I tried something new...

...and baked some {healthy} goodness!

Gluten-Free Chocolate-Chip Cookies with Flax Seeds and Walnuts.

I discovered the original recipe here. Gotta say at first glance I was impressed. Still am. Thing is, though this is a fantastic recipe, the nutritional value wasn't what I was hoping for. Sooooo, I added some walnuts, ground flax seed, and whole flax seeds.

Ingredients I added on:

1 tablespoons whole flax seeds

1/4 ground flax seeds

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

{Note: You can add these healthy extras to wheat-based cookie dough too!}

{dough chilled and ready to bake}

You can chill the dough in the refrigerator for one hour or you can do what I do.

Place cookie dough in refrigerator.

Preheat oven.

Remove cookie dough from refrigerator.

Take dough, roll into six balls and place on baking sheet,

place remaining dough back in refrigerator,

place the rolled dough that is on the baking sheet into the freezer for about 5 minutes.

Bake for 12-14 minutes.

Repeat process; it helps if you have two baking sheets.

{Note: chilling the dough is a must for gluten-free cookies!}

{waiting for the cookies!}

{it's cookie time!}

Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a couple minutes than transfer cookies to cooling rack.

Pour a glass of ice-cold milk to go along with your freshly baked cookie and enjoy!

{belle}

simply . living . life

Baking gluten-free bread...

...is not for the faint of heart. Though, after baking yet another tasteless loaf of bread, one might certainly feel that way. I know I have. I mean, honestly, there comes a point when one has enough bread crumbs from all the flops to last a year! There comes a point when one just wants to receive a good tasting loaf of bread for all their efforts.

I know I do.

If someone had told me a couple months ago that I would be baking bread when I could purchase it so easily, I would have told them they were crazy! After all, I already knew my pizza dough potential was like zero. So, knowing I had zero potential making something as simple as pizza dough, why would I suddenly think I could bake bread? What could possibly bring me to my bread-baking knees?

Only one thing I can think of... I love my family.

The signs of gluten sensitivity have been present for awhile. I just hadn't recognized the signs for what they were, until one day last month. The good news is not all my efforts to make and bake good tasting gluten-free foods have been a loss.

However, there are things we eat everyday that have certainly been a challenge to make. One being bread. I was disappointed, to say the least, with store-bought, gluten-free bread; first with its price and secondly, the small sized loaf.

Though I am still not satisfied with the taste and texture of my homemade breads, I have had a few bread-baking breakthroughs. So far, I've made four loaves of bread that I plan to make again. Yesterday, for instance, I baked a basic white bread with sesame seeds and flax seed meal that tasted just about the same as a store-bought loaf I tried weeks ago. {Thank the Lord, because I wasn't sure how much longer my sweet family could eat another one of my bread-baking flops!}

So, what grand insight did I discover that made it possible for me to go from "can she flop another bread?" to "yes, she can make bread!"? Reading this, reviewing lots of recipes and making all those flop breads. Truth is, we learn more from our failures. Still, I gotta say, it's been a joy to learn from my successes too! {Such as the loaf of bread seen below.}

It's not perfect, but at least it tastes good. Not great, but good. When I bake a loaf that tastes great, I'll be sure to share the recipe.

So if you wonder why I don't blog often, now you know. In addition to everything else, I'm watching bread dough rise and contemplating the perfection combination of ingredients in my mind. I admit, at times I feel a bit like the Miller's daughter in Rumpelstiltskin, but instead of trying to turn straw into gold, I am trying to make rice flour taste like wheat flour and so far it hasn't happened! I'll let you know should I figure out how.

So there you have it. A newbie's thoughts on gluten-free bread baking.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know, and there's more to come... ; )

{belle}

simply . living . life