Fireside cooking conjures childhood memories of scorched marshmallows, hot chocolate and mosquitoes. Cooking an edible meal over fire is not something I had ever imagined - successfully - or gleefully - achieving. And yet, weeks down the line, we are creating surprisingly amazing dishes, cooked over fire!! Strictly speaking we aren't cooking over but beside the fire. Our Pizza Oven has surpassed our wildest food fantasies.
Who would've thought I would actually be happy about the demise of my kitchen stove. If you missed out on the crisis, check out Catastrophic Cooking . After years of aspiring to do a weekly cook-up in the Pizza Oven, necessity has forced the culinary hand. Thursday is our big cook-up. We are still learning as we go. Needless to say, apart from minor glitches, and much singed hair, the food coming out of that Pizza Oven just keeps getting better. We're baking, stewing, roasting and sampling everything along the way. We've learned that the fire needs to burn longer to get the floor of the Pizza Oven hot. It has special fire bricks which take ages to heat but in turn even longer to cool. Last week the rains came half way through our cook-up and there was panic that the water against the hot dome would cause it to crack. We have only partially built a roof over it so we were frantically covering the Pizza Oven without interfering with the process. Or setting the covers on fire!
Yesterday I had my menu lined up. This morning as the first couple dishes were ready to go in - just awaiting the right temperature - I impulsively whipped up some cookies with the kids. The thing about food is that I want it to be quick to make but taste like a culinary explosion on your tongue. Even more important; it must be healthy while tasting amazing!!
Chocolate never lets me down. I love it in any shape or form. I was so much in a hurry to make the chocolate cookies that I added the cacao powder but forgot the cacao nibs. No problem. I then made a second batch of peanut butter cookies and tossed the cacao nibs in there.
Here is the yummy recipe:
CHOCOLATE COOKIES:
1 Cup Cassava flour
1 Cup Rolled Oats (I grind them)
Dash of salt
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of gluten free baking powder
Dash of bicarbonate of soda
Dash of vanilla
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup coconut blossom sugar
1/3 cup cacao powder (extra cacao nibs optional)
2 organic eggs (thanks chickens!!)
You need two separate bowls. In one measure out the olive oil, cacao powder, eggs and coconut blossom. Beat. In the other bowl sieve all the remaining ingredients. Mix the wet with the dry. So simple!
The cookie dough is slightly sticky but easy to handle. Add the cacao nibs once the ingredients are well mixed. Form your desired size cookies. Our Pizza Oven was hot. Well over 200 C so we literally did a 10 minute bake. Flipping cookies and swivelling the tray a couple times to prevent burning. In a regular oven - which I no longer have - you'll bake for about 20 minutes at 160 C or until lightly browned. Allow to cool. If you can resist!
The children were so excited about their cookies that I made them a tea party in their tree house and went back to cooking. Throughout the day I kept promising myself I would "just finish this or that and then sit down with a cup of tea and one of those cookies...." At midnight I finally sat down to enjoy a cookie while I wrote this post. These cookies really are worth the long day grafting next to our amazing Pizza Oven.
