Coeliac and cookies

Well, it's been even longer, hasn't it? In my defence, I was ill. Indecisively, uncertainly ill, but finally we figured it out. Wheat. Yes, we can now add coeliac disease to the familial collection of auto-immune problems. And so began the long and tedious process of reworking all my favourite baking recipes. I love to bake, but not every recipe translates well to gluten-free flour. Here's one that does, though


Squidgy chocolate cookies

110g butter
85g golden syrup
340g gluten-free self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 egg, beaten
100g block of chocolate, chopped
(for this you can use flavoured chocolate, if you like. Orange is good, mint is....odd? Coffee would probably be awesome)

Heat oven to 160'C / 325'F / Gas 3
Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment

Melt together the butter and syrup. Mix all dry ingredients together well.
Add beaten egg and stir, then pour on the melted butter / syrup. Stir well.
Add a drop of milk if needed to bring the dough together to a soft mass that holds together well

Pinch off golf-ball sized knobs of dough and place on baking sheets. The dough will spread, so spread them out well.

Bake for 15-20 minutes (you know your oven best) and cool on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to wire racks. Makes around 24 soft squidgy cookies with slightly crisp outers.


FOR GINGER
instead of cocoa, add 1tbs ground ginger and instead of chopped chocolate, use 2 knobs of stem ginger (the kind in syrup, drained).

Oh Hi!

Look what I found...

Been a little quiet around here, hasn't it?

Sorry about that - normal(ish) service may resume soon

In the meantime, here's some pretty lace to look at

Yarn Crate

Yup, the bin is empty and the yarn has been packed into a crate. This is progress!

The dismantled cardi has become a collection of squares that need to be remantled? mantled? stitched up!

Next on the list are these lovelies;

which will be heading off before christmas to lurk under somebodies tree

and in the interests of working my way down through the crate;

these lovely stone-coloured cottons are marked up as my 'evening knitting'*

*it's simple enough I can watch CSI without losing the plot.

A few small knits have knocked a hole in the leftovers stash:

Heading soon to https://www.etsy.com/shop/theoccasionalpurl

Yarn Bin, the next stage

Once upon a time there was nearly a cardigan. Sadly, by the time I got around to the 2nd sleeve, I hadn't a clue how I'd done the first one. Also, I couldn't really see me ever wearing it.

Back to basics it went

and it is headed for blankethood...

Golden Rod

The golden rod is nearly ready. It is another happy accident - I'm not that keen on it as a border plant, but it was in the garden when I got here and I've been too lazy busy to dig it out.
It does make quite a nice dyeplant - yellow, of course - but it doesn't hold it's dye well when dried. I picked bunches one year and hung them to dry. While the shed smelt fabulous, the flower heads turned to seeds and the dye didn't happen.

Neither have I had much luck with commercial herbstuffs. What I got appeared to be almost all leaf and despite my best efforts, only produced a pale yellowy green. Quite pretty, but not really what I was after.

I have wool, cotton and random mixed yarns skeined and mordanted and this time, I'll see what can be done with the fresh flowers!

The View of the back room

Cotton and wool, skeined for mordanting

Yarn Bin, month 1

A bit slower than planned! (isn't everything?)
The snuggly alpaca blends gave me a couple of neckwarmers

and the next week, I carried on the theme with a bundle of pure alpaca that has been sitting around looking at me for far too long.

2 weeks intermittent knitting and many dvd's later, I have this!

For practicality, it is useless. Doorhandles are a particular hazard and there are a few too many holes (deliberate!) for it to be much help against Derbyshire weather. But it is silky, and snug and the closest I'm going to be able to get to wearing a blanket at work. So it's mine!