Bakerita: 100+ No-Fuss Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Refined Sugar-Free Recipes For the Modern Baker, by Rachel Conners Review
Bakerita: 100+ No-Fuss Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Refined Sugar-Free Recipes For the Modern Baker, by Rachel Conners
Ok, I was skeptical at first as I scanned through the recipes. They all seemed to be made of the same five ingredients! But of course they were such wholesome ingredients. I plunged in, and found out they are delicious ingredients too. For those who do not tolerate eggs or grains but are yearning for all the baked delights of which they are usually made, this book will be an absolute joy. You will learn how to substitute flax meal for eggs! And be amazed at the perfect texture it provides. I decided to start with making my first flax meal “egg”.
Measure into a dish one tablespoon of flax meal. Stir in 2 ½ tablespoons water. Let sit for at least 10 minutes.
The result mixes into batters and doughs with the exact consistency and volume of an egg. It adds a lovely nutty flavor too!
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As Christmas approached, I settled on trying out some cookies, especially those described as “holiday”.
Dark Chocolate, Pistachio, and Cardamom Cookies, pg. 169
These are all you could want in a cookie. So incredibly rich, chewy, chocolatey, nutty. So—heartwarming. I went through the ardor of chopping up dark chocolate bars in order to follow the recipe exactly. These were my first baked goods made with the flax “egg”. It added an incredibly satisfying chewiness and richness of flavor. However, when using my small scoop, some of the cookies came out misshapen by the chunks of chocolate. My husband came to look. “You’re making them too small”. Secretly believing that he was only interested in having gigantic cookies, I agreed to use the ice cream scoop. He was right. The next ones were not too large, just a perfect size to accommodate the chunks. However, I might recommend avoiding the hassle of chopping up chocolate altogether by substituting dark chocolate chips.
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Cranberry-Orange Pistachio Cookies, pg 175
Orange peel is a wildly wonderful scent and flavor, especially when paired with honey and cranberry. These cookies have it all! They are very soft in texture, at least mine were, when using real eggs and the ice cream scoop. (Perhaps the flax “eggs” and a smaller scoop would be in order here.) Anyway, I followed her suggestion and dipped the tops in large-crystal organic cane sugar. Sparkly…aromatic…wonderfulness!
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Snickerdoodles, pg 183
They came out looking exactly like the picture! As for taste and texture, cast aside past experiences of snickerdoodles. These are very different, but lovely, improving with time in the fridge into sweet morsels, crusted lightly on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.
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Mexican Chocolate Brownies, pg. 190
Oh. My. Goodness. These are amazing. Do you love a chocolate/chili pepper combination? Or think you might? Try these. They were not difficult, despite the long ingredient list. Chocolatey in the extreme, rich, decadent, exotic, the hints of mocha and cinnamon subtly blend with the intense chocolate and cayenne pepper. Each square is an experience.
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Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies with Raspberry Jam, pg. 150
True confessions: I cheated and used a store-bought raspberry spread instead of Bakerita’s raspberry-chia seed recipe. I am sure that was my loss. In any case, these tender morsels were still delightful. Unbelievably easy dough of just four ingredients, after the fun of rolling balls of it in ground up pistachios, flattening them a bit, pressing a well in the top and filling it with a bit of raspberry jam, comes out the most flavorful, moist little cookie imaginable. They disappeared almost as fast as I could make them. Hiding them in the freezer did not work. Mother-in-law in Vermont demanded her own shipment, then called raving over them when they arrived.
Conclusion: My family and I are finding, with each recipe I’ve tried, that eating these dairy-free, grain-free, refined sugar-free goodies seems to actually make us feel good. Having a few is perfect. One is rendered somehow deeply contented. It’s a bit hard to describe. Two thumbs up for Bakerita!