Spiced plum cobbler

This cobbler has a light cake topping and a rich syrupy spiced plum base.

Ingredients
600g plums, chopped
4tbsp sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
rind and juice of small orange

topping
100g self raising flour (40%urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal and 1tsp baking powder to 100g flour)
50g cold butter
50g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
rice or other milk to produce soft dropping batter


Cook the plum mixture until the plums are beginning to soften.  Place in either one medium pie dish or two smaller ones (I like to make two so I can freeze one).

Cut the cold butter into small pieces, toss in the flour, then rub together, either with your fingers or a quick whizz in a food processor.  Stir in the sugar and spice, then the egg and milk.

Carefully spoon the cake mixture on top of the fruit.  Cook in a medium oven (175C fan) for 25-30 minutes until the top begins to brown and the cake is cooked all the way through.

This easy pudding can be made with any variety of fruit.

gluten free spiced apple, cranberry and blueberry cake

This cake is sweet and tart with just a hint of spice.  It has plenty of fruit but isn't a solid wodge of dried fruit like some cakes of the wedding/christmas cake variety.

Many of my recipes happen in a slightly random way, driven by things that need using up.  Today I found I had seven small apples from a batch that hadn't been as crisp as expected, and were beginning to look a bit sorry for themselves, a large mandarin orange that had lost its gloss, and a husband that keeps wanting lunch early as there is no cake to go with his mid-morning coffee.

A large fruit cake seemed the obvious way to solve all of these problems.  I had already cooked the apples, chopped but not peeled, in with the orange juice and zest, before I decided to make the cake.  You wouldnt need to cook them first if you prefer the apple to stay in chunks in the finished cake.

Set oven at 170C fan
Grease and line two large cake tins.  I used a long pullman loaf tin (the lid is handy if the top starts to get too brown) which has a capacity of 3.5l and an ordinary one pound loaf tin (750ml) to fit all the mixture in.  I like to make a small cake for immediate eating and a larger one to mature, though having two different sizes means you have to keep an eye on how cooked they are as they will need different times.

Ingredients
500g cooked/chopped apples
juice and zest one small orange
500g dried blueberries
500g dried cranberries
8 eggs
300g soft brown sugar
250g soft butter (I keep mine in the freezer, so just zapped it on medium heat in the microwave - not so good for the precise temperatures needed for creaming, but fine for just mixing in)
400g flour
5 tsp baking powder
4tsp mixed spice

The flour used in this was 300g of my current flour mix(1/3 each urid lentil, brown rice and buckwheat) and an extra 100g urid lentil flour.  I ran out of flour and didn't want to make a fresh batch - so considering how much fruit there was in this cake just added extra urid as it will help hold it together.  I am sure 400g of the standard mix would have been fine.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and spice together.  Mix all the other ingredients together.  Stir together.  Put mix in greased lined tins and bake.

The smaller cake took an hour to cook.  Test with a  skewer or fine knife.  I use a knife even though I get a bigger hole as I find it easier to see the cake residue.  I turned the heat down to 150C and cooked the larger cake for a further half an hour.

Cool on a rack.

Good immediately; will keep well.

Gluten free muesli

You may have noticed that my favorite muesli (Eat Natural) is no longer available in my local shop.  Having looked at the ingredients for the blog where I reviewed the ASDA gf muesli I decided to make my own muesli.  Afterall, I used to make my own granola regularly until I gave up eating oats.

Ingredients
wholegrain puffed rice (Kallo)  225g
whole almonds, chopped  100g
sunflower seeds 60g
pumpkin seeds 60g
raisins 60g
apricots 100g  (used the sulphited ones for a bit of bright orange zing)
cranberries 75g
blueberries  75g
agave syrup 1 tbsp (a good squirt)

I mixed the seeds and nuts with the agave syrup and toasted them in a medium oven until they were just faintly tinted brown.  I mixed these while hot with the rice and fruit and left to cool before storing in an airtight container.

chop the nuts to a size you like in your muesli

dried fruit - chop to suit your taste

toast the nuts and seeds in the syrup

All measurements can be approximate - just grab handfuls of your favorite nuts, seeds and dried fruit and mix them into your puffed rice or  buckwheat or whatever you like the flavour and texture of.  Toasting the seeds and nuts with a little syrup makes them much more enticing for people who aren't too keen on a daily portion of the pumpkin and sunflower seeds which are so rich in good fats.

a bright and tasty muesli - and very easy

This muesli does not taste like sawdust.  Using whole toasted rice avoids that pasty sludge that muesli can turn into if you use flakes.

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We may not have enjoyed the muesli but this fox seemed to like it!