More than once have I bellowed “CLAIRE!!” amid baking an eponymous Claire Saffitz recipe; it’s a kind of ruefully recalcitrant acquiescence at her calmly and warmly insisting that I embark upon what feels like an exceptionally complex additional step, usually with annoyingly stunning results. In the case of these toasted rice sablés, it was the titular toasting of the rice flour (delicious, worth it) but the horse had to buck somewhere and in this case I demurred on rolling the cookies in rice bubbles (I tried, they kept falling off, delicious without).

Now, you really shouldn’t come to me for gluten-free recipes since, well, you’re not going to get them regularly nor am I any kind of expert, but I can report happily that these are free from gluten in the way where they make more sense without it than with it; the rice flour providing the necessary fragrant toastiness and softly almost-gritty melting texture under the tooth.

I didn’t abandon the rice bubbles entirely (or ‘puffed rice cereal’ if that’s not what they’re called in your neck of the woods), as they are still crushed and abundantly folded into the pale cookie dough, providing further ricy nuttiness. My apartment, though a dear little thing, has almost minus benchspace causing me to stack items creatively; unfortunately somewhere in the middle of combining the rice flour and rice bubbles into said dough, one untimely shunt made dough fly everywhere and my load-bearing food processor lid crash to the tiles below; I somehow regained my composure and the cookies still tasted amazing despite my insistence and theory that food can sense fear.

The finished texture of these little cookies is not unlike shortbread, interrupted by the husky soft crunch of rice bubbles whole and pulverised; in their squat, robust plainness it’s perhaps hard to imagine their immediate allure; but of their allure, let me assure! The almost floral notes of the rice and tender, melting sandiness is utterly charming and very sophisticated.

Although…was I gratified to learn of other people on the internet struggling with the final rolling stage? Perhaps? And yet the finished result was still so absolutely excellent that when I throw my head back to the sky to yell “CLAIRE” it is with wry contrition! It really is worth toasting the flour but you can only find out the hard way, which is a metaphor for life as much as it is a descriptor of what happens in these cookies!

For more gluten-free fun I recommend these Very Easy Chocolate-Cherry Macaroons, these Small Batch Peanut Mocha Cookies, and these Chocolate-Nut Fudge Candies. And If I may, a reminder that my forthcoming and imminent debut novel Hoods Landing is one calendar month away from launching. Find out more, which you probably already know, at my official author website. You can also, thrillingly, pre-order Hoods Landing worldwide and locally for delivery or pickup, and all are welcome to my Wellington book launch (31 October) and Auckland book launch (13 November) where you can also purchase books, and get them signed, if I remember how to spell my own name by that point. Tell your friends, your enemies, your therapists! (I assume therapists have plenty of discretionary cash with which to purchase novels.)

Toasted rice sablés

Beautifully serene and simple, flavourwise at least, with the richly nutty fragrance of toasted rice. The method has a few fiddly steps, but is by no means difficult. I find a cup measure easiest for scooping rice bubbles specifically out of the bag; hence the mixed messaging below. As always, before going shopping for these or any ingredients, I recommend checking out the Boycott Aotearoa zines so you know which brands to avoid. Recipe adapted just slightly from What’s for Dessert by Claire Saffitz—in particular, I’ve avoided a final roll in rice bubbles and made them a little smaller; it seems to have done them no harm.

• 225g white rice flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups rice bubbles/puffed rice cereal (around 50g)
• 30g cornflour (cornstarch)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sea salt, or 1/2 teaspoon regular salt
• 170g soft butter
• 110g icing sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature

1: Set your oven to 180C/350F. Tip the 225g rice flour onto a shallow roasting tray or sheet pan and spread out into an even layer. Bake for around 20 minutes, staying close by, until the flour is nuttily fragrant and lightly golden. Set aside to cool, and leave the oven on. (That being said, I have more than once turned the oven off and refrigerated the cookie dough after making it; using that time to turn the oven back on.)

2: While the rice flour is cooling, crush the 1 and 1/2 cups of rice bubbles roughly in a medium-sized bowl with the base of a cup or similar implement—it’s very satisfying—so that some are reduced to dust and some are left whole. Stir in the 30g cornflour, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and teaspoon of sea salt, then carefully tip in the cooled, toasted rice flour and stir it all together. Set aside.

3: Next, beat the 170g soft butter and 110g icing sugar together until very light and smooth—I usually use a wooden spoon, but have also used a food processor when feeling particularly lazy which makes exceptionally quick work of it—then add the egg and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Fold in the dry ingredients, stirring to form a thick, soft dough, rubbly with crushed rice bubbles. If it’s feeling too soft, refrigerate the bowl of dough for about fifteen minutes first.

4: Baking time: Line a flat baking sheet with baking paper. Roll two-tablespoon portions into rough balls and flatten just a little either with your hand or the bottom of a glass, so you have thick, squat mounds of dough. Leave a couple inches of space between each cookie. Bake for sixteen minutes and very carefully transfer to a cooling rack; then repeat the rolling-and-baking with the remaining dough. They will firm up and become less fragile as they cool.

Makes about 20 cookies. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes:

• Claire Saffitz also rolls these in crushed rice bubbles; this was too much activity for me and very messy—and they are perfectly good without, but if you’re feeling emotionally robust, go for it.
• The rice flour can usually be found in the baking aisle—with the ground almonds and such—or it’ll likely be in whichever corner the supermarket shoves the gluten-free ingredients. Note, it is emphatically NOT glutinous rice flour.

music lately:

Every Female Werewolf Ever, Listed Alphabetically by Crime by Soulwhirlingsomewhere, sometimes you have to follow a good title into a dark alley with trust in your heart and you’ll be rewarded with a flickering torch of shimmering, seismic beauty (for similar reasons; I love the film I Wake Up Screaming.)

I’m Not Ready for the Change by Nation of Language, I heard this at the recent Shot, Sappho spring literary picnic at my friend Hebe’s house and I’m VERY glad I stopped them to ask from whence that goodly noise on their bluetooth speaker emanated; this is just the kind of woozy dreamy sparkly romantic excellent nonsense that keeps me afloat on a day to day basis.

In Your Feelings by Mariah Carey, the doo-wop waltz plus her evolved yet still thrilling voice—everything she does feels like an occasion and this new album, while not as vocally gymnastic as earlier instalments, is excellent and her songwriting pen and propensity for flamboyant vocabulary are as strong as ever.

PS: Feeling hopeless is a luxury that serves no one but those perpetrating the hopelessness. You can donate to ReliefAid’s Gaza Appeal, who are connected with teams on the ground in Gaza; you can donate to Convoys of Good, another registered NZ charity distributing aid in Palestine. You can also donate to mutual aid accounts or support the people fundraising via Emily Writes’ Tents 4 Gaza appeal to supply families with shelter. Don’t be afraid of the non-matching account name when you transfer to mutual aid accounts! As I’ve already mentioned, you can also demonstrate your control and power through the absence of your dollars. Boycott Zine Aotearoa has helpfully put together two comprehensive free zines so you can quickly see who to studiously avoid when buying food, drinks, household items and beauty products.