January

Dear Readers,
January can sometimes be quite a dull month. It is cold, dark and you no longer have festive Christmassy things to cheer you up. So I decided to blog about two of my favourite things from January so far! I hope that you enjoy it.

Today I made a batch of double chocolate cookies. However I needed to make them gluten free because my sister has recently began a gluten free diet. We haven't yet purchased any gluten free flour so I needed to come up with a recipe without using flour of any sort. This was going to be quite a challenge but I found various recipes on the internet. The one I used made quite fudgy, chewy cookies but nevertheless, they had a rich chocolaty flavour and they were actually surprisingly nice! I would describe them more as chocolate brownie cookies. They used icing sugar and cocoa powder to exchange for the flour. If you are interested in the recipe, see below!

Gluten Free Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

• 375g powdered sugar
• 78g cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 4 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 175g bittersweet chocolate chips
• Instructions

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper lightly with cooking spray.

2.      In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Beat in two egg whites and the vanilla extract until the batter is moistened. You're looking for a brownie-like, thick and fudgy batter consistency. If it seems too thick, add another egg white - then a 4th one if it still seems too thick. Fold in chocolate chips.

3.      Spoon batter onto the prepared baking sheets in 12 evenly spaced mounds per cookie sheet. Bake about 14 minutes, until the tops are glossy and lightly cracked. Slide the parchment paper (with the cookies) onto wire racks. Cool completely. Enjoy!

The second thing I am going to write about is a show that I have started watching called Death in Paradise. It is a murder mystery but it is not the scary sort. There is a murder of course but the majority of the program is finding out who the murderer was, how they killed the victim and their motive. The episodes don't link together so it is fine to start watching it halfway through a series. The detective and his team remain the same but each episode consists of new characters and a new murder story. I like it because it is set in the Caribbean and it is quite funny! I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good murder mystery but don't be put off by the concept of murder, it's really rather entertaining. My favourite episode so far was episode 3 which featured models. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that hasn't watched it yet, but I thought that it had a very good plot! It is definitely a good show to watch to cheer up your January!

I hope you enjoyed this post about my favourite things of January so far!
Bye!