Baking for Beginners: Phil Vickery's gluten-free choc & peanut cookies

Well to be exact, Phil Vickery's gluten-free chocolate, peanut butter and fudge cookies, but that made a bit of a long title.

This recipe makes a decadent squidgy cookie and is about as simple as baking gets. Best of all, it's completely flour free, so it makes a great gluten-free treat in National Chocolate Week without the need for fancy flours. If you're making these for someone who can't tolerate gluten, make sure you check that the chocolate is g-free though, as some aren't.

Chocolate, Peanut Butter & Fudge Cookies (makes 6 enormous ones or 12 little ones)

You'll need:

• 1 egg
• 80g caster sugar
• 125g crunchy peanut butter
• A pinch of chilli powder (optional)
• 40g fudge, chopped
• 40g dark chocolate, chopped

Make it!

• Preheat the oven to 180c / Gas 4.
• Line a couple of baking trays with baking parchment.
• Whisk together the egg and sugar to combine. Mix in the peanut butter and chilli powder, if using.
• Mix in the fudge and chocolate.
• Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets and flatten a bit with the back of the spoon.
• Bake for 12-14 minutes. The longer, the crispier. The shorter, the squidgier!
• Let the cookies cool on a rack before devouring.

This recipe comes from Phil Vickery's latest g-free recipe book - Seriously Good! Gluten Free Baking, which is currently £11.99 from Amazon. I'd really recommend this book for anyone gluten intolerant or coeliac - it's packed with mouthwatering recipes (Chocolate Brownie Torte anyone?), plus lots of handy hints and tips. Phil has clearly put a lot of work into developing the recipes, with the foccacia taking seven attempts to get right! However, the one downside is that many of the other recipes in the book rely on putting together one of three different flour mixes. The recipes for these are given in the book, and are very easy to whip up, but if you're not baking gluten-free on a regular basis then you may want to give this book a miss.