Oh, I bet you have enough of this isolation and social distancing times. I barely can stand without our trips and family travels. Staying home and not having any possibility of human interaction, I mean closer and with our kind of fear…. Home became the school. The school became home.
Dissatisfaction and frustration related to the latest news on easing the restrictions. Those who want to go out to people and open shopping malls versus those whose concerns I share – fear of a worse tomorrow at the expense of today’s shopping at a fancy boutique and a cream cake in a stylish cafe in downtown.

There are aspects, decisions and things you just are not able to change and have any impact on. There are aspects though, you can decide about and take action for.

Home cooking is one of those aspects our entire family believes and put hearts in. We strongly believe the food can change your state of mind and cheer up your drained soul. Cooking is an activity that can be enormously enjoyable, and there is always a good time to cook with your loved ones. Even if they only engage for a few minutes to make some mess with flour or smash eggs for a good laugh.

Cooking is a delicious way to work and have fun together while preparing a tasty snack, lunch meal or just a piece of bread with a veggie spread.
Familiarity in the kitchen is one of the necessary skills that, if instilled, as a child, will help maintain a healthy diet. Most importantly, we must ensure to teach agility in not relying on canned, precooked products but encourage to use fresh, unprocessed, raw materials.

In my last article, I left you two delicious recipes – red vegan pesto and gluten-free rice-apple pancakes. Today I come back with some mixing ideas regarding the usage of different types of flour. The fact is that if you pay attention to the measurements and the right consistency to the preparation, there is always a proper and valuable way to change an existing recipe and turning it into an individually tailored version.

I imagine there are not only mates gluten-intolerant among us here. I won’t be pulling the wool over your eyes. We do eat gluten…antually we really love it! We at least try as much as possible to avoid it for years already. When I first saw an enormous difference in focus and concentration duration once we just quit it for some months, I couldn’t believe it. We drastically changed our family eating habits to experience the effects of an elimination diet on our own skin. Regarding our little guy on the spectrum, we were amazed at how wheat could affect our brain and body in a holistic understanding.

Today I will propose some ‘flourish’ recipes that, if preferred gluten-free, could be adapted without any more significant damage to taste or appearance. Most importantly, in terms of nutrition, you can be more than assured that small amounts of brown raw sugar or gluten won’t provoke you any damage if your health condition is regular.

BUTTER-ANISE COOKIES

Ingredients:

100g corn flour

100g rice flour

60g plant based butter or virgin olive oil

60g brown sugar

anise flavour

1 egg (optional – if not used add 10g extra butter/oil)

1/2tsp baking agent

Preparation:

In a bowl put together flour, sugar and baking agent. mix well. Make your veg butter liquid (not hot), add the egg and mix energetically. Pour the liquid part slowly to the dry ingredients’ bowl mixing regularly. The dough should be compact, a bit oily. Wrap all in a kitchen foil and cool for at least 2 hours in a fridge.

Prepare a try with a sheet of baking paper. Make you preferred shapes, you don’t have to use any form if you don’t want to. you can just use your hands to model whatever you wish. The important thing is that the amount of Doug for each cookie stays in your closed hand – in this way you will be able to regulate regarding baking time.

The oven should be not mor hot that 200C. Baking time is around 15-17 min. When you can see your cookies a bit golden already – they are READY! Out for cooling!

You can store them for at least one week….if they’ll survive a day!

VEGAN GATEAU

Ingredients:

500g potatoes

120g vegan gouda

1 big red onion

1tbs olive oil

2 handful gluten-free breadcrumbs (or crashed salted potato chips)

Optional: 1 egg (optional)

100g smoked tofu

Preparation:

Boil the potatoes in their skins. In a saucepan fry the chopped onion. Season with salt and cook for a few minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, mash them with a potato masher, add the tofu cut into pieces, salt, and pepper. Put the egg or 2 tablespoons of extra veg milk. Mix well and add a little bit of milk extra to make everything creamier. Oil form or use a sheet of baking paper and put the ‘dough’ inside a form (28cm). Sprinkle with breadcrumbs or crushed potato chips, a drizzle of oil on top. Bake at 200 degrees for about half an hour or until a nice crust has formed. Leave to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting or allow to cool completely and heat it for a moment just before serving.

FOCACCIA GENOVESE

Ingredients:

1kg of flour 00

550g of water

60g olive oil

15g fresh yeast

25g honey

22g salt

Preparation:

Steps:

1. kneading
2. leavening
3. first leavening on a try
4. formation of holes and seasoning
5. second and last leavening
6. baking

Dissolve the yeast and honey in the water.

In the bowl pour the flour, followed by the oil and yeast, then knead and, when the flour is absorbed, add salt. Knead a few minutes, until a smooth and homogeneous mixture is obtained. Leave covered to rest in a warm place for about 70-90 minutes.

Widen them initially using a rolling pin and then pressing with your fingers, to obtain a homogeneous and gas-free layer of the first leavening. In this way, the focaccia will be uniform. The dough should be very ‘flexible’. Let it rises for about 30-40 minutes in a warm environment.

Form holes with your fingers and pour some water and sprinkle a pinch of salt on top. Let rise again for 90–150 minutes, until the holes are “sunk” in the leavened structure of the dough.

Preheat the oven to 240 ° C in static mode and cook for about 14-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Buon appetite!