Have you or a family member been diagnosed with gluten intolerance or coeliac disease? Don’t despair. Help’s right here. You don’t have to sacrifice delicious food or use special flour blends and weird concoctions to simulate gluten.

Use the Good Food Diet’s gluten-free wellness recipes to make fabulous gluten-free food. Even those who are not gluten-intolerant will enjoy the recipes.

These gluten-free and dairy-free peanut butter cookies are really incredible.

There are many variations of this recipe. Here is my Good Food Diet version.

So easy: just mix five ingredients together and bake. In no time you’ll have yummy, crunchy peanut butter cookies to enjoy at coffee time or to pack into a lunchbox.

250 ml (1 cup) crunchy peanut butter

250 ml (1 cup) white sugar

1 extra-large egg, beaten with a fork

10 ml (2 tsp) cocoa powder

10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla

Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays (I use 28 x 38cm trays) with non-stick baking paper. Using a knife, mix all the ingredients thoroughly together until the mixture becomes thick enough to handle.

Make sure that the cocoa is mixed in thoroughly.

Roll into 40 little balls. Arrange 20 balls on a tray. Use tines of a cake fork to flatten balls slightly by pressing a crisscross pattern onto them.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Ensure that cookies don’t become too dark at the bottom. (I bake them in two batches of 20 at a time.)

Remove from oven. Cookies will still be soft and extremely fragile. Allow to cool on the trays for 10 minutes.

During this time the cookies will become much firmer. Then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool and harden completely. Store in an air-tight container.

Makes 40 peanut butter cookies.

• . For info about gluten-free and wellness cooking classes, contact Dalene (021 913 4457 or 082 562 9787). Visit www.conca.co.za.