Bookshop Day (Gluten Free) Baking

For Bookshop Day the Book Hero team got baking, and we had some amazing friends, family members, and even a customer (who is basically a family member at this stage - Sunita!), all jump in to help so that we could welcome guests throughout the day with a yummy treat and a sunny courtyard to enjoy their new books in. Myself and Sunita both decided to feature a couple of our favourite new cookbooks by making a recipe from them to share - here's what we tried out (and a bit of a story about a baking fail from me that did not make it to the event).

Also, a note - these have all ended up being gluten free recipes which is by accident but also because I have coeliac disease and Sunita is always looking to adapt her incredible baking for me to be able to enjoy it as well. Even if you aren't gluten free, these cookbooks deserve a shout out!

For bookshop day I decided to bake the Ginger Cookies from How to Make Anything Gluten Free because I figured we'd have plenty of chocolate things happening and these ginger cookies are just the perfect texture - slightly chewy, slightly crunchy, and delightfully gingery with a deep sweetness from the golden syrup. No-one every thinks they are GF either which I take as a win.

The wonderful superhero that is our customer and friend, Sunita, of course dropped off some baking for Bookshop Day. She made not one but two ginormous brownies, and both gluten free. One was her own special chocolate brownie that always hits, but she also tried a new recipe from the gorgeous cookbook Give by Allyson Gofton and tested out the lemon brownie but substituted normal flour for GF flour (we love you Sunita!). The result was a delicious bit of lemon freshness and I could have eaten the entire batch. I can't wait to go ahead and try making more of the recipes from here now that I've tasted the lemon brownie!

I love a moist cake that is packed with fruit and lightly spiced and then dusted with icing sugar. I am also obsessed with the humble feijoa so as soon as I saw the Feijoa and Ginger cake and I knew I wanted to make it for Bookshop day. Of course feijoas are impossible to find at this time of year but I decided to sub them for a can of pears instead (I am not great at following instructions which as you'll soon see did not work out so well for another recipe I attempted). In this case I was absolutely stunning with this gorgeous cake - it had the perfect balance of spices to enhance but not overshadow the taste of the fruit. I was SO scared about adding candied ginger to the cake and ending up with suprisingly strrong mouthfuls but somehow during the baking process those little gems of ginger softened into the cake itself and the whole experience was absolute perfection. I cannot wait to try it again in feijoa season, but in the meantime I am planning to do an apple and plum version. It's also covered in crispy, toasted almonds and I recommend not skipping this optional step as it adds such a lovely textural crunch and flavour. SO impressed - I forgot this was even gluten free, it was so fluffy and light and moist and flavourful. Incredible.

I have to give a shout out to a cookbook that didn't make it to the table but did make the family very happy when they got to consume the efforts. More Than Toast is an increidble cookbook that is packed with high flavour, low effort/complication recipes. I'm not at all biased (this may be written by one of my besties, Rhiannon Baldock) but this has the BEST choc chip cookie recipe in existence. Me being gluten free I thought I would sub out the flours and bring along tasty, gf, chocolate loaded cookies for everyone to enjoy. 

Instead I watched in horror as 2 minutes into the baking process my perfectly shaped and weighed out (30g each!) had melted into one giant puddle of deliciousness that was in danger of sending my kitchen up in flames as it dripped off the baking tray. Long story short (not really short) this was my mistake. As I complained to my husband he said something along the lines of "don't you have a book for adapting recipes to be gf?", which of course I do but hadn't consulted. 

After taking a read of The Elements of Baking which is an incredible book for anyone who has dietary restrictions but wants to use all their favourite recipe books, it turns out gf flour doesn't absorb butter as well as normal butter does, and if I had simply reduced the butter quantity by 1/3 I would have had perfect cookies, just like Rhi wanted for me. This goes to prove that a) Rhi makes incredibly tasty food even when you go rogue and mess up the recipe, and b) that you should either follow the recipe for baking or consult a guide if you plan to sub things out. Lesson learned - I've now added a note to my copy of More Than Toast so I don't make the same mistake next time!!

If only I had read this before placing the cookies into the oven

There was so much other amazing baking on the day to share with our incredible customers. I love food for the way it adds a feeling of hospitality and manaakitanga, and getting to bake for those incredible readers who choose to buy books from their local, or travel some distance to choose to buy from an independent book store. We appreciate every purchase, every kind word, and every friendly face who pops in store! Thanks for making our day, not just on Bookshop Day - but every day.