Caramelised apricots and caramel frozen yogurt - lactose free

More adventures with my Channel Island yogurt where I pre-treated the milk with lactase.  This time a simple caramel frozen yogurt, made with a couple of tablespoons of soft brown sugar, cooked gently until it just began changing colour, a desert spoonful of Pineau des Charentes, picked up on a visit to some friends in western France, and a teaspoon of vanilla.  Let the caramel cool before adding the alcohol or it will evaporate, leaving a pleasant taste but not retaining its anti-freeze qualities.  Cool, mix with 500g yogurt and freeze in an ice-cream maker.

I bought some reasonable looking apricots but they were not as sumptuous as I wished - apricots really need to be picked ripe off the tree in the sunshine.  Cut each in half, sprinkle more of the brown sugar in wide pan and place the cut apricots on the sugar.  Cook gently on both sides.  The juice from the apricots will give the caramel sauce a lovely zingy flavour.

Serve with a scoop of the frozen yogurt and a little of the caramel drizzled over.

I only have white crockery - terrible for photographing very pale ice-cream!  I should have put this in a glass and photographed against a coloured background, but I ate my desert before I put the photos on the computer.  Tastes much better than it looks.

lactose-free caramlised banana frozen yogurt.

I buy channel island milk (made with the milk from Guernsy and Jersey cows) to make yogurt for my husband.  Properly made live yogurt has very small amounts of lactose, but even that is too much for me.  When I want a milk product I add lactase enzyme to the milk and leave it for twentyfour hours for the lactose to be converted to glucose. You can make this with bought lactose free yogurt, but it won't be as creamy.

This frozen yogurt is delicious and complex.

caramalised banana frozen yogurt

Ingredients
Main mixture

500g yogurt
2 bananas
small blob of butter or other cooking fat
50g sugar ( I used soft brown)
1tbsp of brandy/rum/vodka etc to make sure the frozen yogurt doesn't set too hard
1 tsp vanilla

Slice bananas and place in pan with butter on a medium heat.  Sprinkle sugar on top.  Cook until the sugar has melted and the bananas are soft.  Turn when they begin to get a hint of brown.  Don't wander off and forget this job.

Take off the heat when they smell of caramel.  Don't let it burn at all unless you like that bitter flavour.

When they have cooled a bit add the vanilla and alcohol. Don't put the alcohol in the mixture when it is hot or it will lose its anti-freeze properties and your frozen yogurt will be hard to scoop.

Cool.  When cold add to the yogurt and put in your icecream machine.  When it begins to go firm put in a plastic container and freeze until needed.

If you don't have an icecream machine you can make this by putting mix in a freezer tub that has spare room, freeze for half an hour, stir, repeat several times.  The sitrring reduces the chances of ending up with large ice crystals.

cooking banana with sugar

Swirl mixture
Repeat the caramalisation process with another banana and 15g of sugar.  When this mixture has cooled a bit add a small handful of chocolate chips - I used dark chocolate, and stir to melt.  Let this cool so that you can stir it into the yogurt when you put it into the tub.

Swirl the chocolatey banana mixture through the frozen yogurt before freezing.  You can leave this bit out, or skip the chocolate...it is up to you.

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.

GF seedy crispbread - urid, buckwheat and brown rice

Simple seedy crispbreads made with the new flour.  These crispbreads are made with a little yeast to encourage bubbles; I haven't run trials of different recipes with just plain flour, baking powder as the raising agent, or added oil.  I also don't know how long they will stay crisp.   A good shelf-life on crispbreads is useful so they can be a store cupboard staple.

150g flour (one third each urid lentils, brown rice and buckwheat)
5g poppy seed
5g linseed
10g sesame seed  (vary to taste)
c120ml water
1/4 tsp yeast

Mix yeast with water if needed.  Otherwise just mix all dry ingredients and then add the water.  You should have a firm but pliable dough.  Leave covered in a warm place for the yeast to begin to work.  I like a long slow fermentation for the flavour and digestive benefits, but I left these only a couple of hours.  The dough didn't rise much being so dry, just became a bit softer.

Roll out into whatever shape you want.  I made eight rough rounds about 12cm across. Place on ungreased baking sheets - I needed four to fit all the crispbreads on, but you could make a more space efficient set of crackers if you don't have four sheets handy.  Leave in a warm steamy place to rise a little.  They won't rise much as the dough is stiff and dry.  I put a small dish of hot water in the oven and close the door.

Bake at about 170C until just turning brown - 11 to 15 minutes.  The base of the crispbread that is in contact with the baking sheet will brown before the top.  Keep an eye on them so they don't burn especially if you have an uneven oven.  Put back into the oven if you think they need a bit more crispness.  You can do this anytime if they need crisping.

Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container.

Spicy Samphire and Chicken wraps

These wraps and succulent and spicy. The whole dish is made in a single frying pan so it would be good in a campervan or basic kitchen.  Serves two people with moderate appetites.

Wraps - I didn't weigh the flour or measure the water, I just took about about a cup of my new flour mix (1/3 each urid lentil, buckwheat and brown rice flours) and added water until I got a firm but not dry dough.  I rolled out six circles about the size of my frying pan - simply patting out with hands would have done but it is easier to get a thin wrap using a rolling pin.  I cooked these on both sides in a dry pan on a medium heat until they had little brown patches.  Keep them warm and soft in a clean tea towel until needed.

Chicken

I chicken breast, cut into six strips.  Marinade this for half an hour if possible before cooking.

Marinade

1 tsp gf soy sauce

2 tbsp  tomato and garlic pasta sauce (or 1 tbsp tomato paste and a tsp of oil if not available).

2 fat cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

fresh ginger, chopped finely - about a cubic cm

1 small chili, finely chopped

Cook the chicken strips on a medium heat in a little oil until browning and cooked through.  Be careful as the moisture in the marinade will mean the fat spits - I wear a long sleeved catering jacket when frying.  My pan was small so I had to do these in two batches.  Set aside on a covered plate to keep warm.

Wash and dry the samphire.  Cook this in the same pan, using all the left over marinade ingredients to coat the samphire.  

Place chicken and samphire on a wrap, roll and enjoy.  You could also add yogurt, mayonnaise, sour cream or avocado to add a creamy texture and moderate the spiciness.

new gf flour mix - pizza without corn or tapioca flours

More tests on a corn and tapioca-free flour mix made from a third each or urid lentil, buckwheat and brown rice flours.

Set oven to 175 and place baking tin into oven to get hot.

150g flour (1/3 each urid, buckwheat, rice)
1 tsp baking powder
water to produce damp dough

Mix ingredients together and then shape into circle on a sheet of baking parchment laid on a baking sheet. I just press the mix out to shape using my fingers  Cover with topping as desired.  I use a rich tomato and herb sauce, often with some chilli.  One my side I used sliced avocado (I am lactose intolerant so don't use cheese) grilled peppers..anything that I fancy.  The other side has mozzarella and pepperoni on.  As I am no longer a vegetarian we just have half the pizza each - otherwise make two small ones to solve the same problem.  And yes, sorry, it does have fresh pineapple on too.

Slide the pizza on its baking parchment onto the hot tin.  This process, though a bit awkward, means that the base is well cooked by the time the toppings have cooked and saves that dreary floppy bottom problem.

Cook for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted and crust golden.

The crust behaved well, and was possible to pick up as a slice if you like to eat it by hand.  I thought it a little less crisp than my usual pizza base, but my husband said he slightly preferred it.  A bit of millet would crisp it up if wanted.

Piecrust; New gluten free flour mix - tapioca free

I have been trying my first attempt at a tapioca and corn free gluten-free flour.  The one I am using at the moment is one third each of urid lentil, brown rice and buckwheat.  It makes good pancakes, but they are very easy with almost any flour.  Pastry is more of a challenge, and I wasn't expecting much from this mixture - I thought it might not hold together and it might not be crisp, or it might taste so strongly of the buckwheat that it would affect the flavour of the fruit filling.

I made a tiny amount of pastry to test, just using the scrap of butter I had to hand.  It made enough for two small pastries, made in a cupcake tin.  One was double crusted, the other open.  The filling was some frozen gooseberries, defrosted and mixed with sugar,

30g butter
60g flour mix (1/3 each urid, buckwheat, brown rice)

Cut butter and flour together then add chilled water to make quite a damp dough.  I thought I had added too much water to start with but after a little further mixing the dough became well behaved.  I didn't even leave it to rest before rolling.  I took slightly more care lifting the rolled dough than my usual recipe, but in general it was well behaved.  It kept its shape well in baking and when cooling, not shrinking away from the tin or the joins.

The piecrust was delicious, crisp and light and suitably complemented by  the tart sweet filling.

For those of you not used to English gooseberries who are shocked by the sight of prickles on the fruit in the first little pie - don't worry, they go soft and so aren't noticeable when eating.