Recipe: Linzer cookies

I've been wanting to bake something for ages but for one reason or another it hadn't happened. So guess what I did? I made four different items in one day and they were all delicious! I'll post recipes for all of them over the next month. :)

Preparation time - about half an hour Cooking time including refreezing the mix - about half an hour This recipe makes about ten cookies

Ingredients for vegan Linzer cookies

• ⅔ of a cup of finely ground almonds
• ⅓ of a cup of coconut flour
• ¼ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ teaspoon of Himalayan rock salt
• ⅓ of a cup of coconut oil at room temperature
• ¼ of a cup of Golden Syrup 
• 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
• Jam - I used raspberry jam

How to make vegan Linzer cookies 

1. Sift the ground almond, coconut flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl
2. Leave this flour mix on the side
3. In a smaller bowl, mix the coconut oil, Golden Syrup and vanilla extract with a blender until it has combined
4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mix and use a blender to incorporated it
5. Put the dough in the middle of a large piece of greaseproof paper and then cover it with another sheet of the same
6. Place your rolling pin on top of the top sheet and roll the dough to ⅛ of an inch thick
7. Put it in the freezer for 30 minutes
8. Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius
9. Get your baking tray ready by lining it with greaseproof paper
10. Remove the dough from freezer and use a special cookie cutter set or do what I did and find something to cut the cookie into the shape you want (I used a glass bowl to create round shapes in the dough and then I used a knife to cut a square out of the top cookie) - here's where you have to concentrate a bit -
    • You need to make sure that create the cookies in pairs so that they form the top and bottom of the cookie
    • The bottom will be a complete cookie
    • The top will need a hole cut out of it for the jam to peep through
    • You won't be able to make all the cookies in one go because the dough gets sticky very quickly so be prepared to make about 4 at a time
    • When it gets sticky, put it in the middle of the greaseproof paper again, put another sheet on top and roll it again
    • It only needs to be in the freezer for about 3 minutes
11. When the oven is ready and you've created the shapes in your dough, cutting holes in half of them; put them in the oven for about 5 minutes or less - the cookies should have lightly golden edges
12. Let them cool on the baking tray for 2 minutes before transferring them elsewhere to cool otherwise they will break
13. Keep repeating these steps with the remaining dough and keep freezing it for a couple of minutes in between batches
14. I added the cut outs to the dough and re-used them
15. When they have completely cooled, put 1 teaspoon of jam on the top of the complete cookie and then put the top layer (with the hole in it) on top

This recipe required a lot of effort, but it was worth it!

Please note that the original recipe is American. Thus the names of various ingredients are slightly different. I've amended these, where necessary, and listed them by the name that they are known by in England. 

Adapted from Healthful Pursuit

Recipe: Pancakes within 15 minutes

Here's a way to  make pancakes within 15 minutes!

Ingredients for vegan pancakes

• 1 and 1/2 cups of soy milk
• 1/2 a cup of soft silken tofu
• 1/3 cup of coconut oil in its solid form
• 1 and 1/2 cups of flour - you can use coconut flour, self raising flour or plain flour
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 a teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon powder
• 1/2 a teaspoon of nutmeg powder
• 2 chopped apples
• 1/2  a cup of chopped Pecan Nuts

How to make vegan pancakes

1. Blend the soy milk, soft silken tofu, coconut oil, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and the chopped apples
2. When it's all blended, add the chopped Pecan Nuts and fold them into the mix
3. Heat a pan so that it is heated evenly
4. When it's ready, add a little oil
5. Then add large spoons of the mix and cook it for a few minutes
6. When bubbles appear, flip it and cook it until both sides are golden brown
7. Roll and serve with fruit or drizzle with some syrup to make it a tad sweeter