of the wind”. (Basque: Haizearen Orrazia XV, Spanish: Peine del Viento XV. Sculptures by Eduardo Chillida, installed as an architectural work by the Basque architect Luis Peña Ganchegui.) The five minutes I knitted while taking this shot is the sum total of all of the knitting I did on this holiday!
We have just returned from a few weeks in Malaysia. Most of the trip was business; both Doug and I had work commitments in Johor Bahru. Here is my favorite photo from Johor, taken in the old town:
Depsite busy work schedules, we managed to carve out five days for a short holiday to Tioman Island. Tioman is a protected marine conservation park off the eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia in the South China Sea. You have to take a boat to get to the island, from the colourful jetty at Mersing:
There are a number of resorts on Tioman, which is known for its dive sites, its beautiful beaches, and the tropical rainforest which covers most of the island. We stayed at the Japamala Resort, a fantastic resort built with “rustic luxury” in mind. Here is a photo of the bar/communal hangout/boat dock, one of the iconic features of the place:
Each room at the resort is an individual cabin built up into the forest and is constructed with traditional methods. Japamala is proud that it hasn’t cut down any trees to build the resort. Here is the view from our cabin:
The cabins are literally in the canopy of the rainforest:
and reached by walkways:
and lots of stairs:
To get to our cabin (number 13), we had to climb 125 steps. (I counted.) There are cabins with fewer steps, but the higher up you go the better the views. We felt as if we were perched in the sky, and had left civilisation behind.
Twice we were visited by a large family of monkeys, who were clearly very much at home. Here are some of them on our balcony. They loved the swinging chair and liked to play.
We counted 15 in this family group including two very small babies. This baby sat on its mother while she was being groomed, just a few feet from our door.
We were told to always keep our doors locked because the monkeys loved to get inside and create mischief. You can tell this guy would totally raid the fridge!
This is a resort which understands the concept of a get-away. It has very limited connectivity so you can put your phone and laptop away. You can hike through the forest or swim in the sea, you can snorkel or scuba, but you can equally do absolutely nothing:
We spent a day on a snorkeling expedition. We were taken by boat to a number of snorkeling sites, with fantastic corals and a huge array of marine life. This is Batu Malang – a collection of rocks that is famous for its snorkelling and diving.
The corals here were amazing. I must say I was intimidated by the choppy water and the currents at this site. I had only snorkelled once before – 26 years ago – and this was a bit adventurous for me. I had a few scary moments. I most enjoyed one of the other sites, where we floated through schools of colourful tropical fish in a protected beach.
Japamala has a happy hour every evening at sunset, out on the dock. There are only 16 rooms, so never too many guests. You can be as sociable or as private as you wish. While we were there, there were three couples on their honeymoons. We spent an evening socialising with a just-married Italian couple and spent another with a couple from Potsdam (where we lived for a decade many years ago). We also had lots of time to ourselves.
The food at Japamala was superb. I frequently have trouble travelling because I have coeliac’s disease and must follow a 100% gluten-free diet. This can be very challenging in Asia. When we first got to the resort, we explained my dietary restirctions very carefully. Once they understood exactly what the issues were, especially concerning soy sauce, I had no troubles. Breakfasts were beautiful – there were lovely tropical fruits, yoghurt, a large menu which included a number of gluten-free options, fantastic smoothies, all served in the open-air restaurant. Malaysia’s national dish – nasi lemak – is traditionally served for breakfast and is gluten-free (although you should always inquire carefully). It consists of rice steamed in coconut milk and served with sambal (a spicy chili paste), fried anchovies, cucumbers, and peanuts. The nasi lemak at Japamala is especially good.
They have two menus here: an Italian menu and an Asian one (predominatley Thai with some Malaysian and Vietnamese entries). We never ordered off the Italian menu, so I cannot comment, but the Thai food was fantastic. We had fresh fish, tender and spicy squid, complex and gorgeous vegetable curries, and a variety of salads – tofu, mango, eggplant, seafood. I am perfectly confident that you can eat fantastic food here on a gluten-free diet, and not feel that you are missing anything. (I wish I had photos of some of the beautiful food to show you, but I was much too busy enjoying the food to photograph it.)
The staff is also lovely and attentive. I would like to thank them for making our trip carefree! This last year has been a stressful one, but Japamala quickly melted the stress away.
