Barley cookies

I don’t normally review cookbooks or recipes, but weeks ago I came across Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Notes from my kitchen table” cookbook in my local library. If I am honest, until then I didn’t even know that she has been such an enthusiastic cook.  At first I had just a quick look  at two or three recipes. Because they didn’t catch my immediate  attention the book was very soon back on the shelf.  But funnily enough, because I didn’t find the book I was looking for and I hate leaving the library empty-handed I decided to take it home. And I’m glad I did that.

“Notes from my kitchen table”  is a very well written cookbook, with a lovely personal touch and beautiful photos. You can sense straight away that Gwyneth is a good cook and that cooking has been an important part of her life. The whole book is a fantastic selection of  simple, healthy, imaginative and delicious recipes. Going through the book for the first time, your first impression could be that you need a wide range of difficult to find and expensive ingredients.  Well, this isn’t far from the truth. There are a few quite extravagant recipes (for daily meals) and you would need to put in some effort to get all the ingredients but to cheer you up straight away, for most recipes the ingredients are easily available in local shops or you can always use suggested substitutes.  Even here Gwyneth doesn’t leave you in the dark. She lists websites for more “exotic” ingredients too (mostly in the UK!) and that is yet another lovely addition to this brilliant book.

She wants to make every meal and every dessert “healthy” using many alternatives to the plain sugar, like maple or agave syrup. There are other suggestions and substitutes too (different types of flour for example), but it is up to every reader if he/she would go for healthier or maybe less healthier options. I believe this is a big plus because I try really hard to cut sugar from our daily diet wherever possible.

Talking about healthy eating, there are also many delicious vegan recipes. I am not a vegan or vegetarian, but sometimes my taste buds crave for new and different. Most of vegan recipes I have tried so far are  absolutely delicious and all have been successful. Even my daughter, who calls herself a “meat eater”, loves them.

All the recipes are easy to follow with very clear instructions. The only thing that I would wish for is that every recipe is accompanied with a photo of a cooked dish and maybe with step by step photo instructions (am I going too far?).

At the moment my definite number one recipe from this book is “Lalo’s famous cookies”.

These delicious barley cookies recipe baked by  Gwyneth’s  mother and by Gwyneth  herself have been in their family for years.  I was quite surprised when I checked the ingredients . If I’m honest, I had never heard about barley flour before. Straight away I liked the idea that the sugar was swapped with maple syrup. These cookies are really good for kids  because they don’t contain any “bad” ingredients. I think that’s the wish and dream of most mothers in the world, to find a “healthier option” to cookies from shops. My 1-year-old son absolutely adores these cookies and he could eat a whole bunch of them in one go. My 8 years old daughter is not such a big fan, but then again she would still take one or two cookies every time. The biggest problem for her is somewhat sweetless taste. But she is slowly warming up for these cookies, especially when she heard that they are much healthier then cookies from the shop (her last appointment with the dentist made her think too).

Gwyneth Paltrow’s famous cookies (Original recipe’s name is: Lalo’s famous cookies, page 252)

Ingredients:

1. 225g barley flour
2. 170g chopped almonds
3. ½ tsp salt
4. 1 tsp cinnamon (original recipe suggests ½ tsp)
5. 125ml sunflower oil (original recipe suggests rapeseed oil)
6. 125ml maple syrup (original recipe suggests real Vermont maple syrup)
7. Jam (blueberry, raspberry and apricot are all very nice)

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 18 minutes

Make: about 29 cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/fan oven 140C/320F/gas mark 3.
2. Combine all the ingredients (except jam) in a big bowl. Take a tablespoon and mix well.
3. Form tablespoonfuls into balls. Space them 1 inch (2.5cm) apart on non-stick baking sheet.
4. When you finish with shaping balls make a small indent in each cookie. Use your little finger.
5.  Fill each indent with the jam. I usually use blueberry & pomegranate conserve but blueberry, raspberry and apricot jam will do too.
6.  Bake cookies about 16 minutes. Let cool before eating.