gluten free lemon rosemary foccaccia

I got an email with recipe suggestions - most of these I ignore, but this one caught my eye.  Foccacia strewn with rosemary and slices of lemon.  They should be a specific type of lemon, not just old tired ones from the bottom of the fridge.  Comments on the original recipe were things like ' looking out of my kitchen window at the lemons on the tree....' but hey, any lemon is better than no lemon.

I have started keeping a batch of yeast dough in the fridge, so I can take scoops for pizza or flatbreads anytime.  It is so easy and produces good results.  I just mixed 500g of my flour (40%urid, 40% tapioca and 20% cornmeal) with two teaspoons of yeast which I mixed with about 600ml warm water and a pinch of sugar, stirring the whole load together once the yeast starts fermenting.  Easy blend yeast would be simpler - just stir into the flour and add water.

Keep this in a large lidded bowl in the fridge for up to a week.

Take a good scoop of the dough and spread on your baking tray.  I use my crepe pan for most of my flatbreads as I can crisp the bottom on the hob if I want to. If your baking tray isn't a good non-stick one I suggest spreading the dough on some baking parchment.

Topping
One lemon, sliced thinly and pips removed.
1 tsp olive oil - I used rosemary and chili infused oil
1/4 tsp sugar
pinch seasalt
tsp rosemary leaves

Spread the lemon slices on the dough, sprinkle remaining ingredients on top.  Let it sit for a little while if you have time for the dough to start rising a bit more.  Place in a cold oven, set to 180C, and bake for about twenty five minutes, until crisp and browning.  If you put it in a hot oven just reduce the time.

This is amazing, the heat and tartness and the zap of sweet give an astonishing flavour - but not, I suspect, if you aren't a lemon fan.  Those unfortunate people could eat the bits between the lemon slices.

Chocolate sorbet

I get given boxes of chocolates by my mother-in-law occasionally, but they always have wheat in.  Added to that the amount of dairy in chocolates is enough to cause me trouble.  I used to squeeze all the chocolates in a mixed box to find the ones that were firm (fortunately husband loves soft-centred chocolates) but mostly now I have just given up buying chocolates.

We have had about three hot days this summer, and thoughts turn to ice-cream.  I keep coming across people posting about chocolate sorbet.  This seemed a great way of having two types of treats at once.

This sorbet is very intense, and one small scoop is enough for me.  It would be great with raspberries or other soft fruit.

Ingredients
500ml water
125g cocoa
250g sugar
75g dark chocolate chips (this is a dairy free version)
1 tsp chilli (very mild warm sensation, add more for a bigger kick)
1 tsp cinnamon
10g coconut oil.  I have found this stuff works well to give a coconut flavour to curries so thought I would try it. I added this as I fancied a bounty bar (coconut coated in chocolate)  With this tiny amount I couldn't taste the coconut so next time will add more.  I should have split the batch in half and done two tests.
1/2 tsp 50% alcohol liqueur, more if lower strength.  Use whatever alcohol you like the flavour of with chocolate.  If you don't want to use alcohol just allow ten minutes after you get it out of the freezer for the sorbet to soften before attempting to scoop.  We have a hasty household.


Heat the water, sugar and cocoa powder together, stirring, until everything is smoothly mixed.  Allow to cool a little then add the chocolates, stir to melt.  Add the flavourings.  Strain through a sieve in case you have lumps of undissolved stuff.  Add the alcohol.

Leave to sit in the fridge for a few hours to make sure the flavours mature and the mixture cools properly.  Freeze in an ice-cream maker and store in the freezer.

Chili Pasty - gluten free

I had chilli leftover from yesterday.  I made pastry using half hard veg fat and half butter with my usual flour.  The pastry did tend to crack a bit when shaping the pasty but a quick repair of the holes worked fine.  The finished product was crisp and tender and delicious.  Good picnic food - you can tell where my thoughts are going now the sun is shining for longer!

Using half butter and kneading a little produced a more stable pastry than yesterday's made with all hard veg fat.