Double Chocolate Sour Cherry Cookies

For me, a chewy cookie is far superior to a hard cookie.  Which is why I love oatmeal cookies, at least the way I make them.  Or should I say the way I underbake them?  Anyways, making gluten free oatmeal cookies that taste like regular oatmeal cookies is incredibly easy - just substitute gluten free oat flour for all the oatmeal, and the wheat flour.  And you need to use less butter because gluten free flours tend to absorb less oil or butter than wheat flour.

I wanted to make a chewy chocolate cookie with dried sour cherries in it, because sour cherries are excellent with chocolate.  You will note the the amounts of cocoa and oat flour are in weights.  This is because it is more accurate than using a measuring cup, which is more crucial when using gluten free flours.  It's pretty easy to find oat flour in stores now, but you can also use your blender to grind rolled oats into flour - just make sure you use the same weight of oats before grinding.  And here is a pic of the delicious chocolatey treats!





Double Chocolate Sour Cherry Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup dehydrated cane sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/4 cups (225 gm) gluten-free oat flour
• 1/2 cup (75 gm) cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup dried sour cherries
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

• Weigh out the flour and cocoa, or spoon it into a measuring cup.  Never scoop oat flour out of the package with a measuring cup.  It will compact, and you will get more flour than you need.  
• Preheat oven to 375º F, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
• Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.
• Add the oat flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda, and mix until well blended.
• Stir in the dried sour cherries and chocolate chips.
• Drop heaping tablespoons of the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving a couple inches of space between cookies.
• Bake for 12 minutes - do not overbake.  You want them to be chewy.
• Allow to cool on wire racks, but put in an airtight container as soon as they are cool.  They may seem a bit dry when first baked - putting them in an airtight container softens them.  These are best kept in the freezer.

Variations:  

• Substitute dried cranberries for dried sour cherries.  
• Substitute 1/2 ground hazelnuts (roast before grinding), for the dried sour cherries.

Be prepared for these cookies to disappear quickly - I brought them to work, and the whole recipe was gobbled up in one day.  In fact, before coffee time, one of my coworkers came out with a cookie in each hand, and asked if there was a limit to how many he was allowed to have in one day.  :)  He was also upset that I allowed another coworker to take one for her friend because, as he put it, "She doesn't work here".

First Pair of Stitched Down Shoes

So, I have finally finished my first pair of stitched down shoes - stitched down referring to the fact that the upper is stitched to the sole around the outside edge.

I have been working on this pattern far too long, for a few reasons.  First I made the pattern based on the duct tape model I made of my foot.  Here you can see the finished model with my foot still in it.

You can also see the initial markings I made for the centre line of the foot, and the top of the shoe.  And I'm wearing a nylon anklet to make it easier to take my foot out.  I cut down the outside of the ankle, through the nylon.  After I took my foot out, I used duct tape to re-close the slit.

I won't go into all the cutting, fiddling, and measuring, but after that you make a mock up of the pattern using a double thickness of craft felt, and try it on.  They recommend doing a one piece slip on shoe, so I did.  Then I did some adjusting, and thought it fit pretty well, so I cut it out of leather, made the sole, stitched it all together, and tried it on, and it was not fitting the way it was supposed to.  So then it sat in my craft space for a very long time, and nothing happened.  

I have a book with actual shoe patterns in it, and it showed adding darts in the upper of the pattern in this type of shoe - two in the front, and two towards the back.  Because a slip on shoe has no strap or ties, the upper has to be better fitted to stay on.  I am not a fan of fitting stuff - when I sew clothing, I'm always having to adjust things for me, and it's my least favourite thing to do.  

But finally, I made the 4 darts in the mock up, which I'd fortunately kept, and it really wasn't that hard.  But because my foot has a B width front, and an A width heel, the mock up was still a little loose.  By that time I was more confident, and made a 5th dart on the outside right close to the heel.  I made a new pattern using the adjusted mockup, cut it out of the leather, stitched it together, and voila!

I am very happy with the fit of these shoes, and it makes me more confident to try another type of shoe - something that ties up, this time.  I decided to wear them a bit just to make sure they were the right length with enough toe room in the sole, and that was also a good thing.  I had made these with some half inch foam between the insole, and the sole - just to give a little cushioning.  After walking around in them at work a couple of days even though the shoes felt incredibly comfy, my feet were sore.  That surprised me because I had been walking around in moccasins at work for months, and my feet didn't get sore from that.  But I figured it out.  The soles of the moccasins have two layers of leather with 1/8" thick felt in between - really, it's even thinner than the soles of my shoes.  However, when I walk in the shoes, my foot gets a brief cushion from the foam but that almost immediately flattens out and my foot slams against the firmer surface of the rubber sole.  In the moccasin, the felt is slightly cushiony, but doesn't compress much further, so the jolt is less.  I tried walking around a bit with the shoe on one foot, and the moccasin on the other, and could feel the difference immediately.  Always new discoveries - that's part of the fun of creating, even though sometimes I need to take a break to figure things out.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pancakes

I do like variety for breakfast, and these sour cream pumpkin pancakes fit the bill nicely.  I found this recipe, along with a huge selection of other ways to use your pumpkin (either grown or purchased),  in Purely Pumpkin by Canadian blogger Allison Day.  If you love pumpkin, this is well worth a look.  Because I don't think that pancakes, which generally already will be topped with something sweet, need a lot of sugar, I halved the amount that was in the original recipe.

Gluten Free Sour Cream Pumpkin Pancakes

Makes 6 - 8 large pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups (175 gm) gluten-free oat flour 
• 1 tablespoons dehydrated cane sugar, or sugar of your choice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk of your choice
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup full-fat sour cream
• 1 large egg

Method

• Weigh out the flour, or spoon it into a measuring cup.
• In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients
• In another bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin, sour cream and egg.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and whisk together.
• Preheat a nonstick skillet or griddle to medium.  If it is really nonstick, like my cast iron frying pan, or my seasoned griddle, you don’t need to add any oil to fry.  If it isn’t nonstick, adding a little oil or butter.
• I use a 1/4 cup measure to ladle the individual pancakes onto the frying pan/griddle
• Cook for 2 - 3 minutes per side. Lift the edge of one to see if it has turned a nice golden brown before flipping.
• Transfer to a large plate, or baking sheet lined with parchment  and keep warm in the oven while frying the rest.  Or just let people eat them as the are ready - my favourite method!
• Serve with toppings of your choice.

Variations:  You can add berries or fruit of your choice, chopped nuts, etc. before flipping the

                   pancakes the first time.

I found that these pancakes froze well, so you can make a big batch and then heat them up in a toaster oven for  breakfast - Bonus!

Knit Picks Christmas gift...

I received a Knit Picks gift card from a friend from Christmas, and my brain immediately decided on sock yarn.  Instead of immediately going for the red yarn - my first impulse always - I decided to look at what I already had in terms of socks and sock yarns.  Turns out that I already have more than enough red at the moment, but some of the other colours of socks were starting to wear out.

So I went for blue, and purple.  My blue socks are some that are getting worn, and I have no purple socks.  And here they are!



Sadly, although the blue is pretty close to the in person colour, and so is the variegated purple, the other purple looks darker and more plummy in person than it does in the photo.  I don't know if it's just my camera, or the photo program, but it really has difficulty accurately depicting some of the colours that have red or purple in them.

Oat Flour Crepes

One thing that is great about crepe recipes, is that they are simple, and pretty much any flour will work for them,  even most gluten-free flours.  For this one I used gluten-free oat flour.

Oat Flour Crepes

Serves 4 - 5 people

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups (200 gm) gluten-Free Oat Flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Method

• Weigh out the flour, or spoon it into a measuring cup.  Never scoop oat flour out of the package with a measuring cup.  It will compact, and you will get more flour than you need.  
• Combine all ingredients in a blender, or in a bowl with a stick blender
• Heat a 10" skillet until medium hot.
• Pour 1/4 cup of the batter in the skillet, tilting it with your other hand to allow batter to run over the entire surface on the skillet.  
• After about a minute, the edge of the crepe will start to curl up.  When it does this, flip it over and cook for another minute.  Move to a serving plate

• Repeat this process until all the batter is gone.
• I find that you can stack these crepes, and they don't stick together, so it's easy to keep them warm in the oven until you are done.

You can use these as you would any crepe.  I like to make easy vareniky by rolling them with the cottage cheese filling, and putting them in a glass casserole dish to warm.  Then you can serve them with cream gravy and rhubarb sauce, or melted butter and sour cream.  Or, as I did here, butter, sour cream, and homemade peach/nectarine chutney - delish!