With the Coronavirus, it seems that I am not the only one finding comfort in creating delicious foods in my kitchen. The supermarkets are quite bare of baking ingredients so I decided to find a recipe containing the ingredients I have available. I am not gluten-free, and I have no idea why I have coconut flour in my pantry, but I discovered it is a gluten-free alternative to using regular flour so I decided to give that a bash because it is what I have available.

To be honest, I haven’t baked cookies since I was a child, and I have a distinct memory of burning the cookies because I wasn’t very attentive. So, the experience put me off (hence the reason I am not a baker apparently), but the Coronavirus makes one do crazy things for the fun of it.

In general, I’m not great at following recipes, I use them more like a guideline and like to throw in ingredients as I fancy along the way. Either way, the recipe I took inspiration from is https://healthy-life.style/en/recipe/oatmeal-cookies-with-coconut-flour/ 

Ingredients:

• 50g melted butter
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup cinnamon
• 1 or 2 grinds of salt
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup of raisins

Method:

Prep time * 30 min; Time in the oven: 15 – 25 minutes (* prep time applies to your average baking slowpoke, like me)

• Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius
• Mix the wet ingredients together
• Throw your dry ingredients into a big bowl and mix them together
• Add the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients
• Throw the raisins in the bowl and mix everything together for a few minutes
• Roll out some baking paper on a baking tray
• In your (freshly washed) hands grab a small handful of dough and squeeze in into a ball in your hand
• Flatten the ball onto the baking tray
• Repeat with the rest of the dough, leaving about 1 cm space between the dough balls
• When the oven heat is ready, with great gusto put the baking tray into the oven and set the timer for 15 minutes
• If your cookies were on the thick side, leave the cookies in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes extra, checking on them every few minutes to make sure they don’t burn
• They should be golden brown when you set them on a cooling tray
• After about 30 minutes the cookies will get crunchier