Miso Crackers

Whenever I feel like a little snack that's still healthy, I turn to this recipe. I found it in a Japanese magazine called tocotoco. I tweaked it a little to fit into my diet and it's soooo tasty! Try it :D

Miso Cracker
~ Combine 50g gluten free plain flour and 50g buckwheat flour in a bowl.
~ In a separate bowl, mix 1tbs vegetable oil and 1tbs miso paste.
~ Put combined miso and oil into the bowl of flour, add 2tbs rice milk and mix. Once nearly combined, use hands to form into a ball of dough.
~ Roll dough out on baking paper/cookie sheet until 2mm thick. Using a sharp knife, make cutting lines (but don't cut all the way through) roughly 5mm apart, then one line in the middle perpendicular to the first.
~ Bake on a pan in 180C oven for 15-18mins.
~ Cracker should be nicely browned, cool on pan and using your hands break the cracker into little sticks.
~ Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to me!

I turned 26 today. Although it was an uneventful day as I had to work at the Montage shop, I did have a couple of these chocolate chip muffins (gluten and dairy free, bought from IGA) - one for breakfast and one after dinner hehe. I don't feel like I've accomplished enough for this age. Maybe by the time I've turned 30 I'll feel like I've done something decent.

Blog posts coming up include
+ new illustrations
+ Outskirts wrap up

Yummy in my tummy

I made the most delicious carrot cake this week. It's super moist, a little crumbly and tastes so gosh darn good when it's heated up. And the best thing is, it's gluten and dairy free :)

Ingredients:
- 100g brown sugar
- 150g Xylitol (note: you could replace all the sugar with a sweetener of your choosing, I just didn't have enough xylitol to make it sugar free)
- 1/2 cup peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 3 eggs
- 250g almond meal (or gluten free flour, but I imagine it wouldn't have that nice crumbly texture)
- 250g carrots, coarsely grated

Method
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Line cake tin with baking paper and grease with a little oil.
- In a large bowl, mix sugar and oil.
- Add eggs one at a time and mix to combine. Stir in almond meal and carrots.
- Pour cake mixture into tin and level off with a spoon.
- Bake for 1 hour or until the top is golden and feels firm to touch. Cool in tin.

(recipe adapted from here)

Gingerbread cookies

I made these gluten free Gingerbread Cookies a couple of days ago. They taste a bit different to what my mom has made in the past, more powdery crunchy and spicier, but still very tasty! I wonder how long these will last?

Christmas Baking

Poor blog, I've been neglectful again. Perhaps these delicious treats will make up for my absence.


I've been making these for the past couple of days. They are called Karjalan Piirakkat, they are Finnish Karelian Potato Pies and are oh so delicious! I managed to find a gluten free recipe and I can't believe how much they taste like the original. The different flours were a bit annoying to find but it was well worth the effort. Normally a rice mixture is put into it like in the linked recipe but I prefer to put in potato mash, that's how my mother's family has always made it, I think it's more Karelian or something? I also didn't bother glazing it, there's really no need and I cooked it for 25 minutes so it's more brown on top.


Then this morning I made Pannukakku (Finnish Oven Pancake)! It's a bit like a pancake you make in the oven but it's not very solid, it has a bit of a custardy texture to it. I substituted the flour for plain gluten free flour and put in rice milk rather than regular milk. My pannukakku didn't come out as nice as it should. It was a bit too soft, I think there was too much butter in the recipe. When I make it again I'll halve the butter (dairy free) and maybe put in a touch more flour. I topped mine off with Finnish style Strawberry Jam. It's very syrupy in texture but oh so delicious! Took me about 2 and a half hours to make though. Can't wait to try it on regular pancakes too.

I still intend to make some Gingerbread cookies and Cinnamon Rolls (finnish style). In case you're wondering why all the Finnish food, my mom is from there and I adore the food. Piirakka isn't a Christmas food but we always make it for Christmas. It's a little time consuming to make so we only have it once or twice a year. And the pannukakku, it's a regular dish, you can make it sweet or savoury with toppings and can be had any time you want a light snack. And I'm making everything gluten and dairy free because I have Crohn's Disease and doing this type of diet helps with the symptoms.