Gingerbread cookies, gluten free, sugar free, lactose free and vegan!

In Belgium, gingerbread cookies (better known as speculoos) are all the rage in Christmas time. With Saint Nick's children day (on December 6), where children are supposed to leave him some speculoos by the chimney so he can have a bite to eat while he leaves the presents, the start of December is the start of speculoos season! The rest of the year, speculoos are mostly offered with coffee or tea at coffee places.

I discovered these delicious and spicy cookies the very first time I came to Belgium, some 17 years ago... They've been part of my biscuit regulars ever since. I can't live without them! At least until I wasn't allowed to eat them anymore because of my food restrictions... But that was until two days ago!

I wanted to try out a new recipe for gingerbread cookies that would be gluten, lactose and sugar free. They also happen to be vegan, so that's also nice. And I loved them! They have nothing to envy to their sugary and gluten packed counter-parts.

Try them out!

Waffles! But candida free, gluten, lactose and sugar free

You'll be amazed by the taste of these healthy waffles! I got inspired by a recipe I took from the candida free diet I've been following for the past year and a half. The author of this diet, the food therapist Cécile Ellert, doesn't forget to give us in her book "Anti-candida Balance", some tasty, sweet-like recipes to handle the sweet cravings.
These waffles are from her book. I adapted the original recipe because I found those from the book too dry for my taste.

For those of you who have to follow a strict no gluten, no lactose, no sugar diet, I hope you'll enjoy this sweet breakfast (or afternoon snack).

Gluten, lactose and sugar free cookies with an orange twist

I've tested a recipe for some scrumptious french cookies called "sablés" that I really love because they melt in your mouth. These ones happen to be gluten, lactose and sugar free! I love that.
I took the recipe from a cookbook named "Cuisinez gourmand sans gluten, sans lait, sans oeufs..." written by Valérie Cupillard. It's in french and has a wide collection of recipes without gluten, lactose or eggs.
Honestly, I just love them, I think I made them three times already this week! I've had them with tea and with vegan ice cream (I'll share the recipe with you later) or just nibbled on them while surfing the internet...

If you want to make these "so-good-I-can't-stop-eating-them" cookies, check down below.

Ingredients

250g of rice flour
60g of vegan butter
1tbsp of olive oil
60g of powdered stevia
60g of mixed Brazilian nuts (or blanched almond flour)
2 large eggs
The zest of an orange

Preparation

Take your vegan butter out of the fridge and let it warm up to room temperature.
In a big bowl add, in that order, vegan butter, stevia, Brazilian nuts or almond flour, rice flour and eggs. Mix until you get a crumbs-like texture. You don't want to over mix it.
Preheat the oven at 180°C.
Add the spoon of olive oil and the orange zest and mix some more.
Make a ball with the dough and roll it on your floured counter. Cut the dough in the shapes you like and carefully place them on a baking sheet.
Bake them for about 15mn and remove them before ether start getting a brown colour. Don't go over the time, they really do cook quickly!

Eat them with a nice cup of tea, coffee, as a sider for your ice cream or just for the pleasure of eating them.

What are your favorite cookies? Chocolate chip? Sablés? Shortbreads? And so on. Tell me in the comments!

Bon appétit!

The fighter's pancakes

Pancakes... Oh how I love this word. It rhymes with maple syrup... Well, not really, but I really love the sound of them together.
Even if I can't have them anymore, because of the gluten thing (article in french). You could argue that there are gluten free flours now. I agree, but they are all refined and I can't have any refined flour. So I get to play around with naturally gluten free flours with no additives or preservatives. And sugar is completely excluded, not even for a little treat. And maple syrup without sugar is like cough syrup and who would like that?
You probably wonder why it's more restrictive now. Because I've been fighting a candidiasis for a year and we've only ascertained that it was a candidiasis about six months ago, so I've had to adapt my diet since (if you want to know more about the candida, here are some information in english)

As you can guess, it's no walk in the park. Almost everything contains sugar, gluten, and let's not talk about lactose! So I've been trying and testing for the past year, trial and error, sometimes disasters and new discoveries. Speaking of which, I discovered a new way of feeding myself and my family with nutritious food full of flavor. And that's what I want to share with you today: my fighter's pancakes!
The flour I used is a special candida-safe flour recipe I found in "The candida free cookbook" published by Shasta Press, which I already used to make waffles and pie crusts.
Delicious!

Candida-free pancakes topped with agave syrup and blueberries

2 Easter menus just for you and completely gluten free!

Being on vacation in very sunny South of France, I'm being a little bit lazy behind my computer these days. But I haven't neglected you! I'm working on a tasty article on where to eat in the south of France. If you are planning a trip to the Languedoc-Roussillon or the Pyrénées-Orientales regions, you might want to stay tuned for next week's article on my blog. Savory and beautiful places to discover in the area!

In the meantime, I've been thinking about some Easter food and I've put together for you two menus, easy to compose and gluten-free! If you enjoy traditions, the first menu will be just what you are looking for, including a scrumptious gluten free and lactose free chocolate cake. If you prefer to shake this up a little, I've put together a fish menu with an amazingly simple home-made lactose-free ice cream dessert. Let me know in the comments below which one you prefer!

Gluten-free bagels!

And my 1st ever blog post in english! I've been more and more in contact lately with english speaking bloggers or english speaking people who like my photos but couldn't figure out what was in my recipes. So I decided it was about time that I shared with the rest of the world ;-)

I'll be blogging from now on in both french and english. I'll be publishing, for each recipe, two blog posts, one in french and one in english.