Summer berry cobbler, gf, tapioca free and corn free

I've given up eating foods make with my new tapioca free flour blend as I think the buckwheat causes me gut ache.  However, I have a batch already ground and mixed to use up, so I have been continuing to test it with some of my usual recipes; others will have to eat them.  I'm planning to test my oreo-style cookies for when the grandchildren visit next week.

This fruit cobbler is one of our standard puddings -good with apples in the winter and raspberries in the summer, or any other of fruit you have handy.  This cobbler is made with cherries (still have a few morello cherries in the freezer from our trees last year), and frozen blueberries and raspberries from the store.  The combination of the lousy weather and the sprained ankle means I haven't been to any pick-your-own fruit farms this year.

Oven 175C fan

adjust the proportion of fruit to cake to your own taste

Ingredients
600g fruit
75g sugar (to your own taste and depends on the ripeness and type of fruit used)

175g flour (this is one third each buckwheat, urid and brown rice)
4tsp baking powder
75g sugar
75g butter or other fat suitable for baking
1 egg
150 ml milk - I used rice milk

Mix fruit with sugar and put in a dish with plenty of extra room.  Don't be tempted to squeeze it into a dish that doesn't leave plenty of head room as the fruit will bubble up past the cake in the oven and make a mess.

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar together.  Mix in butter by rubbing into the fat with your finger tips, or whizz in a food mixer.  Stir in egg and milk.  It should make a batter that is easy to dollop onto the fruit. Add more milk if needed, or if you want to increase the protein levels use an exra egg and less milk.

Spoon carefully onto the fruit.  Bake at 175 for about 45 minutes.

If the top is getting brown before the cake is cooked lower the heat.  You can test for doneness by sticking a knife in - you shouldn't see any gooey cake mixture.

If you put the batter onto frozen fruit the pudding will need longer for the cake next to the fruit to cook.

Serve hot or cold.  This pudding freezes well.

Cherry and beetroot cake

Cherry and Beetroot cake

I had left over roasted beets, bought from the local grocer, locally grown, young and tender.  I had the last of last year's bumper harvest of morello cherries to use up before this year's crop.  I wondered about combining them.

Putting cherry and beetroot into Google produced a spicy streusle cake by Dan Lepard.  I figured it was worth trying a simpler version of this to check out the basic flavour combination.

I used a large loaf tin lined with parchment.  Set the oven at 180C

150g morello (sour) cherries, drained
150 cooked beet, grated
150 butter, softened
150 sugar
150 flour - I used 75g almond, 75g my mix (40%urid, 40%tapioca,20%cornmeal)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Cream butter and sugar together.
Add eggs and beat.
Add flour and baking powder, beat.
Add cherries and beetroot, stir in gently.
Put into greased and lined tin and bake for about 45minutes until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Cherries and grated beetroot

This is a brightly coloured, moist cake. It would look amazing if you used the cherry juice to make bright pink icing.  it is soft and sweet, with only the occasional hint of beetroot; TT doesn't eat beetroot generally, except occasionally borscht, and he was happy to eat this.  If making it again I would add a bit more spice and some vanilla. or possibly a teaspoon of cocoa powder.  The texture is good, and it holds together well.

Mini Cherry Tarts and left-over pastry.

Two weeks ago I made pies and tarts for a gathering of my friends.  One portion of pastry has sat at the back of the fridge since then, forgotten.  I wondered what the pastry would be like so long after having made it.

I made  lots of mini cherry tarts, just pressing a pastry circle into a mini-muffin tin and filling with cooked morello cherries. Ten minutes at 180C and jewel bright little tarts popped out crisp and golden.

I think a week is a more reasonable time to keep this gluten free pastry (one part butter to two parts flour, flour 40% urid lentil, 40% tapioca and 20% cornmeal).  I had to wait for it to warm up, as this pastry is too stiff to roll when chilled.  It is worth knowing that this pastry keeps well in the uncooked state, which makes it possible to make in advance for a busy time.