Triple ginger freezer biscuits - gluten and dairy free

This sticky dough is easy to handle if rolled in clingfilm and frozen.  Slice and bake a few biscuits at a time for a warm spicy aroma in the house on a cold winter day and a lovely crunchy treat.

Ingredients:

200g ground almonds
200g flour (40%urid, 40%tapioca, 20% brown rice)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove
1 tsp ground ginger (add more if wanted- this gives quite a mild ginger flavour)
100g sugar
120g dark brown muscovado sugar
75ml oil
2 eggs
20g grated fresh ginger
75g crystallised ginger, chopped
belgian waffle pearl sugar or sugar crystals for topping if wanted.  The pearl sugar keeps it shape, is crunchy but not too hard.

Oven 170C fan, ten minutes from frozen, seven or eight from room temperature mix.  Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving onto a baking rack.


Mix the dry ingredients together.  My muscovado sugar was a solid lump so I hacked off the right amount with a large knife and heated it in the microwave with the oil to get a slurry that was easy to mix into the flour.  If you do melt the brown sugar make sure the mixture is not too hot before you add it to the eggs - you don't want scrambled egg at this stage.

Mix liquid ingredients together and add to dry.  I used the food mixer for this as it was quite a lot of work to do by hand. Add in grated fresh ginger and chopped crystallised ginger and mix.

You can bake this in blobs on your lined baking sheet.  This amount of dough will make a lot of biscuits.  The dough holds its height when baked like this so flatten a bit with a damp spoon.

Alternatively lay on clingfilm in a log, wrap, put in freezer on a baking sheet until firm.  Once firm the baking sheet can be removed. There is a risk that the dough would sag around your freezer racks if you put it straight in unsupported and so get stuck in place.

When you want to bake some biscuits just slice off thin layers, sprinkle with sugar if you want to, and bake on a lined baking sheet.

double ginger biscuits- gluten, nut and dairy free

I based these crisp chewy biscuits on this recipe.  I didn't have any bicarbonate of soda and didn't want to use butter, and of course I was using my gf flour mix rather than wheat.  I also added chopped crystallised ginger for an extra bit of texture and flavour.

Ingredients
100g flour ((40%urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
2 tsp baking powder (twice as much as my usual for self raising- perhaps a bit much)
2 tsp ground ginger
75g sugar
30g crystallised ginger, chopped
1 overflowing tsp of golden syrup
1 egg
40ml oil
sugar crystals to sprinkle on top

Mix the dry ingredients together except for crystallised ginger
Mix egg and oil together
Mix dry and wet ingredients together thoroughly then add the syrup and ginger pieces.  Stir to mix.

Place dollops on baking sheets, lined with parchment paper. Leave plenty of room as they spread.  Sprinkle with sugar crystals if you have them.  Bake for about ten minutes at 175C fan.  Keep an eye on them and remove from the oven when they are a lovely golden colour - similar to the colour of the syrup.

Cool on a wire rack on the paper for a few minutes to begin to harden. They are too soft to take off the sheets immediately.  If you haven't used paper they will take longer to harden as the tin will hold the heat.

These biscuits are crisp and chewy, spicy and sweet.  My patient taster says they are among the best ginger biscuits he has ever tasted.

Boozy cranberry and lemon gluten free cookies

I bought a bottle of sherry for a visit from my brother-in-law but it turns out he only drinks one variety.  What to do with a bottle of sherry?  What to do with the diminishing but still present stash of dried cranberries?  What to do for the Writer's Group party this evening?  Boozy cranberry and lemon cookies seemed the thing to try.  I soaked the cranberries in sherry so that they were plump and juicy. As I had run out of eggs these are an egg-free cookie.  The result?  A crunchy cookie with succulent berries and a good bit of zing.

200g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
2 tsp baking powder
80g butter
115g sugar
juice 2 lemons
rind 1 lemon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
100g cranberries - soaked in alcohol (or juice) of choice

Mix dry ingredients including zest
rub in butter (or stir in soft margarine if used)
Stir in lemon juice and cranberries.  Add more juice if needed to make the dough hold together.

Place dollops on a baking sheet or roll between your palms for a smoother shape. Makes about 40 cookies.

Bake for about twelve minutes at 180C fan.  Let them cool slightly on the baking sheet or baking parchment to make them easier to handle before sliding them onto a cooling rack.  If you want them crisper put back in the oven at a lower temperature - the same way you would make biscotti.

Ginger chocolate swiss roll

My mother-in-law is coming for Christmas lunch.   She doesn't like Christmas pudding and she doesn't like pastry (I was feeling tempted by a spicy apple pie).  She does like ginger chocolates, so much so that they are her standard Christmas and birthday gifts from her grandchildren, and a mother's day gift from me.  She allows herself one a day, and these gifts last her most of the year.

So, desert.....seemed like a ginger Swiss roll coated in chocolate so that it looked like a chocolate log would be traditional, festive and a good flavour combination.  Only thing is I don't think I have made a Swiss roll since I gave up gluten.  I made a light gingery sponge using  this recipe from Woman and Home, unusually for me I didn't even look at any other recipes.

The recipe is very simple.  The cake is mostly air, so it probably isn't worth trying to make if you don't have a stand mixer, or else accept that it will be a little less fluffy.

Cake ingredients
3 eggs
125g sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger
125g flour

Filling ingredients
80g Butter
100g white chocolate
150g icing sugar
25g crystallised ginger
3tbsp ginger syrup from stem ginger jar (if you haven't got any just cook some fresh or crystallised ginger in a little water with sugar)


Icing ingredients
85g Butter
85g dark chocolate
150g icing sugar

Crystallised ginger shreds for the top if wanted

Mix the eggs and sugar until they are light and fluffy.  This only takes about a minute in a stand mixer, but the recipe says do it for ten minutes until the mixture holds its shape when you lift the beater.  I kept  stopping and testing and.....and it did get a bit stiffer but not like a plain meringue mix.  Put the machine on full pelt somewhere safe and go do something else if you can bear to.

Mix the flour and spices together.  I whisk the mix rather than sieve as it is less effort and seems to work well.  Gently fold the flour and spice mixture into the egg and sugar mixture.  Try not to deflate too much so don't beat the mixture.  When reasonably well mixed spoon carefully into the prepared cake tin, smooth into the corners - it is quite stiff and sticky so it won't fill the tin by itself.

Bake at 180C for about fifteen minutes until just beginning to brown and just firm to the touch.  Lay out a piece of baking parchment bigger then the cake, sprinkle with sugar, and turn the sponge cake out onto this.  Remove the lining paper. It is a bit awkward, but any cracking can be hidden by the icing.  Roll the cake up immediately using the baking paper to help tuck the cake in place smoothly.  Don't include the paper in the roll. Place the roll seam side down on a baking rack and leave it to cool completely.

When cold, unroll gently, spread on filling and re-roll.  Spread chocolate icing over the whole surface and decorate in whatever jolly fashion you choose.

Filling
Melt butter, add chocolate and stir to melt over low heat, chop the crystallised ginger into thin slices and add with other ingredients.  Spread on cake while the icing is still warm.  Re-roll cake, wrap paper around cake as you roll and leave to set.

Icing
Melt butter, add chocolate and stir to melt over low heat. Sieve icing sugar and stir into chocolate butter mixture.  Spread over Swiss roll.  Leave to set. Decorate if you want.


The photos were taken a bit too soon so the icing was still a bit liquid even though cold.


............

I found this cake a bit too sweet for my taste.  If I made it again I would add extra ginger to the cake mix and some plain cocoa to the final icing.  My taste tester thought it didn't need cocoa when tested before icing, but agreed it would be better when trying the finished cake.  This would be good served with ginger ice cream.

The original recipe had a creme fraiche filling and this would be both more tart and lighter than the butter cream icing.  If you can manage the dairy this would probably work better.

The sponge cake worked well, with some cracks in the top but it held together.

.......

After it had time to set properly the flavour had also matured so that the ginger in the cake and icing became more obvious- a very good cake that got compliments from the ginger-nut it was intended for.  It sliced cleanly and thin slices held together well.

Spiced pear and chicken salad

Pears are in season here in the UK at the moment.  Ginger goes well with pear and also with chicken, so I made a simple warm salad with these ingredients as the base.

For two people

I small chicken breast, cut into strips
1 firm pear, peeled, cored and cut into similar sized pieces
1 piece of fresh root ginger, about 1cm cubed, cut into small strips
1 red chilli, de-seeded if you want to moderate the heat, chopped
1 tsp soy sauce - I use Sanchi Tamari gf soy sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
2 tsp oil
little water - I used an espresso cup
Salad leaves

Heat the oil in a large pan/skillet.  Place the chicken strips carefully into the hot oil and start to brown them.  Add the pear strips and the rest of the ingredients except the water.  When chicken is cooked add the water to form a sauce, cook for a minute.

Cool slightly and then toss salad leaves in the sauce, placing chicken and pear on top.

Serve immediately.

Lemon, ginger and cranberry gluten free cookies

I woke up with a sore throat this morning.  Best cure I know for feeling a bit glum is to bake something scrumptious.  I have a stash of dried cranberries that need using, so had a quick look to see if I could find some crunchy cookies using these.  The first few recipes were oats with cranberries and didn't look that interesting.  Then I found these lemon ginger and cranberry cookies.  Lemon and ginger sounds like a cold remedy...so why not a cookie based on these.

The lemon flavour is the strongest when these cookies are freshly made.  I expect the ginger flavour will develop later - at the moment the ginger is just a lingering hint in the mouth after the cookie has been eaten. The cookie is crisp on the outside, slightly crumbly in the middle, and the juicy cranberries give a lovely contrast.  The whole house smells delicious - a bit of aromatherapy as well as the occupational therapy.

For people without a flour grinder, I recently asked the company I buy my urid lentils from whether their urid lentil flour still came with an advisory that it was milled in a factory that also handles wheat.  This no longer appears on the packaging so this should mean that they are safe for even those with extreme sensitivity.

The original recipe uses the creaming method.  I rarely plan ahead so don't have room temperature butter.  I rubbed in the butter to the flour by hand, but if you have a food processor just whizz until mixed into the dry ingredients.


200g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
2tsp baking powder (this is the mix I use as my standard self raising flour)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
80g sugar (add a bit more if you like extra sweet cookies)
80g butter
30g fresh ginger, grated
1 lemon, rind grated and juiced
2 eggs
100g dried cranberries

Set oven to 175C fan.  Line cookie sheets with baking parchment or use ungreased.

Mix all dry ingredients except the dried cranberries.  Mix in butter - rub in if cold, beat in if soft, or whizz in food processor.
Add in the eggs, beat, add in lemon juice and grated ginger.  Stir in dried cranberries.

Place on baking sheet in dollops.  I used two desert spoons for this, which gives  20 cookies about 7cm/3inches across.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges are browning.  If you like very crisp cookies you can bake for longer at a lower temperature.

These are really good cookies, and will be part of my standard repertoire from now on.

Best ever gluten-free ginger cake

I had all my embroidery chums visiting the other day and I know they are very fond of ginger cake.  I made one without following a recipe and decided it was disgusting.  A bit of research on the internet and I came across this review of ginger cake recipes from the Guardian.  I used the recipe Felicity Cloake recommended, just swapping my usual gf flour for the ordinary wheat flour.  My flour is a mixture of urid lentils (40%), tapioca (40%) and cornmeal (20%).

The cake was superb and the recipe demanded and made immediately.  This recipe is rich and complex.  The icing is ginger wine and icing sugar, which gives an easy but potent topping to this moist cake.  Choose a good brand of ginger wine as they do vary enormously.  I used Greens. The recipe suggested stem ginger to top the cake but I skipped this as I had forgotten to buy any.

Ingredients:

100g butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
175g self-raising flour (100g of my flour mix with 1tsp gf baking powder.  Flour is urid (40%) tapioca (40%) and fine cornmeal (20%)
4 tsp ground ginger (if you don't use ginger often buy some new as it does lose its punch)
175g golden syrup
3 tbsp ginger wine
2 free-range eggs, beaten
Walnut-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
150g candied ginger, finely chopped
75g icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and grease and line a 23cm loaf tin. 
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Sift together the flour and ground ginger. 
3. Pour in the golden syrup and 1 tbsp wine and mix to combine.
4. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, then gradually mix in the flour. Finally, stir through the fresh and candied ginger and spoon into the prepared tin. Level the top and bake for about 50–60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5. Allow to cool in the tin. It will tend to fall apart if you try to take it out when it is hot.
6. When it's completely cool, make the icing by mixing together the icing sugar and remaining ginger wine and drizzle over the top of the cake. 

This cake would probably be very good for several days but you probably won't get a chance to find out.

Triple Ginger Cake

This cake has a warm spicy flavour from its three types of ginger - fresh, crystallised and dried.  The flavour improves when the cake is kept for a few days, so it is great as a bake ahead treat.

This recipe is based on the Ginger Butter Cake in Williams-Sonoma "Essentials of baking" p 100.

Preheat oven to 170C (fan)
Line 2 small or one large loaf tin with baking parchment

Ingredients
140g crystallised ginger, minced
80ml Grand Marnier
250g gf flour (40%urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
185g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g icing sugar
1 tbsp golden or agave syrup
4 large eggs, at room temperature
Grated zest 1 orange
7.5cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
125 ml milk

Soak the minced crystallised ginger in a bowl with the Grand Marnier for at least ten minutes.

Sift together dry ingredients.

Combine butter, sugar and syrup and beat by hand or mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time. Add orange zest and grated ginger.  Stir in flour mixture, milk and crystallised ginger in Grand Marnier.

Spread batter into tins.  Bake until the cake is set when you insert a knife - about 40 minutes for small tins, 55 for the larger tin. If the cake is getting too brown while it still isn't cooked lower the heat.

Cool in the pan for five minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.  Cover with a damp towel if you want the outside to stay soft when it cools - otherwise you get a slightly crisp edge.

Dust with icing sugar if wanted.