Prune and almond chewy high-fibre high-protein cookies

These cookies are chewy and chocolaty. Cook them for less time for a softer chewy cookie, or leave in at a lower temperature for longer for a firm cookie.  I rolled them out and cut shaped cookies, but you can just make blobs and press them flat with your fingers, or cut them into bars.  They hold their shape well, are quiet to eat, and don't make crumbs, making them ideal to tuck into your bag for a trip. Increase the cocoa of you want a more chocolaty flavour - this is just enough to give a warm hint.  I haven't tried it but I am pretty sure you could skip the egg without much effect if you need egg-free recipes.

Ingredients
250g dried prunes
100 ml oil
1 egg
200g ground almonds
75g urid lentil flour
20g cocoa
40g ground flax seed
200g sugar
1 tsp mixed spice

Blitz the prunes in a blender with the oil and egg to make a paste.  Scrape into a bowl and mix in all the other ingredients.  The dough will be firm but malleable; I mixed this with my hands but if you have a food mixer use the dough hook to save effort.

Either take small blobs and press onto a lined cookie tray, roll into a log, chill and then slice into cookies, or roll out using more urid or other flour to stop sticking and cut into shapes.

Bake at 175C fan for six to eight minutes depending on how thick your cookies are and how chewy you want them.  You can always put them back in to the oven for further baking if they are too soft when they cool.

Slide the cookies on their lining paper onto a cooling rack and let them cool for a minute before trying to move the onto the cooling rack.  Stiffening slightly makes them easier to move.

This amount of dough made about 70 small cookies.

Banana butternut and choc chip muffins

The grocers were selling bags of over-ripe bananas today, so I set out to make some muffins.  I had a large butternut squash in the fridge and no dried fruit so I used the squash as part of the sweetener for the mixture.  I did add a little sugar as the bananas were not as ripe as I had hoped and I had only cooked the squash in the microwave so the sweetness didn't develop the way it does when it is roasted.

These are quite dense muffins.  I use them as handbag food so I like a nutritious non-messy muffin that can be eaten discretely and will keep me from feeling hungry for several hours.  If you want this lighter add some water or fruit juice to make the batter thinner.

Makes 18 muffins
Oven at 175C

Ingredients
400g over-ripe bananas (4 medium)
350 cooked butternut squash ( peel, chop, ten minutes in microwave)
350g flour (40%urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
6 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp cocoa
100g ground almonds
150ml oil
50g sugar or other sweetener
100g chocolate chips (I used dark to avoid the dairy)

30g sugar crystals plus 1/4 tsp mixed spice for topping

Smash the bananas and squash.
Mix the flour, baking powder and spices including cocoa together, whisk to ensure thoroughly mixed
Mix in almonds
Add oil, eggs and sugar to banana and squash mixture, stir well
Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir thoroughly
Spoon into muffin cases

Sprinkle top with spiced sugar crystals if using.  Do this just before putting in the oven so that they don't dissolve before being cooked.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes if large, 17 for cupcake size

Cool on a wire rack. If you leave them in the tin you will get soggy bottoms.

These freeze very well.  Slip one in your bag in the morning, wrapped in plastic, and it will be defrosted for your mid-morning break.  They will keep for a few days in an airtight container.

If you can't eat nuts swap the ground almonds for more flour or just leave out for a lighter muffin.

Marks and Spencer Truly Chocolate Belgian chocolate trufle torte- gluten free and delicious

Wow!  These little flourless puddings are amazing.  Heated for 40 seconds in the microwave you get a smooth intense chocolate pudding.  One between two people looks stingy but is enough.

Food photography is difficult at the best of times, but I simply couldn't take a shot of this that looked anything but weird.

These puddings were in the chilled section at Marks and Spencer, and actually have an orange 'gluten free' logo on the front as well as the helpful allergen box at the back.  Excellent as an indulgent treat or a desert for  dinner party.

You can eat them cold too.

Contain cows milk, eggs and soya.  Not suitable for those allergic to nuts due to manufacturing process.

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.

Heidi Parker and Danai Gabre's wedding

Cakes delivered to the wedding venue on a morning of rain and thunder.  Went back to the church a couple of hours before the ceremony, and I donned my bakers hat, blue disposable catering gloves and my apron.  I didn't check that my mother had managed to take a photo with my camera...so no photo of this funny garb available.

The purple cupcakes towered high and spread around the stand.  Even in the gloom the purple shows up well, but the topping didn't sparkle as much as I hoped.They were at the back of the church, with coffee and other drinks being provided for the end of the service while the formal photos were being taken.

The top cake was moved to the dining area to be the cutting cake late in the evening, rather than perch it on top and move it later.

The groom looked calm and elegant, waiting for the bride.  As she approached the door, seen through the glass windows, I, as the true psychologist I am, turned to watch the groom catching his first sight of her and he looked close to tears, which, manfully, were controlled.  Heidi always looks lovely, but in her simple gown and off the face veiling trimmed with diamante she looked stunning.  Three jolly flower girls and three elegant bridesmaids - it would be hard to imagine a prettier sight.

The service was conducted by the groom's father, seen here with Heidi and Danai as they turn to be greeted as a married couple.

Of course I wasn't the only one that made use of this photo opportunity.

I kept a close eye out to see if the cakes were considered ok.  I once got told of a cupcake tower for a wedding where all over the place were pretty cupcakes with just a bite out of them.  No sign of any of that at all, I am please to say, and I finally tried one myself and thought they were delicious. I didn't get many good shots of people munching as the light levels were low and my camera is large and therefore difficult to get surreptitious photos with.  I did like this one of the stack being built.

You can also see that my mother wasn't completely fed up of chocolate cake after spending the previous three days with me in cake mode.

Even with cupcakes and a mulit-cultural dressing up booth the gap between wedding and meal feels very long for some.

There were some formal photos taken in a break in the rain near the church, and then more in a garden elsewhere.

The grass was wet and soggy and high heels were a menace.  Plenty of shots of bridesmaids barefooted, skirts hoisted.

I got included in one shot - so asked for my camera to be used.  About to include the one where I was looking the right direction but it has vanished completely, so here I am, tacked onto the nd of the row.  I was paying attention. My purple flower was excellent and went with the cupcakes beautifully, but hats are clearly not normal garb at this sort of scanidnavian/mulitcultural event.

 I have some charming movie of a bubble and confetti welcome back from this which I will extract some still photos later.

I took my own meal, even though the food was almost all gluten free and the two items that weren'te were clearly designated.  This was suitable for Heidi, and also another aunt of hers, her mother's sister, who says she even shares a wheat bread toaster.  I could tell I was getting a bit contaminated even with being scrupulous, and took four glutenzymes over the course of the event to keep the discomfort down. I left about nine, with lots more acting, singing, dancing etc to go. Had a leg cramp in the night but otherwise ok.

Back home, greeted by the sight of an empty dresser.

The first Swedish gf chocolate cake - testing the oven

I've scrubbed the oven, after figuring out how to release the child lock, and found all the ingredients and utensils I brought.  Mixed a single egg's worth of the cake mix and cooked it in the small round cake tin that will be used to make the cutting cake.

I had set the oven to 175 C and kept being puzzled by the way it didn't feel very warm when I opened the door.  Didn't think to bring an oven thermometer. Half way through cooking the cake I realised that I have used a fan oven for more than two decades and so I am used to the gust of warm air that is released everytime I open the door.

25 minutes set on my phone, as there doesn't appear to be a timer.  Not having the fan seems to mean the smell of the cake isn't as obvious.  I would normally expect to be able to tell how cooked the cake is from the smell even without opening the oven.

While this was cooking I got on with washing up (can't find the detergent for the dish washer) and continuing my hunt for the cooling racks.  There must be some as there are lots of baking tins.  Shall I disturb the owner on her holiday?  Seems a bit minor.  I turnout this little cake on a daisy shaped trivet, not ideal, but will do for this cake.

Next problem will be testing it.  I washed the mixing bowls and used my own sieve, spoons and measuring jug.  However, all the mixing bowls are plastic, so washing them won't necessarily remove all the gluten.  Normally someone going gluten free would be advised to change all wooden spoons and plastic tubs, chopping boards and all other things with these type of surfaces. I might just cut the cake to see how it looks, and rely on others to say if it tastes ok - though no one else is as fierce a critic as I am.

I've used a large number of tea towels and scrubbing cloths since I arrived four or five hours ago.  I washed them and hung them on the line outside.  Unfortunately most of the clothes pegs fall apart when I try to use them....I wonder if there is a shop within walking distance that sells cooling racks, metal or glass mixing bowls, dishwasher detergent and clothes pegs - oh, and hand cream, even with rubber gloves on my hands are already showing signs of all the manual labour.  Next job, learn what the Swedish words to avoid on ingredients lists are!

Sweden - the arrival

There is much to recommend travelling with someone who needs the assistance of a wheelchair at airports.  You get whisked past whatever queues there are as porters cant afford to hang around in queues when they are needed again for the next person.  The system at both Heathrow and Landvetter was efficient and courteous, and at the arrival airport we had the wheelchair pushed all the way to the car.  The groom's grandparents picked up up and were waiting with a big sign at the arrivals point even though we had a tail wind and arrived nearly half an hour early.  A quick stop to get some groceries so that we would not have to go trudging around, got to the house and settled in.  The flat is lovely, spacious, with a good kitchen, much better, of course than mine at home as it is proper kitchen (not a small line of worktops and equipment squeezed along the edge of the living room).  The oven is large - I need to to do a sample batch of the cupcakes to test how it works.

The groom's mother had done my bulk shopping for me.  I was a bit surprised to find what felt like a bag of flour in with the eggs, oil, butter and sugar..maybe she thought I just forgot to request some....but of course I have no idea what the words mean.  I have connected to the wifi so will attempt to figure this out later, but for the moment the rogue package has been put into the flt owners pantry.

I have started washing the kitchen.  It is clean, but clean for people who eat bread and those who can't mean two different things.  I probably shouldn't have climbed on a stool to clean the extractor fan chimney as I can't reach to the top and the swooping angle of my cleaning cloth is quite visible about ten cm from the ceiling.

The strawberries are the best I have tasted.  Bought in a punnet from an ordinary supermarket they taste as if you were standing in a field in the sun and had just picked one - and then add extra flavour even if you have chosen a good variety.  Forget Elsanta, these were amazing.   Lunching on strawberries seems good enough for me, but I do need to do proper meals too.  My mother has agreed to be gf while here so that I am safe; in return it seems reasonable to make something moderately tasty and at normal times of the day - though what normal is when we have been up since three this morning I am not sure.

I unpacked my large red suitcase - which, contrary to the many merry comments on the trouble I would get from customs, caused no trouble at all.  One of the cupcake stand layers has a crack but it shouldn't compromise its operation this weekend.  Unfortunately most of the stuff has to go home with me again - I brought four cupcake tins, a rolling pin for icing...I didn't bring any cooling racks so will have to hunt for some of those.  I figured it must be possible to buy some cheap ones here if necessary; if my host hasn't any (she said to use anything in the kitchen) then I can leave them here for her. There is a fridge magnet which states "cooking by appointment only" so there may not be stuff I would expect to find in a baker's kitchen.

It is very hot here - about 30C, and there is a garden, so I think a little sitting outside with a book is probably the next step.  If it rains usually I might as well enjoy the sun for a bit.  Next challenge is to figure out how to make the shower work, twisting everything obvious hasn't produced any water...

almost instant (very easy) gluten and dairy free chocolate cupcakes

I am getting ready to pack all the ingredients for my niece's wedding cupcake tower in Sweden.  A last quick check today to be sure I know how much cake mix made how many cupcakes so I can scale up for 150 cupcakes and a top cake.  So, a one egg batch, some medium cupcake cases...and ten chocolate cupcakes.

Ingredients
75g flour ( 40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% fine cornmeal)
100g sugar
20g cocoa
3/4tsp baking powder
30ml vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
70ml water
1egg

Pre-heat oven to 175C
Prepare cupcake cases in pan.

Mix the dry ingredients together.  I sieve the mixture after mixing to make sure I get rid of the clumps of cocoa powder.

Mix the egg, water and oil together.

Stir the wet and dry ingredients together. The batter will be very sloppy.

Divide mixture between ten medium cupcake cases and bake for fifteen minutes at 175C fan.

Remove from tin and cool on baking rack.  If you leave them in the tin to cool the paper cases will be soggy.

Ice/frost if wanted. These have quite a slow sweet flavour so do work well with the extra sweetness of a topping.

oreo-style chocolate cookies with white chocolate filling, gluten, corn and tapioca free

Flour mix two, made from a third each of urid, buckwheat and brown rice flours, continues to be a reliable mix for many baked goods.  Here I made a quick batch of oreo-style chocolate cookies for the grandchildren.  These cookies are a little intense by themselves but the frosting balances them well. If you don't want to eat these with the frosting filling you might want to add a bit more butter and cut the cocoa a little.  (The eight year old didn't eat hers. Tortilla chips filled the gap.  This flour mix obviously produces a more bitter result than my usual flour mix.  Cut the cocoa down to 30g unless you want a super intense chocolate cookie.  I was told they would be good with vanilla ice cream)

Ingredients
100g flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g cocoa
100g sugar
40g butter
2 eggs (use only part if necessary)

Filling
50g white chocolate
25g butter
50g icing sugar


Oven 175C fan
2 lined baking sheets

Mix all the cookie dry ingredients together and rub in flour or blitz in a food processor.  Stir in egg until you get a manageable dough.  If you don't mind the cookies being more rough shaped just tip the egg in and spoon the resulting mix onto lined baking sheets.  I did the latter as I was in a hurry, and just tapped errant dough into place with a damp finger.

Cook for 12 minutes in a 175C Fan oven.  This mix will be ok left before baking, or frozen for future use.

Cool on baking sheet.  Don't take the cookies off the baking parchment or tray until they cool slightly as they will tend to go out of shape. I tend to slide my liner onto the cooling rack so I can reuse my baking sheet, and this speeds  up both the cooling and baking.

To make the filling, melt the butter and chocolate together.  I use a microwave on medium heat for two minutes, stirred half way through.  You can use a double boiler.  Just stop before the chocolate is fully melted to allow residual heat to finish the job, or you might over cook the chocolate and spoil the texture.

Mix in the icing sugar.  Don't put all of it in at first.  You want a firm easy to handle wodge of frosting, but not so dry that it cracks.

When biscuits are cool either use a knife to coat the cookies with frosting or, if, like me, you made the frosting too stiff, just make a disc of frosting in your hands and press it onto the cookie.

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.

Hazelnut and chocolate chip cookies

Spotted that the hazelnut packet said high in iron (though not as high as almonds when I check)...rather eat hazelnuts than pigeon, so into the shopping trolley they went.  There are no cookies of any description in the house and I am expecting guests tomorrow, so the first thing to do is make some cookies using whole hazelnuts for crunch and hazelnut flour, blitzing the hazelnuts in the blender.

100g flour (40%urid lentil, 40% tapioca, 20% corn)
65g butter
75g sugar
50g hazelnuts blitzed to flour
50g whole or lightly chopped hazelnuts
50g chocolate chips ( I used dark, soften flavour if wanted with milk or white chocolate)
c 1tbsp water with a couple of drops of vanilla essence

Cut butter in to flour, stir in sugar and blitzed hazelnuts, stir in chocolate chips and whole hazelnuts.  Add cold water/ vanilla mix a little at a time until you get a dough that holds together.  If you leave this to sit for at least fifteen minutes for the flour to absorb the water it makes it a little easier to handle.  If it is a bit too gooey you can firm it up with a bit more flour or by cooling in the fridge.

I made some of these into log shaped cookies, which keeps the hazelnuts whole.  I put the rest of the mix away in the fridge, and the next morning sliced the now very firm log of cookie dough into discs. Slicing the cookies cuts the hazelnuts, so you end up with a pretty cookie with little discs of hazelnut and chocolate.

Cook on ungreased baking sheet or baking parchment in a fan oven at about 170C.  Cooke for about ten minutes until they are tinged with brown.  Cook longer at a lower heat for a crisper cookie.

Made about ten cookies.

After I made these I looked up recipes on the Internet - they all said that the papery brown skin around the nut was bitter and needed removing before cooking (toast in oven and rub skin off, then separate nut from debris).  I also used bitter chocolate.  I like bitter flavours, but wondered if they would be too bitter for my guests, but even the nine year old thought they were scrummy.

Chocolate chip cookies - new flour mix

I am trying a new flour mix - not using tapioca or cornmeal.  This mix is urid lentil flour, buckwheat and brown rice.  The true test of its versatility will be if I can make good pastry, but to start with I have made pancakes (as we have these for breakfast every day) and cookies for a writing group my husband goes to.

I have started trying out recipes without tapioca as my step-daughter seems to be unable to tolerate tapioca (she isn't gf).  I know some people can't tolerate corn either, and many gf goods have both of these in.  So, here is an attempt to make a flour with ingredients I can grind at home if I want to, which increases my chances of getting a gf flour as often flours are milled in factories which handle wheat.

This recipe is made with a flour made from 150g urid, 75g buckwheat and 75g brown rice flour.  It produces quite a sticky batter so washing up takes a bit more effort.  It is best to rinse with cold water before the batter has had a chance to set.

Chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients
100g flour plus
1/2 tsp baking powder (whisk together)

100g sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
60g butter (room temp - I softened in a low microwave)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

100g chocolate chips (I used Callebaut Belgian 70.4% dark choc chips)

Method
Set oven to 175C


Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth and light.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until evenly mixed.  Stir in flour and baking powder mix.   The batter will be quite thick, too thick to drop off the spoon but too gooey to roll.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Place on baking sheets - I use silicon sheets or baking parchment to make sure nothing sticks.

I made small cookies with about a heaped teaspoon of mixture.  Leave some room for the cookies to spread as they cook.

This mixture made 26 cookies about 2.5 inches/6cm across when cooked.

Cook until just brown at the edges and golden on the top.

These cookies are light and crisp on the outside and soft and slightly chewy in the centre.  Tapioca in the mix would have given a chewy texture.  They held together very well, with no hint of powderiness.  I need to keep some for a few days to see if the rice in the mix produces a gritty texture as they age.

The contrast of the sweet cookie with the bitter chocolate chips makes a very interesting cookie.  If you want something for kids go for a sweeter chocolate chip.

Excellent cookies, easy to make, easy to eat.

chocolate chip cookies - gluten and dairy free

I made chocolate chip cookies for a writing group based on a recipe by Anthony Worrel Thompson.  I kept them dairy free as well as gluten free.  Simply substituting my flour for ordinary flour and soft vegetable margarine for butter led to a crisp flat cookie with no chewiness, so it needs a bit more flour.  It also meant that the mixture was of soft dropping consistency rather than one that could be rolled out.  Part way through the batch I added ground almonds to make a firmer batter and stirred in some flaked almonds.  This made the cookie thicker, crisp and chewy.   I also added a teaspoon of coffee granules as Ina Garten says adding coffee to chocolate recipes makes them taste chocolatier..thought it worth a try.  Note I have listed both flour options - pick one.

This recipe made 65 mid-sized cookies.

400g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
or   350g flour (ditto), 50g ground almonds, 25g flaked almonds
1 tsp bicarb of soda
225g dairy free baking margarine
175g caster sugar
175g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
35g chocolate chips ( I used Callebaut 53.8% cocoa solids - these say 'may contain milk', so not suitable for those with extreme milk allergy, but ok for lactose intolerant))
1 tsp instant coffee

Mix flours and baking soda - whisk or sieve together
Cream margarine and sugars together, then add eggs and coffee granules.  Mix to a smooth batter.  Stir in chocolate chips and flaked almonds if using.

Place on lined tins and bake at 170C for about ten minutes, until tinged golden.  Only put about five on a tray at a time as they spread a lot.  Cool for a few minutes before attempting to move them so that they harden a little and the chocolate is less runny.  I find that it is easier if I move the lining paper/silicon sheet onto the cooling rack while I dollop out more cookie dough onto the sheet.

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super delicious lactose free hot chocolate

Ingredients: Kara coconut milk, Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate and Fabbri Vanilla Syrup

I used to enjoy hot chocolate occasionally, but always felt lumpen after drinking it.  Since I went completely gluten free I have discovered that I am quite severely lactose intolerant (the symptoms had been disguised by the even worse reaction to gluten) so haven't had a hot chocolate for ages.  Tonight is cold and I spent the afternoon at an animation model-making workshop in a chilly semi-outdoor space.  I needed warming up.

Sometime ago I bought some coconut milk in a carton, but hadn't tried it yet.  I like coconut and chocolate together so decided to try this as a base for a hot chocolate drink.  A mug full of this in a saucepan, a handful of dark chocolate chips (the ones I use for making brownies) and a glug of syrup usually used in coffee.  Heat while stirring until the chocolate is melted and the drink the temperature you want it to be.   Add the vanilla syrup to taste.  Excellent, safe,  and very little effort.

Best ever easy gluten free chocolate cake

For thirty years our standard family celebration cake was a giant devils food cake from the Cordon Bleu series of cook books.  I used to make multiple tiers in my fifteen inch pizza tins - think of the immense chocolate cake in the movie Matilda.  My copy of the book is annotated with notes on how many times to multiply the recipe to feed sixty, how many times the recipe can be increased before the batter won't fit in the food mixer, and spattered with lots of bits of chocolaty dough (now, of course, a hazard).

I realised I hadn't written up this recipe on the blog.  I looked for it today for another family party tomorrow. Our books are all in heaps as we have had builders doing some repairs to the library walls - a sudden panic when I thought I wouldn't be able to track the recipe down.

2x 8 inch / 20cm cake tins.  Ideally these should have loose bottoms to make turning out easy. Grease tins and line base with non-stick baking paper.

Set oven to 170C / 160C fan


Ingredients
175g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
25g ground almond (optional, helps with richness and keeping)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
285 g sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
125 soft baking margarine (or softened butter)
210ml water
60g cocoa

Method
Sift/whisk flours, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together
Beat sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy
Mix cocoa and water together
Add eggs to sugar mixture, beating well
Add cocoa mixture and flour to sugar/egg mixture - add a bit of one, mix well, then a bit of the other, and so on until all incorporated
Beat until even texture and colour

Pour into prepared tins.  Bake for about thirty minutes at 170C/160C fan.  When baked, turn out onto cooling racks and remove the lining paper from the base.  Leave to cool completely before icing.

Many icings will be good with this.  I usually make a partially cooked one I invented because I was too lazy to spend time beating butter and icing sugar together.  It sets well to a soft fudgy texture, making the cake a little tidier to eat than a normal butter cream.

Icing Ingredients
75g butter
50ml water
30g cocoa
450g icing sugar

Icing method
Melt butter with water in a saucepan
sieve icing sugar and cocoa.  Add to water/butter mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed.  Sandwich cakes together with some of the icing and then use the rest to cover the top and sides.  If you like a fugdy look to the icing let it cool slightly before putting on the top of the cake.  For a glossy finish make sure the icing is hot and pour it on the cake.  If it seems too thick to do this easily add a little water to the icing.

trying to buy a treat - what's wrong with sorbet and chocolate?

I stopped at the National Trust cafe in Boscastle for a coffee and treat.  The man who runs is is passionate about quality, though his expertise is coffee.  The coffee was very good - flavoursome with none of that bitter or sour tang so often encountered.

They had mini tubs of melon sorbet, and I thought that would be lovely - started hunting for the spoon hidden in the lid and noticed, in tiny writing, that it had wheat in!  Took it back to the counter for a swap, didn't want the brownie as it had xanthum gum, nor the lemon drizzle cake (available individually packaged) or the Mrs Crimble coconut thing.

Little bars of gf organic luxury chocolate - that would do.  Hadn't had any chocolate for ages and I like that with coffee.  I bought a Nero & Bianco orange chocolate bar.

I unwrapped it, took a bite, and was completely astounded.  TT tried some too.  I took it to the chef and insisted he try some.  It didn't taste of chocolate at all and the closest I can think of as a description of the texture is plasticine.  You might be able to see from the bite marks on the chocolate that is has a gooey texture.

Biscotti - gluten free. Double orange and orange and chocolate

chocolate orange biscotti (cup by local potter)

I regularly make biscotti but as they keep so well I realised I hadn't tried my standard flour mix with them - I used to make it with a mix of ground almonds, urid lentils and tapioca.  So, today, pouring with rain outside and nothing else that must be done...two biscotti recipes. I am going to follow the English habit of referring to 'biscotti' as both singular and plural - in effect as if it is a biscuit name.  Any Italians, sorry.

I base my biscotti on the biscotti alla mandorle from the River Cafe Cook Book Green, by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, just swapping the flours, and adding anything else that pleases me to adjust the flavour.

Ingredients
150g whole blanched almonds, coarsely chopped
100g pine kernels
1 tsp vanilla
250g caster sugar
250g flour ( 40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
finely grated zest 2 oranges

For recipe 1 I added 100g of crystallised orange peel I made last winter.  I just chopped this coarsely and added it with the chopped almonds.

For recipe 2 I added 100g of plain chocolate drops.  I use Callebaut Belgian chocolate.  I buy it in 2.5kg bags from my local trade store, and always have the white, milk, 54% and 70.4% chocolate drops in stock. I know, that makes a lot of chocolate to keep, but it is very easy to cook with and tastes very good.



Instructions

Heat oven to 180C fan

Chop the almonds coarsely and toast for a few minutes in the oven with the pine kernels to a toasty golden.  Watch out you don't let them burn, and tip them onto a cool dish when you take them out of the oven or they may overcook from the residual heat  in the tin.  Let them cool.  If you forget to do them first you can speed up the cooling by putting them in a large metal bowl in a tub of iced water.

Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder together.   Mix the wet ingredients (including zest) and add to the dry ingredients.  You will have to work quite hard to get them to mix- probably easier in a mixer but for some reason I have always done this by hand.

Mix in the (cooled) nuts and kernels.  Mix in the chopped crystallised peel or chocolate drops.

Shape into two long thin logs and place on a buttered sheet or preferably on a silicon sheet.

logs - first baking

Cook for 15 minutes until the dough is setting.  If it is too gooey to cut neatly put back in the oven for a few minutes.

Remove from the oven and cut into whatever size pieces you want.  I tend to make these quite small as normal store-bought biscotti size is too big for us when made with such rich ingredients.

The chocolate tended to smear when cutting.  If this will bother you try leaving the dough after this first setting until fully cooled and the chocolate has re-set.  I think if you then slice and re-bake you will get neat chocolate biscotti.  Anyone tried this?

Place back in the oven on their sides and bake for another five minutes, turn, and bake again.

slices - second baking

They should be lightly browned.  You can take them out earlier if you like a chewier biscotti, but we like them quite crisp, and it means they keep very well.

biscotti- double orange

biscotti -chocolate orange

Keep in an air-tight tin.  They last for months.  They make good handbag emergency food as they don't go off quickly when carried around for a few days, and the high protein content makes them satisfying.

Raspberry tarts with chocolate pastry

One of the highlights of skiing trips used to be stopping at the service stations on the way down through France, and buying a raspberry tart.  They were always delicious, with a crisp pastry, unctuous filling and firm tart raspberries on top.  The two I had each year were enough, but no, of course, I wont be buying them even if I do manage a trip to France.  I have been intending to make a version for myself, and now I need  the recipe for to complete my Fruit Pies, Cakes and Puddings recipe book, I am running some tests.

First question - shall I stick to plain pastry or do a chocolate pastry.  I like chocolate with raspberries.
If chocolate pastry, then shall it be an ordinary shortcrust with added cocoa and sugar or shall I add some egg?  Shall I try my new coconut fat instead of butter?  How strong a chocolate taste? I can see myself with a sequence of about twenty pastries to try.

To start with, a simple enriched pastry, and if I don't think it works I'll try the other varieties.


150g flour (40% urid, 40& tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
100g ground almond
125g butter
50g caster sugar
20g cocoa
1 egg

Rub fat into flour, stir in cocoa and sugar, mix in egg.  Form into a ball, wrap and leave to rest at room temperature for fifteen minutes.  Don't put it in the fridge or you wont be able to shape it.

Cut pastry into four.  Press into small tart tins with removable base or whatever shape you have / like.

Bake for fifteen minutes at 180C

Leave until cold.  Fill with cold plain or chocolate pastry cream and top with raspberries.

You can make these in advance, freeze, and just make your dessert with bought pastry cream and raspberries for an almost instant fancy desert.

250ml milk
60g sugar
10g flour
3 egg yolks
tsp vanilla

This amount of pastry cream filled two tarts.  I put the others in the freezer for later.

A punnet of raspberries gave a single layer of fruit on top of each tart.

This was quite good, but the balance of pastry to cream to fruit wasn't quite right.  Either the pastry needs to be a bit thinner or I need to pile the raspberries up higher, never mind the elegance.  The pastry was a good texture, holding well but not giving much resistance when chewed.

Easter egg -gluten, lactose, nut and egg free

This posting is a bit late to have much relevance this year, but might help you spot a good safe Easter egg next year.  I was bought a Kinnerton egg, and have just finished eating the main egg though not the bar of chocolate it came with.

It would have been more fun if  the egg contained silly chocolates rather than being empty, but as a safe egg packaged in a bright and jolly wrapper it meets lots of needs.  It does contain soya.

Easy Oreo-style gluten-free cookies

The grandchildren really like Oreo cookies but can't have them here so that I can keep well.  These giant chocolate cookies are crisp and chocolaty and easy to make.  Either fill them with icing - I use the white chocolate icing I used for the wedding cupcakes, or ice cream, or just eat them plain.


I started by looking at lots of recipes.  Mostly them seemed to say take a chocolate cake mix and turn it into cookies.  I tried finding one in grams rather than cups but couldn't.  I based my recipe on this one -  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/oreo-cookies-recipe/index.html


Ingredients:
65g flour (40%urid lentil, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
20g cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
65g sugar
25g butter
egg to mix to dough (this took less than one egg - I was making a small batch to test)




Mix all ingredients except egg - either by hand or in food processor.  Slowly add egg until you get a firm dough that is easy to handle.  The original recipe calls for lots of cooling and resting the dough, but I just baked these straight away.  I did keep one blob of dough and put it in the freezer.  I'll see how it bakes from frozen some other time.


Take the dough and shape into pieces.  I pressed these down and put  a fork mark in the top as I wanted to find out if they would hold an impression.  The cookies spread the way ginger snaps do, so don't try to do anything fancy and leave plenty of room for spreading.  This might have changed if I had chilled or rested the dough.

fork marks on raw cookie

cookies on baking sheet

Bake at 170C fan for about 7 minutes.  Leave on the sheet to cool for a few minutes so that they begin to harden before transferring to a cooling rack.

cookie on cooling rack

These cookies are mostly crisp but with just a hint of chewiness.  The flavour is rich and chocolaty without being bitter.

cookies sandwiched with white chocolate icing